Python Middle String Print

Question

I am relatively new to python and I have to create a program that prints the middle character of a user-inputted string. Here is what I have:

#accept string from user then print middle character

x = input("Enter a string: ")
print(x[len(x)/2-1])

However I keep getting this error when I try to run the program:

"TypeError: string indices must be integers".

Im not sure how to fix this or how to get this program to work. Please help!

You're on Python3? Use // for integer division, / will return a float (e.g. 4/2 = 2.0) — Bert Raeymaekers, Oct 11 '17 at 21:01
Possible duplicate of [Python division](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2958684/python-division) — miradulo, Oct 11 '17 at 21:02
@BertRaeymaekers This is a complete answer I was just writing. You should probably bother doing that instead of leaving it as a comment. — Reti43, Oct 11 '17 at 21:02
Changing / to // helped and its now printing sort of the right answer. For example, if I enter "1234567" it prints "3" which is not the middle number. How do I fix this? - Nevermind, I figured it out! Thanks for the help! — Jordan Jackson, Oct 11 '17 at 21:03
@JordanJackson that's a different problem in your logic. What will you do when the string has an even number of chars? — Alfabravo, Oct 11 '17 at 21:05
@Mitch: I don't think that this is a duplicate. It is infact the opposite problem. — Francesco Montesano, Oct 11 '17 at 21:13
@FrancescoMontesano Sure, this is a duplicate then: [Python 3 integer division](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19507808/python3-integer-division) — miradulo, Oct 11 '17 at 21:14

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 11 '17 at 21:03

From your error I infer that you are using python 3.

In python 3 division between two integers returns a float:

>>> 3/2
1.5
>>> 4/2
2.0

But a indeces must be integers, so you get the error. To force an integer division you must use the // operator:

>>> 3//2
1
>>> 4//2
2

Alternatively you can use math.ceil or math.floor if you want more control on the rounding of the floats.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 11 '17 at 21:06

0

This is a way:

x = raw_input("Enter a string: " )
print (x[:len(x)//2])

answered Oct 11 '17 at 21:06

imerso

2 Answers2