python value_error ai_generated true

ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10

ID: python/valueerror-invalid-literal

Also available as: JSON · Markdown
93%Fix Rate
91%Confidence
260Evidence
2023-01-01First Seen

Version Compatibility

VersionStatusIntroducedDeprecatedNotes
311 active — — —

Root Cause

String-to-int conversion fails on non-numeric input. Common in CLI args, CSV parsing, form data.

generic

Workarounds

  1. 95% success Validate and sanitize input at the entry point (argparse, form validation) 
    argparse, form validation

    Sources: https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html

  2. 90% success Use str.strip() and check str.isdigit() before conversion 
    value.strip().isdigit() and int(value.strip())

    Sources: https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.isdigit

Dead Ends

Common approaches that don't work:

  1. Wrap every int() call in try/except 55% fail

    Masks data quality issues upstream

  2. Use regex to strip non-digits before converting 62% fail

    May silently produce wrong numbers

Error Chain

Leads to:
Preceded by: