{"id":21183,"date":"2020-08-13T23:27:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T06:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/?p=21183"},"modified":"2023-12-01T03:57:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T11:57:49","slug":"python-takes-one-positional-argument-but-two-were-given","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/python-takes-one-positional-argument-but-two-were-given\/","title":{"rendered":"Python takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you call a method associated with an object<\/a>, there is one positional argument that is supplied by default: self. If you forget to include \u201cself\u201d when you define a method, you\u2019ll encounter an error that says \u201ctakes 1 positional argument<\/a> but 2 were given\u201d.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we discuss this error and why it is raised. We walk through an example of this error to help you figure out how to solve it in your code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Python passes an argument called \u201cself\u201d into every method in an object. \u201cself\u201d is similar to \u201cthis<\/a>\u201d in JavaScript. The \u201cself\u201d argument stores information about the values in an object.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cself\u201d is passed into methods by default because most methods rely on the values that have been assigned to an object in some way.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All methods defined in a class must have an argument called \u201cself\u201d. If you specify an argument other than \u201cself\u201d without including \u201cself\u201d, Python will return the \u201ctakes 1 positional argument but 2 were given\u201d error.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because Python passes \u201cself\u201d into a method by default and so it expects there is room for \u201cself\u201d in addition to any other arguments that a method should receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Example Scenario<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Write a class that stores information on television show characters. Start by declaring our class and defining a constructor that stores the values we pass into our class:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

class Character:\n\tdef __init__(self, character_name, real_name, show):\n\t\tself.character_name = character_name\n\t\tself.real_name = real_name\n\t\tself.show = show<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Write a function<\/a> that lets us change the value of \u201cshow\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tdef change_show(show):\n\t\tself.show = show\n\t\tprint(show)<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This method changes the value of \u201cshow\u201d in our class and prints out the value of \u201cshow\u201d to the console. To test out this method, we have to define an instance of our object and call the change_show()<\/code> method:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sam_malone = Character("Sam Malone", "Ted Danson", "")\nsam_malone.change_show("Cheers")<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Our \u201csam_malone\u201d object is initialized with the following values:<\/p>\n\n\n\n