TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable int object

TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable int object

$ python -c "import pandas as pd; df = pd.DataFrame({'a':[1,2]}); [print(x,y) for x, y in df['a']]"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: cannot unpack non-iterable int object

Why this happens

This TypeError occurs when your code expects each element to be an iterable (like a tuple) but the elements are scalars. When you iterate over a Series, each element is a single value—attempting to unpack it into multiple variables fails.

Fix

Use the correct iterator that yields tuples (e.g., .itertuples(), .iterrows()), or iterate over multiple Series simultaneously with zip().

Wrong code

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'a': [1, 2]})
# Attempt to unpack scalar values -> TypeError
for x, y in df['a']:
    print(x, y)

Fixed code

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'a': [1, 2], 'b': [10, 20]})
# Iterate over a DataFrame's rows as tuples
for idx, row in df.iterrows():
    print(row['a'], row['b'])

# Or use itertuples for better performance
for a, b in df.itertuples(index=False):
    print(a, b)

# If iterating over two Series in parallel, use zip
for a, b in zip(df['a'], df['b']):
    print(a, b)