IndentationError: unexpected indent

The IndentationError: Unexpected indent error indicates that you have added an excess indent in the line that the python interpreter unexpected to have. An unexpected indent in the Python code causes this indentation error. To overcome the Indentation error, ensure that the code is consistently indented and that there are no unexpected indentations in the code. This would fix the IndentationError: Unexpected indent error.

The IndentationError: Unexpected indent error occurs when you use too many indent at the beginning of the line. Make sure your code is indented consistently and that there are no unexpected indent in the code to resolve Indentation error. Python doesn’t have curly braces or keyword delimiter to differentiate the code blocks. In python, the compound statement and functions requires the indent to be distinguished from other lines. The unexpected indent in python causes IndentationError: Unexpected indent error.

The indent is known as the distance or number of empty spaces between the start of the line and the left margin of the line. Indents are not considered in the most recent programming languages such as java, c++, dot net, etc. Python uses the indent to distinguish compound statements and user defined functions from other lines.



Exception

The error message IndentationError: Unexpected indent indicates that there is an excess indent in the line that the python interpreter unexpected to have. The indentation error will be thrown as below.

 File "/Users/python/Desktop/test.py", line 2
    print "end of program";
    ^
IndentationError: unexpected indent


Root Cause

The root cause of the error message “IndentationError: Unexpected indent” is that you have added an excess indent in the line that the python interpreter unexpected to have. In order to resolve this error message, the unexpected indent in the code, such as compound statement, user defined functions, etc. must be removed.



Solution 1

The unexpected indent in the code must be removed. Walk through the code to trace the indent. If any unwanted indent is found, remove it. The lines inside blocks such as compound statements and user defined functions will normally have excess indents, spaces, tabs. This error “IndentationError: unexpected indent” is resolved if the excess indents, tabs, and spaces are removed from the code.

Program

print "a is greater";
	print "end of program";

Output

 File "/Users/python/Desktop/test.py", line 2
    print "end of program";
    ^
IndentationError: unexpected indent

Solution

print "a is greater";
print "end of program";

Output

a is greater
end of program
[Finished in 0.0s]


Solution 2

In the sublime Text Editor, open the python program. Select the full program by clicking on Cntr + A. The entire python code and the white spaces will be selected together. The tab key is displayed as continuous lines, and the spaces are displayed as dots in the program. Stick to any format you wish to use, either on the tab or in space. Change the rest to make uniform format. This will solve the error.

Program

a=10;
b=20;
if a > b:
	print "Hello World";      ----> Indent with tab
        print "end of program";    ----> Indent with spaces

Solution

a=10;
b=20;
if a > b:
	print "Hello World";      ----> Indent with tab
	print "end of program";    ----> Indent with tab


Solution 3

In most cases, this error would be triggered by a mixed use of spaces and tabs. Check the space for the program indentation and the tabs. Follow any kind of indentation. The most recent python IDEs support converting the tab to space and space to tabs. Stick to whatever format you want to use. This is going to solve the error.

Check the option in your python IDE to convert the tab to space and convert the tab to space or the tab to space to correct the error.



Solution 4

In the python program, check the indentation of compound statements and user defined functions. Following the indentation is a tedious job in the source code. Python provides a solution for the indentation error line to identify. To find out the problem run the python command below. The Python command shows the actual issue.

Command

python -m tabnanny test.py

Example

$ python -m tabnanny test.py 
'test.py': Indentation Error: unindent does not match any outer indentation level (<tokenize>, line 3)
$


Solution 5

There is an another way to identify the indentation error. Open the command prompt in Windows OS or terminal command line window on Linux or Mac, and start the python. The help command shows the error of the python program.

Command

$python
>>>help("test.py")

Example

$ python
Python 2.7.16 (default, Dec  3 2019, 07:02:07) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 10.0.1 (clang-1001.0.37.14)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> help("test.py")
problem in test - <type 'exceptions.IndentationError'>: unindent does not match any outer indentation level (test.py, line 3)

>>> 
Use exit() or Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit
>>> ^D



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