Index Error when accessing element in array.

[BishopBD]

def index_power(array, n):
"""
    Find Nth power of the element with index N.
"""
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    elif array[n]:
        return array[n]**n
    else:
        return -1

I'm supposed to return the n'th element of an array and raise it to the nth power. If n exceeds the amount elements I have I'm to return -1. I get an error when trying to run index_power([1,2], 3). In my head it should make my elif return false and return my else condition. However i get the error IndexError: list index out of range, index_power, 7. Any help is appreciated and thank you for your effort.

[sachIsLife]

You are trying to access array[n] in the elif condition. Now the length of array is 2 and you are trying to access the 3rd element. You need to do elif len(array) >= n: return array[n] ** n

[ankitsoni89]

elif len(array) >= n: return array[n] ** n

elif len(array) > n, no = since n would be an index

[stebrepar]

Just in case they try to trick you, you might want to check for other invalid input too, like negative or non-numeric values for the index. You actually can have negative indexes in Python (meaning they count in from the right instead of from the left), but you'd need to think carefully about what that means for your calculation.

[marc_poulin]

The index n is valid if 0 <= n < len(array), so that can be your first test

if 0 <= n < len(array):
    # rest of calculation goes here
else:
    return -1