SyntaxError: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement -

The SyntaxError in Python is simply an error because of syntax issues. The Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement occurs when we write multiple Python statements in our code when only a single statement is allowed. The error seems to be complex but it is much easier to solve. In this short article, we will discuss how we can solve Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement error using various methods. Moreover, we will also discuss how to understand errors in Python taking Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement as an example so that in the future, you can easily understand and solve errors.

Table of Contents

Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement – Solutions

The SyntaxError in Python means there is some thing wrong in the Syntax of the code. The Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement error occurs when we add multiple statements in our code where only a single statement is allowed. The syntax error occurs during the execution of the code.

Let us take example and see why and when we are getting this error:

x = 1
x += 1
print(x)

Output:

x = 1
x += 1
print(x)
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    x += 1
print(x)

    ^
SyntaxError: multiple statements found while compiling a single statement

Notice that we are getting the error even, we didn’t had wrote the code in single line but the interpreter assumes that we are writing multiple statements in a single line.

Solution-1: Adding function

One of the simplest way to get rid of such error is to write the code inside a function. This will help you to solve SyntaxError: multiple statements found while compiling a single statement error. See the example below:

def main():
  x = 1
  x += 1
  print(x)

Now, you will no more get the error as you have put the code inside the main function.

Solution-2: Using new line

Another method to get rid of SyntaxError: multiple statements found while compiling a single statement error is to use a break statement if you are getting error while importing modules.

For example, if you have the following code and you are getting error:

>>> x = 5
y = 6

This will raise the error. The correct way to execute the code is shown below:

>>> x = 5
>>> y = 6

When you see multiple statements are being declared, that means you’re seeing a script, which will be executed later.

Solution-3: Use echo to get rid of the error

If you are using mach or Linux, then you can use the run the following commands and restart the Python console. You will no more get the SyntaxError: multiple statements found while compiling a single statement error.

echo "set enable-bracketed-paste off" >> ~/.inputrc

Hopefully, this will solve the issue.

Solution-4: Downloading IDLEX

If you are still getting the error then you can download the new IDLE. You can download the IDLEX and use its IDLE version, which allows multiple lines.

Once you downloaded the IDLEX, and open it, it looks like this.

Syntaxerror-Multiple-Statements-Found-While-Compiling-a-Single-Statement-idle

Here you can use the multiple line code without getting any error.

Understanding Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement error

Now let us understand the error. In Python the errors usually have two main parts. The first part of the error gives information about the category of the error. In our case, the error belongs to SyntaxError category.

The second part of the error help us to the exact error. In our case, it clearly says why we are getting syntax error. We are trying to write multiple statements when only a single statement is allowed.

Summary

In this short article we discussed how we can solve Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement using various methods. In general, we covered four different methods to solve the error. Moreover, we also learn how we can understand errors in Python by taking Syntaxerror: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement as an example.

SyntaxError: Multiple Statements Found While Compiling a Single Statement