IndexError: List Index out of Range when grabbing gmail text

Question

I'm using this code to login to my gmail account and retrieve text from an email from steampowered.

else:
      g = gmail.login(emailAddress, emailPassword)
      # Check for emails until we get Steam Guard code
      for i in range(0, 3):
        mails = g.inbox().mail(sender="noreply@steampowered.com", unread=True)
        if mails:
          mail = mails[-1]
          mail.fetch()
          #print re.findall(r"you'll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", mail.body)
          guardCode = re.findall(r"you'll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", mail.body)[0]
          mail.read()
          mail.delete()
          g.logout()
          return guardCode
        else:
          time.sleep(3)

I get a

IndexError: List Index out of Range

At this line:

guardCode = re.findall(r"you'll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", mail.body)[0]

This is because

re.findall(r"you'll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", mail.body)

Returns

[]

So the list is empty. Why is it empty?

This is the format of the email:

Are you logging into Steam using a new browser or Steam app? Here’s the Steam Guard code you’ll need to complete the process: XXXXX <---- I need this

EDIT: Gmail is a custom python module from here. EDIT #2: Here's a better representation of the email:

Dear XXX,

Are you logging into Steam using a new browser or Steam app? Here's the Steam Guard code you'll need to complete the process:

XXXXX

If you havenâ€™t recently tried to login to Steam from the device located at XXXX (US), someone else may be trying to access your account. You can view more info about this login attempt online.

If you suspect someone else may be attempting to access your account, please either:

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 26 '14 at 12:35

2

Problem is because of ’ in you’ll. It isn't a normal single quote '.

>>> s = "Are you logging into Steam using a new browser or Steam app? Here’s the Steam Guard code you’ll need to complete the process: XXXXX"
>>> re.findall(r"you’ll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", s)
['XXXXX']

answered Nov 26 '14 at 12:35

Avinash Raj

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Wow. How did you guess that? – doctorlove Nov 26 '14 at 12:37
How do I combine this with `mail.body`? – Vishwa Iyer Nov 26 '14 at 12:40
replace `s` in the above code with `mail.body` (ie, the variable which stores the input you want to work with.) – Avinash Raj Nov 26 '14 at 12:42
No I mean that I'm grabbing the value XXXXX from an email, so I can't set mail.body to a string, it has to be the body of the email. – Vishwa Iyer Nov 26 '14 at 12:43
sorry i don't know what do you mean. I just answered `So the list is empty. Why is it empty?` question only. Wait, someone will surely solve your problem. – Avinash Raj Nov 26 '14 at 12:47
I'm sorry. I was the one at fault here. I changed the code to this `guardCode = re.findall(r"you’ll need to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})", mail.body)[0]` but now I'm getting a SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\xe2', no encoding declared, see https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/ for more. – Vishwa Iyer Nov 26 '14 at 12:49
put `# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-` at the top in your python script file. See http://stackoverflow.com/a/10589674/3297613 – Avinash Raj Nov 26 '14 at 12:51
Lol, now it's giving me the same error again. (IndexError: List Index out of Range) – Vishwa Iyer Nov 26 '14 at 12:53
Could a new line be a problem? – Vishwa Iyer Nov 26 '14 at 12:57
could you provide contents of the input string variable? – Avinash Raj Nov 26 '14 at 13:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 26 '14 at 15:19

I solved my problem. I just ended up removing all line breaks and making the email body text as one entire string. Thanks to everyone who helped!

str = re.sub('\s+',' ', mail.body)
guardCode = re.findall(r'to complete the process: ([A-Z0-9]{5})', str)[0]

IndexError: List Index out of Range when grabbing gmail text

2 Answers2