TableError: Column is a string

Anvil Q&A
1

**What I’m trying to do:
I am trying to capture data into my data table, but am missing something somewhere. my postal_code_2 has been instantiated, the data table column is set as text, but i keep on getting this error upon running my function:

anvil.tables.TableError: Column ‘postal_code_2’ is a string - cannot set it to a simpleObject

called from /libanvil/anvil/_server.py, line 41 called from [ServerModule1, line 47](javascript:void(0)) called from [add_account, line 52](javascript:void(0))

What I’ve tried and what’s not working:
Renamed the table column, class and input field

Code Sample:

def button_8_click(self, **event_args):
    """This method is called when the button is clicked"""
    acc_no = ""
    surname = self.surname_box.text
    initials = self.initials_box.text
    title = self.title_box.text
    full_names = self.fulle_names_box.text
    id_number = self.id_no_box.text
    cell_no = self.cell_no_box.text
    tel_no_h = self.tel_no_h_box.text
    tel_no_w = self.tel_no_w_box.text
    email_address = self.email_address_box.text
    street = self.street_name_box.text
    suburb = self.suburb_box.text
    town_city = self.town_city_box.text
    postal_code_1 = self.postal_code_box.text
    po_box = self.po_box_box.text
    po_box_suburb = self.po_box_suburb_box.text
    postal_code_2 = self.postal_code_box_2.text
    medical_aid = self.medical_aid_drop.items
    medical_aid_option = self.medical_aid_drop.items
    medical_aid_no = self.member_number_box.text
    dependant = self.dependant_box
    anvil.server.call('add_account', acc_no, surname, initials, full_names, title, id_number, cell_no, tel_no_h, tel_no_w, email_address, street, suburb, town_city, postal_code_1, po_box, po_box_suburb, postal_code_2, medical_aid, medical_aid_no, medical_aid_option, dependant)
    Notification("Account added").show()
    self.clear_inputs()

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2

Welcome to Anvil!

I reckon your add_account function has the fields in a different order to the way you’re passing them.

You are passing them as positional parameters, so they must tie up exactly the other side. Maybe try using keyword arguments?

3

I’m going with a wild guess: the list of arguments on the client doesn’t match the list on the server side.

You are passing postal_code_2 as the 17th argument, but you are expecting it as the 18th on the server side.

Since on the client side you are passing medical_aid as 18th argument, and since medical_aid is set to a list, the server function complains when it tries to put a list in a text column.

4

So one way to solve the column order problem is, as @david.wylie suggested, using a dictionary instead of variables and unpacking that dictionary directly into the app_tables add_row method:

new_row_dict = {	
			'acc_no' : "" ,
			'surname' : self.surname_box.text ,
			'initials' : self.initials_box.text ,
			'title' : self.title_box.text ,
			'full_names' : self.fulle_names_box.text ,
			'id_number' : self.id_no_box.text ,
			'cell_no' : self.cell_no_box.text ,
			'tel_no_h' : self.tel_no_h_box.text ,
			'tel_no_w' : self.tel_no_w_box.text ,
			'email_address' : self.email_address_box.text ,
			'street' : self.street_name_box.text ,
			'suburb' : self.suburb_box.text ,
			'town_city' : self.town_city_box.text ,
			'postal_code_1' : self.postal_code_box.text ,
			'po_box' : self.po_box_box.text ,
			'po_box_suburb' : self.po_box_suburb_box.text ,
			'postal_code_2' : self.postal_code_box_2.text ,
			'medical_aid' : self.medical_aid_drop.items ,
			'medical_aid_option' : self.medical_aid_drop.items ,
			'medical_aid_no' : self.member_number_box.text ,
			'dependant' : self.dependant_box ,
				}

anvil.server.call('add_account', new_row_dict )

Then in your function you can do something like:

def add_account(new_row_dict ):
    app_tables.your_accounts_table_name.add_row( **new_row_dict )

:cake:

(Obviously I don’t know your function, or if you check if a record exists before adding new records)

Edit: I don’t know if this was apparent, but doing it the above way solves any problems someone might have with the order of the columns they are adding/updating.

5

some re-ordering and voila! thanks!