Why do I get TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'float'?

I am typing to get a sale amount (by input) to be multiplied by a defined sales tax (0.08) and then have it print the total amount (sales tax times sale amount).

I run into this error. Anyone know what could be wrong or have any suggestions?

salesAmount = raw_input (["Insert sale amount here \n"])
['Insert sale amount here \n']20.99
>>> salesTax = 0.08
>>> totalAmount = salesAmount * salesTax

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#57>", line 1, in <module>
    totalAmount = salesAmount * salesTax
TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'float'

raw_input returns a string (a sequence of characters). In Python, multiplying a string and a float makes no defined meaning (while multiplying a string and an integer has a meaning: "AB" * 3 is "ABABAB"; how much is "L" * 3.14 ? Please do not reply "LLL|"). You need to parse the string to a numerical value.

You might want to try:

salesAmount = float(raw_input("Insert sale amount here\n"))

Maybe this will help others in the future - I had the same error while trying to multiple a float and a list of floats. The thing is that everyone here talked about multiplying a float with a string (but here all my element were floats all along) so the problem was actually using the * operator on a list.

For example:

import math
import numpy as np
alpha = 0.2 
beta=1-alpha
C = (-math.log(1-beta))/alpha

coff = [0.0,0.01,0.0,0.35,0.98,0.001,0.0]
coff *= C

The error:

    coff *= C 
TypeError: can't multiply sequence by non-int of type 'float'

The solution - convert the list to numpy array:

coff = np.asarray(coff) * C

The problem is that salesAmount is being set to a string. If you enter the variable in the python interpreter and hit enter, you'll see the value entered surrounded by quotes. For example, if you entered 56.95 you'd see:

>>> sales_amount = raw_input("[Insert sale amount]: ")
[Insert sale amount]: 56.95
>>> sales_amount
'56.95'

You'll want to convert the string into a float before multiplying it by sales tax. I'll leave that for you to figure out. Good luck!

You can't multiply string and float.instead of you try as below.it works fine

totalAmount = salesAmount * float(salesTax)