Python error: need more than two values to unpack. Please help me

Question

I have been getting these two errors:

 File "schedule.py", line 40, in <module>
    work = getalllinks(page)
  File "schedule.py", line 30, in getalllinks
    str_date,end_date,endoflinkdate = search_13(page)
ValueError: need more than 2 values to unpack

(my code takes the links from this html and put the link to a website and a date in a dictionary)

page = str('<OPTION VALUE="08/25/2013" >08/25/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="09/01/2013">09/01/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="09/08/2013" >09/08/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="09/15/2013" >09/15/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="09/22/2013" >09/22/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="09/29/2013" >09/29/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="10/06/2013" >10/06/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="10/13/2013" >10/13/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="10/20/2013">10/20/2013</OPTION><OPTIONVALUE="10/27/2013">10/27/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="11/03/2013" >11/03/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="11/10/2013" >11/10/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="11/17/2013" >11/17/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="11/24/2013" >11/24/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="12/01/2013" >12/01/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="12/08/2013" >12/08/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="12/15/2013" >12/15/2013</OPTION>OPTION VALUE="12/22/2013" >12/22/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="12/29/2013" >12/29/2013</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="01/05/2014" >01/05/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="01/12/2014" >01/12/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="01/19/2014" >01/19/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="01/26/2014" >01/26/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="02/02/2014" >02/02/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="02/09/2014" >02/09/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="02/16/2014" >02/16/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="02/23/2014" >02/23/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="03/02/2014" >03/02/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="03/09/2014" >03/09/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="03/16/2014" >03/16/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="03/23/2014" >03/23/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="03/30/2014" >03/30/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="04/06/2014" >04/06/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="04/13/2014" >04/13/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="04/20/2014" >04/20/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="04/27/2014" >04/27/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="05/04/2014" >05/04/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="05/11/2014" >05/11/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="05/18/2014" >05/18/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="05/25/2014" >05/25/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="06/01/2014" >06/01/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="06/08/2014" >06/08/2014</OPTION><OPTION VALUE="06/15/2014" >06/15/2014</OPTION>')


def web_link (enter_web_link):
#11%2F10%2F2013
    enter_web_link =  enter_web_link.replace("/","%") #00%00%0000
    add_twoF = enter_web_link[:3]+"2F"+ enter_web_link[3:]  #00%2F00%0000
    add_twoF_everywhere = add_twoF[:8] +"2F"+add_twoF[8:]
    add_twoF_everywhere = str(add_twoF_everywhere)
    return  add_twoF_everywhere

def search_13(page):
    starter = '<OPTION VALUE="' # find the postion where this starts
    start_link = page.find(starter)
    starter = len(starter)
    if start_link == -1:
        return None, 0 
    start_link = start_link + starter
    end_date = start_link + 10
    datetext  = page[start_link: end_date]
    str_date = str(datetext) #this is hte actuall normal looking date dd/mm/yyyy
    enter_web_link = str_date 
    endoflinkdate = web_link(enter_web_link)
    return str_date , end_date,  endoflinkdate


def getalllinks(page):
    links = {}  
    while True:
        str_date,end_date,endoflinkdate = search_13(page)
        if str_date:
            links[str_date] ='dont want you to have this link' +  endoflinkdate
            page = page[end_date:]
        else:
            break
    return links



work = getalllinks(page)
print work

I looked at other posts and tried what they said but 1. it does not really apply 2. they did not work

Any Ideas of why I am getting these errors and how to fix them? thank you.

Answer 1

You wants to received three values in return but in if start_link == -1 you are returning only two values; so, if you return one more value there like NONE or 0. Then it received it's third argument.

if start_link == -1:
 return None, 0, None

Answer 2

You're only returning two values in your if start_link == -1 case in start_13. When this happens you only have two values and the unpack fails. If you return a third value there, possible None, it should be ok.