AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute

What you see

import re

line = "total: n/a"
match = re.search(r"\d+", line)
print(match.group())

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/me/project/main.py", line 5, in <module>
    print(match.group())
          ^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

What it means

You wrote something.name and something was None. The message names the attribute you asked for, 'group' here, not the variable. Look for the dot just before that name.

None is the only value of the type NoneType, which is why the message says 'NoneType'. It has almost no attributes, so nearly any method call on it fails this way.

Why it happens

• A search that found nothing. re.match(), re.search() and re.fullmatch() return None when the pattern does not match. BeautifulSoup's find() does the same when no tag matches.
• Chaining on an in-place method. items.sort().reverse() calls .reverse() on the None that sort() returned.
• A function without a return on the path that ran.
• An attribute that was never set. self.conn = None in __init__, and connect() not called before self.conn.cursor().

How to fix it

Handle the "nothing found" case before you use the result:

match = re.search(r"\d+", line)
if match:
    print(match.group())
else:
    print("no number in", repr(line))

For in-place methods, put each call on its own line: items.sort(), then items.reverse().

How each Python version words it

Run on CPython 3.9.6, 3.10.22, 3.11.17, 3.12.15, 3.13.17, 3.14.9 and 3.15.1, on October 25, 2026.

The wording is the same from 3.9 to 3.15. From 3.10 the interpreter adds "Did you mean" suggestions when another attribute's name is close to the one you typed, but None has no attribute close to group, so none appears here.