Assigning values to an array in a loop gives "list assignment index out of range" error

Question

I'm getting the error list assignment index out of range when trying to assign values to an array. Why am I getting this error and how do I fix it?

array_questions = input("How many words would you like to search for? (maximum of 5): ")
to_search_words = []

x = int(array_questions)
y = 0
z = y + 1

while x > 0:
    y + 1
    str = ("%d. " % z)
    to_search_words[y] = input(str)

Answer 1

Becuase you're using list, you may want to use append, which is part of every list's API:

Add an item to the end of the list. Equivalent to a[len(a):] = [x].

Example:

while x > 0:
    # not needed # y + 1
    str = ("%d. " % z)
    to_search_words.append(input(str))
    x -= 1 # prevent infinite loop