[Python-ideas] A function that gives you the number of items in an arbitrary iterable (not len)

[Andrew McNabb]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 05:56:29PM -0400, Mike Graham wrote:
> There are a couple patterns, some uglier than others, which I have
> seen occasionally pop up which could be solved by a new builtin or
> stdlib that works like
> 
> def exhaust(it):
>     count = 0
>     for item in it:
>         count += 1
>     return count

I've done this before:

sum(1 for x in it)

I don't do it frequently enough that a builtin would seem necessary.

--
Andrew McNabb
http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/
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