[Python-ideas] Introduce collections.Reiterable

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 06:31:12AM -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:
> On 9/19/2013 4:59 AM, Neil Girdhar wrote:
> >Well, generators are iterable, but if you write a function like:
> >
> >def f(s):
> >      for x in s:
> >              do_something(x)
> >      for x in s:
> >              do_something_else(x)
> 
> This strikes me as bad design. It should perhaps a) be two functions or 
> b) take two iterable arguments or c) jam the two loops together.

Perhaps, but sometimes there are hidden loops. Here's an example near 
and dear to my heart... *wink*

def variance(data):
    # Don't do this.
    sumx = sum(data)
    sumx2 = sum(x**2 for x in data)
    ss = sumx2 - (sumx**2)/n
    return ss/(n-1)


Ignore the fact that this algorithm is numerically unstable. It fails 
for iterator arguments, because sum(data) consumes the iterator and 
leaves sumx2 always equal to zero.


-- 
Steven