[Python-ideas] How assignment should work with generators?

[Kirill Balunov]

>
> > To show this on simple example:
> >
> > >>> from itertools import count, islice
> > >>> it = count()
> > >>> x, y = it
> > >>> it
> > count(3)
>
> For everyone else who was confused by this, as I was, that's not
> actually a copy and paste from the REPL. There should be a ValueError
> raised after the x, y assignment. As given, it is confusing because it
> looks like the assignment succeeded, when in fact it didn't.
>
>
> > Here the count was advanced two times but assignment did not happen.
>
> Correct, because there was an exception raised.
>

Sorry for that, I did not want to embarrass anyone, so I wrote below that
the assignment did not happen. But probably the code should speak for
itself, especially if it looks like a copy from REPL


> if isinstance(it, collections.abc.Iterator):
>     # special case for iterators
>     x, y = it
> else:
>     # sequences keep the old behaviour
>     x, y = it[:2]
>

No, it can be simply x, y = iter(it)


> > Cons:
> >     1. A special case of how assignment works
> >     2. As with any implicit behavior, hard-to-find bugs
>
> Right. Hard-to-find bugs beats any amount of convenience in the
> interactive interpreter. To use an analogy:
>
> "Sure, sometimes my car suddenly shifts into reverse while I'm driving
> at 60 kph, sometimes the engine falls out when I go around the corner,
> and occasionally the brakes catch fire, but gosh the cup holder makes it
> really convenient to drink coffee while I'm stopped at traffic lights!"
>

 :-)

Perhaps a better idea might be special syntax to tell the interpreter
> you don't want to run the right-hand side to completion. "Explicit is
> better than implicit" -- maybe something special like:
>
> x, y, * = iterable
>

I wrote somewhere above, that "may be I like this form". But for me *
'"starred" target implies -> collect something from iterable. So now I'm
towards:

x, y, ... = iterable

But I have not summed up yet what pitfalls can be on this path.

Thank you your remarks were very extensive!

With kind regards, -gdg
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