is parameter an iterable?

[Dan Sommers]

On 15 Nov 2005 11:01:48 -0800,
"py" <codecraig at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have function which takes an argument.  My code needs that argument
> to be an iterable (something i can loop over)...so I dont care if its a
> list, tuple, etc.  So I need a way to make sure that the argument is an
> iterable before using it.  I know I could do...

> def foo(inputVal):
>     if isinstance(inputVal, (list, tuple)):
>         for val in inputVal:
>             # do stuff

> ...however I want to cover any iterable since i just need to loop over
> it.

> any suggestions?

Just do it.  If one of foo's callers passes in a non-iterable, foo will
raise an exception, and you'll catch it during testing.  Watch out for
strings, though:

    >>> def foo(i):
    ...  for j in i:
    ...   print j
    >>> foo([1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7])
    1
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    >>> foo("hello")
    h
    e
    l
    l
    o

Regards,
Dan

-- 
Dan Sommers
<http://www.tombstonezero.net/dan/>