[Tutor] What is this an example of (and how can i use it?)

kevin parks kp8 at mac.com
Wed Sep 23 06:58:50 CEST 2009


On Sep 21, 2009, at 9:52 AM, Kent Johnson wrote:


>
> Calling a generator function gives you something that can be iterated.
> You can create a list out of it (by passing it to the list() function)
> or you can iterate the items in it directly with a for loop. Using the
> example above, you could say
> for item in roundrobin('abc', [], range(4),  (True,False)):
>  print item
>
>> I kinda understand conceptually what iterators and generators do  
>> and why
>> they are "a honking good idea" (why create 100 of x when we just  
>> want the
>> 100th, etc.) what i don't get is the syntax and how they are used  
>> in real
>> life. How generator and iterators behave in the wild.
>
> It's really not that bad. They are just a generalization of what you
> have already been doing with lists.
>
>> Even the Lutz is too
>> terse and generally poor on these two complex and relatively new  
>> constructs.
>> They are a dark and obscure magic.
>
> No, really they are not difficult. Read my essay and ask questions if
> you don't understand.


Thanks. I have some time today and will read up on what you sent me  
and revisit
the lutz and other docs. It appears it is not so impenetrable as i  
initially though. Well iterators
aren't maybe, but generator do look tricky. So interators iterate over  
lists, tuples, strings, dictionaries
and any data type that is iterable, and generators are ways to make  
new iterables? Anyway, i will
brew some coffee and hit those links. Thanks,

-kevin


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