Python 101 : An introduction to Iterators and Iterables.
In python, iterables are objects that we can loop through.
These objects implement an "__iter__()" function that returns an iterator.The iterators objects have a "__next__()" function that returns the elements of the iterable object. They also have an "__iter__()" function that returns the "self" object.
Python gets iterators from iterables.
Because strings in python are iterable, we can loop over them:
- __next__() : returns the next element, it also raises a "StopIteration" when the end of the iterable object is reached.
- __iter__() : returns "self", which is an iterator object.
There is an interface - collections.abc.Iterator - in python that implements these two functions as abstract methods - methods that has no instruction in it, serves only as template -.
Remark:
Iterator don't go backwards to start from the beginning of an iterable object, we get a new, fresh iterator.
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