[Python-Dev] Short-circuiting iterators (original) (raw)

Raymond Hettinger raymond.hettinger at verizon.net
Wed Dec 7 01:58:10 CET 2005

[Matthew F. Barnes] Perhaps it would be a useful addition to the itertools

module then?

itertools.interruptable(iterable)

Any real-world use cases or compelling contrived examples?

ISTM, that the code calling it.stop() would already be in position to break-out of the iteration directly or set a termination flag. Instead of:

it = itertools.interruptable(iterable):
for x in it:
    . . .
    if cond(x):
        it.stop()

Why not write:

for x in iterable:
    . . .
    if cond(x):
        break

If needed, the for-loop can have an else-clause for any processing needed in the event of interruption.

Raymond

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