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+.. _tut-classes:
+
+*******
+Classes
+*******
+
+Python's class mechanism adds classes to the language with a minimum of new
+syntax and semantics. It is a mixture of the class mechanisms found in C++ and
+Modula-3. As is true for modules, classes in Python do not put an absolute
+barrier between definition and user, but rather rely on the politeness of the
+user not to "break into the definition." The most important features of classes
+are retained with full power, however: the class inheritance mechanism allows
+multiple base classes, a derived class can override any methods of its base
+class or classes, and a method can call the method of a base class with the same
+name. Objects can contain an arbitrary amount of private data.
+
+In C++ terminology, all class members (including the data members) are *public*,
+and all member functions are *virtual*. There are no special constructors or
+destructors. As in Modula-3, there are no shorthands for referencing the
+object's members from its methods: the method function is declared with an
+explicit first argument representing the object, which is provided implicitly by
+the call. As in Smalltalk, classes themselves are objects, albeit in the wider
+sense of the word: in Python, all data types are objects. This provides
+semantics for importing and renaming. Unlike C++ and Modula-3, built-in types
+can be used as base classes for extension by the user. Also, like in C++ but
+unlike in Modula-3, most built-in operators with special syntax (arithmetic
+operators, subscripting etc.) can be redefined for class instances.
+
+
+.. _tut-terminology:
+
+A Word About Terminology
+========================
+
+Lacking universally accepted terminology to talk about classes, I will make
+occasional use of Smalltalk and C++ terms. (I would use Modula-3 terms, since
+its object-oriented semantics are closer to those of Python than C++, but I
+expect that few readers have heard of it.)
+
+Objects have individuality, and multiple names (in multiple scopes) can be bound
+to the same object. This is known as aliasing in other languages. This is
+usually not appreciated on a first glance at Python, and can be safely ignored
+when dealing with immutable basic types (numbers, strings, tuples). However,
+aliasing has an (intended!) effect on the semantics of Python code involving
+mutable objects such as lists, dictionaries, and most types representing
+entities outside the program (files, windows, etc.). This is usually used to
+the benefit of the program, since aliases behave like pointers in some respects.
+For example, passing an object is cheap since only a pointer is passed by the
+implementation; and if a function modifies an object passed as an argument, the
+caller will see the change --- this eliminates the need for two different
+argument passing mechanisms as in Pascal.
+
+
+.. _tut-scopes:
+
+Python Scopes and Name Spaces
+=============================
+
+Before introducing classes, I first have to tell you something about Python's
+scope rules. Class definitions play some neat tricks with namespaces, and you
+need to know how scopes and namespaces work to fully understand what's going on.
+Incidentally, knowledge about this subject is useful for any advanced Python
+programmer.
+
+Let's begin with some definitions.
+
+A *namespace* is a mapping from names to objects. Most namespaces are currently
+implemented as Python dictionaries, but that's normally not noticeable in any
+way (except for performance), and it may change in the future. Examples of
+namespaces are: the set of built-in names (functions such as :func:`abs`, and
+built-in exception names); the global names in a module; and the local names in
+a function invocation. In a sense the set of attributes of an object also form
+a namespace. The important thing to know about namespaces is that there is
+absolutely no relation between names in different namespaces; for instance, two
+different modules may both define a function "maximize" without confusion ---
+users of the modules must prefix it with the module name.
+
+By the way, I use the word *attribute* for any name following a dot --- for
+example, in the expression ``z.real``, ``real`` is an attribute of the object
+``z``. Strictly speaking, references to names in modules are attribute
+references: in the expression ``modname.funcname``, ``modname`` is a module
+object and ``funcname`` is an attribute of it. In this case there happens to be
+a straightforward mapping between the module's attributes and the global names
+defined in the module: they share the same namespace! [#]_
+
+Attributes may be read-only or writable. In the latter case, assignment to
+attributes is possible. Module attributes are writable: you can write
+``modname.the_answer = 42``. Writable attributes may also be deleted with the
+:keyword:`del` statement. For example, ``del modname.the_answer`` will remove
+the attribute :attr:`the_answer` from the object named by ``modname``.
+
+Name spaces are created at different moments and have different lifetimes. The
+namespace containing the built-in names is created when the Python interpreter
+starts up, and is never deleted. The global namespace for a module is created
+when the module definition is read in; normally, module namespaces also last
+until the interpreter quits. The statements executed by the top-level
+invocation of the interpreter, either read from a script file or interactively,
+are considered part of a module called :mod:`__main__`, so they have their own
+global namespace. (The built-in names actually also live in a module; this is
+called :mod:`__builtin__`.)
+
+The local namespace for a function is created when the function is called, and
+deleted when the function returns or raises an exception that is not handled
+within the function. (Actually, forgetting would be a better way to describe
+what actually happens.) Of course, recursive invocations each have their own
+local namespace.
+
+A *scope* is a textual region of a Python program where a namespace is directly
+accessible. "Directly accessible" here means that an unqualified reference to a
+name attempts to find the name in the namespace.
+
+Although scopes are determined statically, they are used dynamically. At any
+time during execution, there are at least three nested scopes whose namespaces
+are directly accessible: the innermost scope, which is searched first, contains
+the local names; the namespaces of any enclosing functions, which are searched
+starting with the nearest enclosing scope; the middle scope, searched next,
+contains the current module's global names; and the outermost scope (searched
+last) is the namespace containing built-in names.
+
+If a name is declared global, then all references and assignments go directly to
+the middle scope containing the module's global names. Otherwise, all variables
+found outside of the innermost scope are read-only (an attempt to write to such
+a variable will simply create a *new* local variable in the innermost scope,
+leaving the identically named outer variable unchanged).
+
+Usually, the local scope references the local names of the (textually) current
+function. Outside functions, the local scope references the same namespace as
+the global scope: the module's namespace. Class definitions place yet another
+namespace in the local scope.
+
+It is important to realize that scopes are determined textually: the global
+scope of a function defined in a module is that module's namespace, no matter
+from where or by what alias the function is called. On the other hand, the
+actual search for names is done dynamically, at run time --- however, the
+language definition is evolving towards static name resolution, at "compile"
+time, so don't rely on dynamic name resolution! (In fact, local variables are
+already determined statically.)
+
+A special quirk of Python is that assignments always go into the innermost
+scope. Assignments do not copy data --- they just bind names to objects. The
+same is true for deletions: the statement ``del x`` removes the binding of ``x``
+from the namespace referenced by the local scope. In fact, all operations that
+introduce new names use the local scope: in particular, import statements and
+function definitions bind the module or function name in the local scope. (The
+:keyword:`global` statement can be used to indicate that particular variables
+live in the global scope.)
+
+
+.. _tut-firstclasses:
+
+A First Look at Classes
+=======================
+
+Classes introduce a little bit of new syntax, three new object types, and some
+new semantics.
+
+
+.. _tut-classdefinition:
+
+Class Definition Syntax
+-----------------------
+
+The simplest form of class definition looks like this::
+
+ class ClassName:
+ <statement-1>
+ .
+ .
+ .
+ <statement-N>
+
+Class definitions, like function definitions (:keyword:`def` statements) must be
+executed before they have any effect. (You could conceivably place a class
+definition in a branch of an :keyword:`if` statement, or inside a function.)
+
+In practice, the statements inside a class definition will usually be function
+definitions, but other statements are allowed, and sometimes useful --- we'll
+come back to this later. The function definitions inside a class normally have
+a peculiar form of argument list, dictated by the calling conventions for
+methods --- again, this is explained later.
+
+When a class definition is entered, a new namespace is created, and used as the
+local scope --- thus, all assignments to local variables go into this new
+namespace. In particular, function definitions bind the name of the new
+function here.
+
+When a class definition is left normally (via the end), a *class object* is
+created. This is basically a wrapper around the contents of the namespace
+created by the class definition; we'll learn more about class objects in the
+next section. The original local scope (the one in effect just before the class
+definition was entered) is reinstated, and the class object is bound here to the
+class name given in the class definition header (:class:`ClassName` in the
+example).
+
+
+.. _tut-classobjects:
+
+Class Objects
+-------------
+
+Class objects support two kinds of operations: attribute references and
+instantiation.
+
+*Attribute references* use the standard syntax used for all attribute references
+in Python: ``obj.name``. Valid attribute names are all the names that were in
+the class's namespace when the class object was created. So, if the class
+definition looked like this::
+
+ class MyClass:
+ "A simple example class"
+ i = 12345
+ def f(self):
+ return 'hello world'
+
+then ``MyClass.i`` and ``MyClass.f`` are valid attribute references, returning
+an integer and a function object, respectively. Class attributes can also be
+assigned to, so you can change the value of ``MyClass.i`` by assignment.
+:attr:`__doc__` is also a valid attribute, returning the docstring belonging to
+the class: ``"A simple example class"``.
+
+Class *instantiation* uses function notation. Just pretend that the class
+object is a parameterless function that returns a new instance of the class.
+For example (assuming the above class)::
+
+ x = MyClass()
+
+creates a new *instance* of the class and assigns this object to the local
+variable ``x``.
+
+The instantiation operation ("calling" a class object) creates an empty object.
+Many classes like to create objects with instances customized to a specific
+initial state. Therefore a class may define a special method named
+:meth:`__init__`, like this::
+
+ def __init__(self):
+ self.data = []
+
+When a class defines an :meth:`__init__` method, class instantiation
+automatically invokes :meth:`__init__` for the newly-created class instance. So
+in this example, a new, initialized instance can be obtained by::
+
+ x = MyClass()
+
+Of course, the :meth:`__init__` method may have arguments for greater
+flexibility. In that case, arguments given to the class instantiation operator
+are passed on to :meth:`__init__`. For example, ::
+
+ >>> class Complex:
+ ... def __init__(self, realpart, imagpart):
+ ... self.r = realpart
+ ... self.i = imagpart
+ ...
+ >>> x = Complex(3.0, -4.5)
+ >>> x.r, x.i
+ (3.0, -4.5)
+
+
+.. _tut-instanceobjects:
+
+Instance Objects
+----------------
+
+Now what can we do with instance objects? The only operations understood by
+instance objects are attribute references. There are two kinds of valid
+attribute names, data attributes and methods.
+
+*data attributes* correspond to "instance variables" in Smalltalk, and to "data
+members" in C++. Data attributes need not be declared; like local variables,
+they spring into existence when they are first assigned to. For example, if
+``x`` is the instance of :class:`MyClass` created above, the following piece of
+code will print the value ``16``, without leaving a trace::
+
+ x.counter = 1
+ while x.counter < 10:
+ x.counter = x.counter * 2
+ print x.counter
+ del x.counter
+
+The other kind of instance attribute reference is a *method*. A method is a
+function that "belongs to" an object. (In Python, the term method is not unique
+to class instances: other object types can have methods as well. For example,
+list objects have methods called append, insert, remove, sort, and so on.
+However, in the following discussion, we'll use the term method exclusively to
+mean methods of class instance objects, unless explicitly stated otherwise.)
+
+.. index:: object: method
+
+Valid method names of an instance object depend on its class. By definition,
+all attributes of a class that are function objects define corresponding
+methods of its instances. So in our example, ``x.f`` is a valid method
+reference, since ``MyClass.f`` is a function, but ``x.i`` is not, since
+``MyClass.i`` is not. But ``x.f`` is not the same thing as ``MyClass.f`` --- it
+is a *method object*, not a function object.
+
+
+.. _tut-methodobjects:
+
+Method Objects
+--------------
+
+Usually, a method is called right after it is bound::
+
+ x.f()
+
+In the :class:`MyClass` example, this will return the string ``'hello world'``.
+However, it is not necessary to call a method right away: ``x.f`` is a method
+object, and can be stored away and called at a later time. For example::
+
+ xf = x.f
+ while True:
+ print xf()
+
+will continue to print ``hello world`` until the end of time.
+
+What exactly happens when a method is called? You may have noticed that
+``x.f()`` was called without an argument above, even though the function
+definition for :meth:`f` specified an argument. What happened to the argument?
+Surely Python raises an exception when a function that requires an argument is
+called without any --- even if the argument isn't actually used...
+
+Actually, you may have guessed the answer: the special thing about methods is
+that the object is passed as the first argument of the function. In our
+example, the call ``x.f()`` is exactly equivalent to ``MyClass.f(x)``. In
+general, calling a method with a list of *n* arguments is equivalent to calling
+the corresponding function with an argument list that is created by inserting
+the method's object before the first argument.
+
+If you still don't understand how methods work, a look at the implementation can
+perhaps clarify matters. When an instance attribute is referenced that isn't a
+data attribute, its class is searched. If the name denotes a valid class
+attribute that is a function object, a method object is created by packing
+(pointers to) the instance object and the function object just found together in
+an abstract object: this is the method object. When the method object is called
+with an argument list, it is unpacked again, a new argument list is constructed
+from the instance object and the original argument list, and the function object
+is called with this new argument list.
+
+
+.. _tut-remarks:
+
+Random Remarks
+==============
+
+.. % [These should perhaps be placed more carefully...]
+
+Data attributes override method attributes with the same name; to avoid
+accidental name conflicts, which may cause hard-to-find bugs in large programs,
+it is wise to use some kind of convention that minimizes the chance of
+conflicts. Possible conventions include capitalizing method names, prefixing
+data attribute names with a small unique string (perhaps just an underscore), or
+using verbs for methods and nouns for data attributes.
+
+Data attributes may be referenced by methods as well as by ordinary users
+("clients") of an object. In other words, classes are not usable to implement
+pure abstract data types. In fact, nothing in Python makes it possible to
+enforce data hiding --- it is all based upon convention. (On the other hand,
+the Python implementation, written in C, can completely hide implementation
+details and control access to an object if necessary; this can be used by
+extensions to Python written in C.)
+
+Clients should use data attributes with care --- clients may mess up invariants
+maintained by the methods by stamping on their data attributes. Note that
+clients may add data attributes of their own to an instance object without
+affecting the validity of the methods, as long as name conflicts are avoided ---
+again, a naming convention can save a lot of headaches here.
+
+There is no shorthand for referencing data attributes (or other methods!) from
+within methods. I find that this actually increases the readability of methods:
+there is no chance of confusing local variables and instance variables when
+glancing through a method.
+
+Often, the first argument of a method is called ``self``. This is nothing more
+than a convention: the name ``self`` has absolutely no special meaning to
+Python. (Note, however, that by not following the convention your code may be
+less readable to other Python programmers, and it is also conceivable that a
+*class browser* program might be written that relies upon such a convention.)
+
+Any function object that is a class attribute defines a method for instances of
+that class. It is not necessary that the function definition is textually
+enclosed in the class definition: assigning a function object to a local
+variable in the class is also ok. For example::
+
+ # Function defined outside the class
+ def f1(self, x, y):
+ return min(x, x+y)
+
+ class C:
+ f = f1
+ def g(self):
+ return 'hello world'
+ h = g
+
+Now ``f``, ``g`` and ``h`` are all attributes of class :class:`C` that refer to
+function objects, and consequently they are all methods of instances of
+:class:`C` --- ``h`` being exactly equivalent to ``g``. Note that this practice
+usually only serves to confuse the reader of a program.
+
+Methods may call other methods by using method attributes of the ``self``
+argument::
+
+ class Bag:
+ def __init__(self):
+ self.data = []
+ def add(self, x):
+ self.data.append(x)
+ def addtwice(self, x):
+ self.add(x)
+ self.add(x)
+
+Methods may reference global names in the same way as ordinary functions. The
+global scope associated with a method is the module containing the class
+definition. (The class itself is never used as a global scope!) While one
+rarely encounters a good reason for using global data in a method, there are
+many legitimate uses of the global scope: for one thing, functions and modules
+imported into the global scope can be used by methods, as well as functions and
+classes defined in it. Usually, the class containing the method is itself
+defined in this global scope, and in the next section we'll find some good
+reasons why a method would want to reference its own class!
+
+
+.. _tut-inheritance:
+
+Inheritance
+===========
+
+Of course, a language feature would not be worthy of the name "class" without
+supporting inheritance. The syntax for a derived class definition looks like
+this::
+
+ class DerivedClassName(BaseClassName):
+ <statement-1>
+ .
+ .
+ .
+ <statement-N>
+
+The name :class:`BaseClassName` must be defined in a scope containing the
+derived class definition. In place of a base class name, other arbitrary
+expressions are also allowed. This can be useful, for example, when the base
+class is defined in another module::
+
+ class DerivedClassName(modname.BaseClassName):
+
+Execution of a derived class definition proceeds the same as for a base class.
+When the class object is constructed, the base class is remembered. This is
+used for resolving attribute references: if a requested attribute is not found
+in the class, the search proceeds to look in the base class. This rule is
+applied recursively if the base class itself is derived from some other class.
+
+There's nothing special about instantiation of derived classes:
+``DerivedClassName()`` creates a new instance of the class. Method references
+are resolved as follows: the corresponding class attribute is searched,
+descending down the chain of base classes if necessary, and the method reference
+is valid if this yields a function object.
+
+Derived classes may override methods of their base classes. Because methods
+have no special privileges when calling other methods of the same object, a
+method of a base class that calls another method defined in the same base class
+may end up calling a method of a derived class that overrides it. (For C++
+programmers: all methods in Python are effectively :keyword:`virtual`.)
+
+An overriding method in a derived class may in fact want to extend rather than
+simply replace the base class method of the same name. There is a simple way to
+call the base class method directly: just call ``BaseClassName.methodname(self,
+arguments)``. This is occasionally useful to clients as well. (Note that this
+only works if the base class is defined or imported directly in the global
+scope.)
+
+
+.. _tut-multiple:
+
+Multiple Inheritance
+--------------------
+
+Python supports a limited form of multiple inheritance as well. A class
+definition with multiple base classes looks like this::
+
+ class DerivedClassName(Base1, Base2, Base3):
+ <statement-1>
+ .
+ .
+ .
+ <statement-N>
+
+For old-style classes, the only rule is depth-first, left-to-right. Thus, if an
+attribute is not found in :class:`DerivedClassName`, it is searched in
+:class:`Base1`, then (recursively) in the base classes of :class:`Base1`, and
+only if it is not found there, it is searched in :class:`Base2`, and so on.
+
+(To some people breadth first --- searching :class:`Base2` and :class:`Base3`
+before the base classes of :class:`Base1` --- looks more natural. However, this
+would require you to know whether a particular attribute of :class:`Base1` is
+actually defined in :class:`Base1` or in one of its base classes before you can
+figure out the consequences of a name conflict with an attribute of
+:class:`Base2`. The depth-first rule makes no differences between direct and
+inherited attributes of :class:`Base1`.)
+
+For new-style classes, the method resolution order changes dynamically to
+support cooperative calls to :func:`super`. This approach is known in some
+other multiple-inheritance languages as call-next-method and is more powerful
+than the super call found in single-inheritance languages.
+
+With new-style classes, dynamic ordering is necessary because all cases of
+multiple inheritance exhibit one or more diamond relationships (where one at
+least one of the parent classes can be accessed through multiple paths from the
+bottommost class). For example, all new-style classes inherit from
+:class:`object`, so any case of multiple inheritance provides more than one path
+to reach :class:`object`. To keep the base classes from being accessed more
+than once, the dynamic algorithm linearizes the search order in a way that
+preserves the left-to-right ordering specified in each class, that calls each
+parent only once, and that is monotonic (meaning that a class can be subclassed
+without affecting the precedence order of its parents). Taken together, these
+properties make it possible to design reliable and extensible classes with
+multiple inheritance. For more detail, see
+http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.3/mro/.
+
+
+.. _tut-private:
+
+Private Variables
+=================
+
+There is limited support for class-private identifiers. Any identifier of the
+form ``__spam`` (at least two leading underscores, at most one trailing
+underscore) is textually replaced with ``_classname__spam``, where ``classname``
+is the current class name with leading underscore(s) stripped. This mangling is
+done without regard to the syntactic position of the identifier, so it can be
+used to define class-private instance and class variables, methods, variables
+stored in globals, and even variables stored in instances. private to this class
+on instances of *other* classes. Truncation may occur when the mangled name
+would be longer than 255 characters. Outside classes, or when the class name
+consists of only underscores, no mangling occurs.
+
+Name mangling is intended to give classes an easy way to define "private"
+instance variables and methods, without having to worry about instance variables
+defined by derived classes, or mucking with instance variables by code outside
+the class. Note that the mangling rules are designed mostly to avoid accidents;
+it still is possible for a determined soul to access or modify a variable that
+is considered private. This can even be useful in special circumstances, such
+as in the debugger, and that's one reason why this loophole is not closed.
+(Buglet: derivation of a class with the same name as the base class makes use of
+private variables of the base class possible.)
+
+Notice that code passed to ``exec()`` or ``eval()`` does not
+consider the classname of the invoking class to be the current class; this is
+similar to the effect of the ``global`` statement, the effect of which is
+likewise restricted to code that is byte-compiled together. The same
+restriction applies to ``getattr()``, ``setattr()`` and ``delattr()``, as well
+as when referencing ``__dict__`` directly.
+
+
+.. _tut-odds:
+
+Odds and Ends
+=============
+
+Sometimes it is useful to have a data type similar to the Pascal "record" or C
+"struct", bundling together a few named data items. An empty class definition
+will do nicely::
+
+ class Employee:
+ pass
+
+ john = Employee() # Create an empty employee record
+
+ # Fill the fields of the record
+ john.name = 'John Doe'
+ john.dept = 'computer lab'
+ john.salary = 1000
+
+A piece of Python code that expects a particular abstract data type can often be
+passed a class that emulates the methods of that data type instead. For
+instance, if you have a function that formats some data from a file object, you
+can define a class with methods :meth:`read` and :meth:`readline` that get the
+data from a string buffer instead, and pass it as an argument.
+
+.. % (Unfortunately, this
+.. % technique has its limitations: a class can't define operations that
+.. % are accessed by special syntax such as sequence subscripting or
+.. % arithmetic operators, and assigning such a ``pseudo-file'' to
+.. % \code{sys.stdin} will not cause the interpreter to read further input
+.. % from it.)
+
+Instance method objects have attributes, too: ``m.im_self`` is the instance
+object with the method :meth:`m`, and ``m.im_func`` is the function object
+corresponding to the method.
+
+
+.. _tut-exceptionclasses:
+
+Exceptions Are Classes Too
+==========================
+
+User-defined exceptions are identified by classes as well. Using this mechanism
+it is possible to create extensible hierarchies of exceptions.
+
+There are two new valid (semantic) forms for the raise statement::
+
+ raise Class, instance
+
+ raise instance
+
+In the first form, ``instance`` must be an instance of :class:`Class` or of a
+class derived from it. The second form is a shorthand for::
+
+ raise instance.__class__, instance
+
+A class in an except clause is compatible with an exception if it is the same
+class or a base class thereof (but not the other way around --- an except clause
+listing a derived class is not compatible with a base class). For example, the
+following code will print B, C, D in that order::
+
+ class B:
+ pass
+ class C(B):
+ pass
+ class D(C):
+ pass
+
+ for c in [B, C, D]:
+ try:
+ raise c()
+ except D:
+ print "D"
+ except C:
+ print "C"
+ except B:
+ print "B"
+
+Note that if the except clauses were reversed (with ``except B`` first), it
+would have printed B, B, B --- the first matching except clause is triggered.
+
+When an error message is printed for an unhandled exception, the exception's
+class name is printed, then a colon and a space, and finally the instance
+converted to a string using the built-in function :func:`str`.
+
+
+.. _tut-iterators:
+
+Iterators
+=========
+
+By now you have probably noticed that most container objects can be looped over
+using a :keyword:`for` statement::
+
+ for element in [1, 2, 3]:
+ print element
+ for element in (1, 2, 3):
+ print element
+ for key in {'one':1, 'two':2}:
+ print key
+ for char in "123":
+ print char
+ for line in open("myfile.txt"):
+ print line
+
+This style of access is clear, concise, and convenient. The use of iterators
+pervades and unifies Python. Behind the scenes, the :keyword:`for` statement
+calls :func:`iter` on the container object. The function returns an iterator
+object that defines the method :meth:`__next__` which accesses elements in the
+container one at a time. When there are no more elements, :meth:`__next__`
+raises a :exc:`StopIteration` exception which tells the :keyword:`for` loop to
+terminate. You can call the :meth:`__next__` method using the :func:`next`
+builtin; this example shows how it all works::
+
+ >>> s = 'abc'
+ >>> it = iter(s)
+ >>> it
+ <iterator object at 0x00A1DB50>
+ >>> next(it)
+ 'a'
+ >>> next(it)
+ 'b'
+ >>> next(it)
+ 'c'
+ >>> next(it)
+
+ Traceback (most recent call last):
+ File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
+ next(it)
+ StopIteration
+
+Having seen the mechanics behind the iterator protocol, it is easy to add
+iterator behavior to your classes. Define a :meth:`__iter__` method which
+returns an object with a :meth:`__next__` method. If the class defines
+:meth:`__next__`, then :meth:`__iter__` can just return ``self``::
+
+ class Reverse:
+ "Iterator for looping over a sequence backwards"
+ def __init__(self, data):
+ self.data = data
+ self.index = len(data)
+ def __iter__(self):
+ return self
+ def __next__(self):
+ if self.index == 0:
+ raise StopIteration
+ self.index = self.index - 1
+ return self.data[self.index]
+
+ >>> for char in Reverse('spam'):
+ ... print char
+ ...
+ m
+ a
+ p
+ s
+
+
+.. _tut-generators:
+
+Generators
+==========
+
+Generators are a simple and powerful tool for creating iterators. They are
+written like regular functions but use the :keyword:`yield` statement whenever
+they want to return data. Each time :func:`next` is called on it, the generator
+resumes where it left-off (it remembers all the data values and which statement
+was last executed). An example shows that generators can be trivially easy to
+create::
+
+ def reverse(data):
+ for index in range(len(data)-1, -1, -1):
+ yield data[index]
+
+ >>> for char in reverse('golf'):
+ ... print char
+ ...
+ f
+ l
+ o
+ g
+
+Anything that can be done with generators can also be done with class based
+iterators as described in the previous section. What makes generators so
+compact is that the :meth:`__iter__` and :meth:`__next__` methods are created
+automatically.
+
+Another key feature is that the local variables and execution state are
+automatically saved between calls. This made the function easier to write and
+much more clear than an approach using instance variables like ``self.index``
+and ``self.data``.
+
+In addition to automatic method creation and saving program state, when
+generators terminate, they automatically raise :exc:`StopIteration`. In
+combination, these features make it easy to create iterators with no more effort
+than writing a regular function.
+
+
+.. _tut-genexps:
+
+Generator Expressions
+=====================
+
+Some simple generators can be coded succinctly as expressions using a syntax
+similar to list comprehensions but with parentheses instead of brackets. These
+expressions are designed for situations where the generator is used right away
+by an enclosing function. Generator expressions are more compact but less
+versatile than full generator definitions and tend to be more memory friendly
+than equivalent list comprehensions.
+
+Examples::
+
+ >>> sum(i*i for i in range(10)) # sum of squares
+ 285
+
+ >>> xvec = [10, 20, 30]
+ >>> yvec = [7, 5, 3]
+ >>> sum(x*y for x,y in zip(xvec, yvec)) # dot product
+ 260
+
+ >>> from math import pi, sin
+ >>> sine_table = dict((x, sin(x*pi/180)) for x in range(0, 91))
+
+ >>> unique_words = set(word for line in page for word in line.split())
+
+ >>> valedictorian = max((student.gpa, student.name) for student in graduates)
+
+ >>> data = 'golf'
+ >>> list(data[i] for i in range(len(data)-1,-1,-1))
+ ['f', 'l', 'o', 'g']
+
+
+
+.. rubric:: Footnotes
+
+.. [#] Except for one thing. Module objects have a secret read-only attribute called
+ :attr:`__dict__` which returns the dictionary used to implement the module's
+ namespace; the name :attr:`__dict__` is an attribute but not a global name.
+ Obviously, using this violates the abstraction of namespace implementation, and
+ should be restricted to things like post-mortem debuggers.
+