How can I verify that a passed argument is an interible collection?

[Steven Bethard]

Charles Krug wrote:
> List:
> 
> I'm working on some methods that operate on (mathematical) vectors as
> in:
> 
> def Convolution(x, y)
> """Returns a list containing the convolution of vectors x and y"""
> 
> Is there any way to determine at runtime that x and y are iterible
> collections?
> 
> Do I *coughs* simply *coughs* trap the exception created by:
> 
>     for v in x:
> 
> when v is a scaler quantity?

Sure, or if you want to do it earlier, you could try something like:

def convolution(x, y):
     xiter = iter(x)
     yiter = iter(y)

And then use xiter and yiter in your for loops.  This will make sure 
that the TypeErrors get raised as soon as the function is called.

STeVe