generator functions: why won't this work?

[Steve Holden]

zillow20 at googlemail.com wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm trying to understand generator functions and the yield keyword.
> I'd like to understand why the following code isn't supposed to work.
> (What I would have expected it to do is, for a variable number of
> arguments composed of numbers, tuples of numbers, tuples of tuples,
> etc., the function would give me the next number "in sequence")
> ####################################
> def getNextScalar(*args):
>    for arg in args:
>       if ( isinstance(arg, tuple)):
>          getNextScalar(arg)
>       else:
>          yield arg
> ####################################
> 
> # here's an example that uses this function:
> # creating a generator object:
> g = getNextScalar(1, 2, (3,4))
> g.next() # OK: returns 1
> g.next() # OK: returns 2
> g.next() # not OK: throws StopIteration error
> 
> ####################################
> 
> I'm sure I'm making some unwarranted assumption somewhere, but I
> haven't been able to figure it out yet (just started learning Python a
> couple of days ago).
> 
> Any help will be appreciated :)
> 
In your recursive call you are passing a single argument, a tuple. You 
should create it to multiple arguments with a star. Neither do you do 
anything with the iterator after you create it.

Try (untested)

####################################
def getNextScalar(*args):
    for arg in args:
       if ( isinstance(arg, tuple)):
          for a in getNextScalar(*arg):
             yield a
       else:
          yield arg
####################################

regards
  Steve


-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC              http://www.holdenweb.com/