Strange range

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Ned Batchelder <ned at nedbatchelder.com>:

> This analogy illuminates an important point: a single iterable can have
> a number of active iterators working over it at once, just as a book can
> have a number of bookmarks in it at once.
>
>     nums = [1, 2, 3]
>     for i in nums:
>         for j in nums:
>             print i, j
>
> This prints all the pairs of numbers, because the iterator in the first
> loop is independent of the iterator(s) in the second loop, even though
> they are iterating over the same iterator (the nums list).  Without the
> extra indirection of iterators over iterables, this code would get
> tangled up.

I don't have a problem with a list being a "reiterable." I only was
surprised about range(), which I had thought to be a plain,
down-to-earth iterator. There's barely any other practical use for a
range, I believe.


Marko