Should NoneType be iterable?

[Peter Bona]

Hi

I am wondering if there has been any discussion why NoneType  is not iterable My feeling is that it should be.
Sometimes I am using API calls which return None.
If there is a return value (which is iterable) I am using a for loop to iterate.

Now I am getting 'TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable'.

(Examples are taken from here https://rollbar.com/blog/python-typeerror-nonetype-object-is-not-iterable/)
Example 1:
mylist = None
for x in mylist:
    print(x)  <== will raise TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable
Solution: extra If statement
if mylist is not None:
    for x in mylist:
        print(x)


I think Python should handle this case gracefully: if a code would iterate over None: it should not run any step. but proceed the next statement.

Has this been discussed or proposed?

Thanks
Peter