Should NoneType be iterable?

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, 20 Jun 2023 at 02:37, Peter Bona via Python-list
<python-list at python.org> wrote:
>
> 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?
>

Try this instead:

for x in mylist or ():

Now a None list will skip iteration entirely, allowing you to get the
effect you want :)

ChrisA