The itertools
module contains a collection of functions that allow
advanced manipulation of iterators. Taken to the extreme, they allow for
a sort of “iterator algebra” that can be used to implement specialized
tools in Python. Here I just highlight a few of the basic functions from
itertools
that you might find handy at times.
chain()
chain()
takes two or more iterables as arguments and functions as an
iterable that works through them in sequence.
from itertools import chain
seq = chain( [1,2,3], [11,12,13,14], [x*x for x in range(1,6)] )
for item in seq:
print( item, end=" ")
zip_longest()
zip_longest()
works like zip()
, but will create an iterable that
generates as many elements as there are elements in the longest
argument. You specify a fillvalue=
argument to indicate what value
should be used for empty spots.
from itertools import zip_longest
seq = zip_longest( "apple", "coconut", "banana", fillvalue=" ")
for item in seq:
print( item )
product()
product()
creates an iterable that produces all elements of the
Cartesian product of the iterables that are given as its arguments. To
put that in less mathematical terms: if two iterables are given as
arguments, and the first has elements \(x\), \(y\), and \(z\), while the
second has elements \(a\) and \(b\), product()
produces \(xa\), \(xb\), \(ya\),
\(yb\), \(za\), and \(zb\).
from itertools import product
seq = product( [1,2,3], "ABC", ["apple","banana"] )
for item in seq:
print( item )
permutations()
permutations()
gets an iterable as argument, and an optional second
argument that indicates a length. It creates an iterable that produces
all permutations of the elements of the first argument of the given
length. If no length is given, it generates all permutations that
contain all the elements. Note that if the iterable has certain elements
multiple times, you will get copies of permutations.
from itertools import permutations
seq = permutations( [1,2,3], 2 )
for item in seq:
print( item )
combinations()
combinations()
gets an iterable as argument, and a second argument
that indicates a length. It creates an iterable that produces all
combinations of the elements of the first argument of the given length.
The length is not optional (which is logical, if you think about it
for one moment – for maximum length there is only one combination). The
elements of the combinations will be in the order that they appeared in
the original iterable. Note that if the iterable has certain elements
multiple times, you will get copies of combinations.
from itertools import combinations
seq = combinations( [1,2,3], 2 )
for item in seq:
print( item )
combinations_with_replacement()
combinations_with_replacement()
works like combinations()
, except
that each element of the iterable can be used multiple times.
from itertools import combinations_with_replacement
seq = combinations_with_replacement( [1,2,3], 2 )
for item in seq:
print( item )