python generator长度_python 迭代器的长度获取方法 | 学步园

Often I need to tell the len of an iterator, this is a stupid example:

>>l = (i for i in xrange(100) if i&1)

len isn't able to tell it:

>>len(l)

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "", line 1, in

TypeError: object of type 'generator' has no len()

This is a bad solution, it may need too much memory, etc:

>>len(list(l))

This is a simple solution in a modern Python:

>>sum(1 for _ in l)

50

This is a faster solution (and Psyco helps even more):

def leniter(iterator):

"""leniter(iterator): return the length of an iterator,consuming it."""

if hasattr(iterator, "__len__"):

return len(iterator)

nelements = 0

for _ in iterator:

nelements += 1

return nelements

Is it a good idea to extend the functionalities of the built-in len

function to cover such situation too?

Bye,

bearophile