# 「yield」キーワードは何をしますか？

10694
Alex. S. 2008-10-24 12:21.

yieldPythonでのキーワードの使用とは何ですか？それは何をしますか？

たとえば、私はこのコードを理解しようとしています1

def _get_child_candidates(self, distance, min_dist, max_dist):
if self._leftchild and distance - max_dist < self._median:
yield self._leftchild
if self._rightchild and distance + max_dist >= self._median:
yield self._rightchild


そして、これは発信者です：

result, candidates = [], [self]
while candidates:
node = candidates.pop()
distance = node._get_dist(obj)
if distance <= max_dist and distance >= min_dist:
result.extend(node._values)
candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist))
return result


メソッド_get_child_candidatesが呼び出されるとどうなりますか？リストは返されますか？単一の要素？また呼ばれますか？その後の通話はいつ停止しますか？

1.このコードは、距離空間用の優れたPythonライブラリを作成したJochen Schulz（jrschulz）によって作成されました。これは完全なソースへのリンクです：Modulemspace。

15278
e-satis 2008-10-24 12:48.

## Iterables

リストを作成すると、そのアイテムを1つずつ読むことができます。その項目を1つずつ読み取ることを反復と呼びます。

>>> mylist = [1, 2, 3]
>>> for i in mylist:
...    print(i)
1
2
3


mylistある反復可能。リスト内包表記を使用すると、リストが作成されるため、反復可能です。

>>> mylist = [x*x for x in range(3)]
>>> for i in mylist:
...    print(i)
0
1
4


for... in...」で使用できるものはすべて反復可能です。listsstrings、ファイル...

これらの反復可能オブジェクトは、好きなだけ読み取ることができるので便利ですが、すべての値をメモリに保存します。値が多い場合、これが必ずしも必要なものとは限りません。

## 発電機

ジェネレーターはイテレーターであり、1回だけ繰り返すことができる一種のイテレーターです。ジェネレータはすべての値をメモリに保存するのではなく、その場で値を生成します

>>> mygenerator = (x*x for x in range(3))
>>> for i in mygenerator:
...    print(i)
0
1
4


()代わりに使用したことを除いて、まったく同じです[]。しかし、あなたがすることはできません実行for i in mygenerator、彼らは0を計算し、その後、それを忘れて1を計算し、1で4、1を計算終了：発電機のみを使用することができますので、一度二度。

## 産出

yieldreturn関数がジェネレータを返すことを除いて、はのように使用されるキーワードです。

>>> def createGenerator():
...    mylist = range(3)
...    for i in mylist:
...        yield i*i
...
>>> mygenerator = createGenerator() # create a generator
>>> print(mygenerator) # mygenerator is an object!
<generator object createGenerator at 0xb7555c34>
>>> for i in mygenerator:
...     print(i)
0
1
4


これは役に立たない例ですが、関数が1回だけ読み取る必要がある膨大な値のセットを返すことがわかっている場合に便利です。

その後、forジェネレーターを使用するたびに、コードは中断したところから続行されます。

for関数から作成されたジェネレーターオブジェクトを初めて呼び出すと、関数内のコードが最初からヒットするまで実行されyield、ループの最初の値が返されます。次に、後続の各呼び出しは、関数に記述したループの別の反復を実行し、次の値を返します。これは、ジェネレーターが空であると見なされるまで続きます。これは、関数がヒットせずに実行されたときに発生しyieldます。これは、ループが終了したか、を満たさなくなったことが原因である可能性があります"if/else"

## あなたのコードは説明しました

# Here you create the method of the node object that will return the generator
def _get_child_candidates(self, distance, min_dist, max_dist):

# Here is the code that will be called each time you use the generator object:

# If there is still a child of the node object on its left
# AND if the distance is ok, return the next child
if self._leftchild and distance - max_dist < self._median:
yield self._leftchild

# If there is still a child of the node object on its right
# AND if the distance is ok, return the next child
if self._rightchild and distance + max_dist >= self._median:
yield self._rightchild

# If the function arrives here, the generator will be considered empty
# there is no more than two values: the left and the right children


# Create an empty list and a list with the current object reference
result, candidates = list(), [self]

# Loop on candidates (they contain only one element at the beginning)
while candidates:

# Get the last candidate and remove it from the list
node = candidates.pop()

# Get the distance between obj and the candidate
distance = node._get_dist(obj)

# If distance is ok, then you can fill the result
if distance <= max_dist and distance >= min_dist:
result.extend(node._values)

# Add the children of the candidate in the candidate's list
# so the loop will keep running until it will have looked
# at all the children of the children of the children, etc. of the candidate
candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist))

return result


このコードには、いくつかのスマートな部分が含まれています。

• ループはリストで繰り返されますが、ループが繰り返されている間、リストは拡張されます:-)無限ループになる可能性があるため、少し危険な場合でも、これらすべてのネストされたデータを調べるための簡潔な方法です。この場合、candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist))ジェネレーターのすべての値を使い果たしますがwhile、同じノードに適用されないため、以前の値とは異なる値を生成する新しいジェネレーターオブジェクトを作成し続けます。

• このextend()メソッドは、反復可能オブジェクトを期待し、その値をリストに追加するリストオブジェクトメソッドです。

>>> a = [1, 2]
>>> b = [3, 4]
>>> a.extend(b)
>>> print(a)
[1, 2, 3, 4]


しかし、あなたのコードでは、ジェネレーターを取得します。これは、次の理由で優れています。

1. 値を2回読み取る必要はありません。
2. あなたにはたくさんの子供がいて、それらすべてをメモリに保存したくないかもしれません。

また、Pythonはメソッドの引数がリストであるかどうかを気にしないため、機能します。Pythonは反復可能を想定しているため、文字列、リスト、タプル、ジェネレーターで機能します。これはダックタイピングと呼ばれ、Pythonがとてもクールな理由の1つです。しかし、これは別の話です、別の質問のために...

ここで停止するか、少し読んでジェネレーターの高度な使用法を確認してください。

## 発電機の消耗を制御する

>>> class Bank(): # Let's create a bank, building ATMs
...    crisis = False
...    def create_atm(self):
...        while not self.crisis:
...            yield "$100" >>> hsbc = Bank() # When everything's ok the ATM gives you as much as you want >>> corner_street_atm = hsbc.create_atm() >>> print(corner_street_atm.next())$100
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
$100 >>> print([corner_street_atm.next() for cash in range(5)]) ['$100', '$100', '$100', '$100', '$100']
>>> hsbc.crisis = True # Crisis is coming, no more money!
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> wall_street_atm = hsbc.create_atm() # It's even true for new ATMs
>>> print(wall_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> hsbc.crisis = False # The trouble is, even post-crisis the ATM remains empty
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> brand_new_atm = hsbc.create_atm() # Build a new one to get back in business
>>> for cash in brand_new_atm:
...    print cash
$100$100
$100$100
$100$100
$100$100
\$100
...


これは、リソースへのアクセスの制御など、さまざまな場合に役立ちます。

## Itertools、あなたの親友

itertoolsモジュールには、iterableを操作するための特別な関数が含まれています。ジェネレーターを複製したいと思ったことはありませんか？2つの発電機をチェーンしますか？ネストされたリストの値をワンライナーでグループ化しますか？Map / Zip別のリストを作成せずに？

>>> horses = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> races = itertools.permutations(horses)
>>> print(races)
<itertools.permutations object at 0xb754f1dc>
>>> print(list(itertools.permutations(horses)))
[(1, 2, 3, 4),
(1, 2, 4, 3),
(1, 3, 2, 4),
(1, 3, 4, 2),
(1, 4, 2, 3),
(1, 4, 3, 2),
(2, 1, 3, 4),
(2, 1, 4, 3),
(2, 3, 1, 4),
(2, 3, 4, 1),
(2, 4, 1, 3),
(2, 4, 3, 1),
(3, 1, 2, 4),
(3, 1, 4, 2),
(3, 2, 1, 4),
(3, 2, 4, 1),
(3, 4, 1, 2),
(3, 4, 2, 1),
(4, 1, 2, 3),
(4, 1, 3, 2),
(4, 2, 1, 3),
(4, 2, 3, 1),
(4, 3, 1, 2),
(4, 3, 2, 1)]


## 反復の内部メカニズムを理解する

ループがどのように機能forするかについては、この記事で詳しく説明しています。

2110
user28409 2008-10-26 11:22.

## 理解へのショートカット yield

yieldステートメントを含む関数が表示されたら、次の簡単なトリックを適用して、何が起こるかを理解します。

1. result = []関数の先頭に行を挿入します。
2. それぞれyield exprをに置き換えますresult.append(expr)
3. return result関数の下部に行を挿入します。
4. イェーイ-これ以上のyieldステートメントはありません！コードを読んで理解します。
5. 関数を元の定義と比較します。

このトリックにより、関数の背後にあるロジックがわかる場合がありますが、実際に発生するyieldことは、リストベースのアプローチで発生することとは大きく異なります。多くの場合、yieldアプローチは、メモリ効率が大幅に向上し、高速になります。それ以外の場合、元の関数が正常に機能していても、このトリックによって無限ループに陥ってしまいます。詳細については、以下をお読みください...

## Iterables、Iterators、およびGeneratorsを混同しないでください

まず、イテレータプロトコル-あなたが書くとき

for x in mylist:
...loop body...


Pythonは次の2つのステップを実行します。

1. のイテレータを取得しますmylist

呼び出しiter(mylist)->これはnext()メソッド（または__next__()Python 3）を持つオブジェクトを返します。

[これは、ほとんどの人があなたに話すのを忘れているステップです]

2. イテレータを使用してアイテムをループします。

next()手順1で返されたイテレータでメソッドを呼び出し続けます。からの戻り値next()がに割り当てられx、ループ本体が実行されます。StopIteration内から例外が発生したnext()場合は、イテレータに値がなくなり、ループが終了したことを意味します。

ここmylist反復可能それはイテレータプロトコルを実装しているため。ユーザー定義クラスで__iter__()は、クラスのインスタンスを反復可能にするメソッドを実装できます。このメソッドはイテレータを返す必要があります。イテレータは、next()メソッドを持つオブジェクトです。両方を実現することができる__iter__()next()同じクラスで、と持って__iter__()リターンをself。これは単純な場合には機能しますが、2つのイテレータが同じオブジェクトを同時にループする場合は機能しません。

これがイテレータプロトコルであり、多くのオブジェクトがこのプロトコルを実装しています。

1. 組み込みリスト、辞書、タプル、セット、ファイル。
2. を実装するユーザー定義クラス__iter__()
3. 発電機。

forループは、処理しているオブジェクトの種類を認識していないことに注意してください。ループはイテレータプロトコルに従うだけであり、呼び出し時にアイテムを次々と取得しますnext()。組み込みリストはアイテムを1つずつ返し、辞書はキーを1つずつ返し、ファイルは行を1つずつ返します。そしてジェネレーターは...それが次のようyieldになります。

def f123():
yield 1
yield 2
yield 3

for item in f123():
print item


yieldステートメントの代わりに、3つのreturnステートメントが含まれているf123()場合、最初のステートメントのみが実行され、関数は終了します。しかしf123()、通常の機能ではありません。ときにf123()呼ばれて、それはしません歩留まり文で値のいずれかを返します！ジェネレータオブジェクトを返します。また、関数は実際には終了しません。一時停止状態になります。場合forジェネレータオブジェクトをループするループ試みの後に、機能は非常に次の行で、その停止状態から再開しyield、それが以前から返され、この場合には、コードの次の行を実行するyield文を、そして戻り、次のようなもの項目。これは、関数が終了するまで発生し、その時点でジェネレーターが起動StopIterationし、ループが終了します。

だから、ジェネレータオブジェクトは、ソートアダプタ等である-それは露出させることにより、イテレータプロトコルを示す一端に__iter__()及びnext()維持する方法forループ幸せを。ただし、もう一方の端では、次の値を取得するのに十分なだけ関数を実行し、一時停止モードに戻します。

## なぜジェネレータを使用するのですか？

591
Jason Baker 2008-10-24 12:28.

このように考えてください：

イテレータは、next()メソッドを持つオブジェクトを表す単なる派手な用語です。したがって、yield-ed関数は次のようになります。

def some_function():
for i in xrange(4):
yield i

for i in some_function():
print i


これは基本的に、Pythonインタープリターが上記のコードで行うことです。

class it:
def __init__(self):
# Start at -1 so that we get 0 when we add 1 below.
self.count = -1

# The __iter__ method will be called once by the 'for' loop.
# The rest of the magic happens on the object returned by this method.
# In this case it is the object itself.
def __iter__(self):
return self

# The next method will be called repeatedly by the 'for' loop
# until it raises StopIteration.
def next(self):
self.count += 1
if self.count < 4:
return self.count
else:
# A StopIteration exception is raised
# to signal that the iterator is done.
# This is caught implicitly by the 'for' loop.
raise StopIteration

def some_func():
return it()

for i in some_func():
print i


iterator = some_func()
try:
while 1:
print iterator.next()
except StopIteration:
pass


それはもっと理にかなっていますか、それとも単にあなたをもっと混乱させますか？:)

これ、説明のために単純化しすぎていることに注意してください。:)

478
ninjagecko 2011-06-19 20:33.

yieldキーワードは2つの単純な事実に縮小されています。

1. コンパイラが関数内のどこかでyieldキーワードを検出した場合、その関数はステートメントを介して返されなくなります。代わりに、ジェネレータと呼ばれる怠惰な「保留リスト」オブジェクトをすぐに返しますreturn
2. ジェネレーターは反復可能です。反復可能とは何ですか？これは、listorまたはsetorrangeまたはdict-viewのようなもので、特定の順序で各要素にアクセスするための組み込みプロトコルがあります

generator = myYieldingFunction(...)
x = list(generator)

generator
v
[x[0], ..., ???]

generator
v
[x[0], x[1], ..., ???]

generator
v
[x[0], x[1], x[2], ..., ???]

StopIteration exception
[x[0], x[1], x[2]]     done

list==[x[0], x[1], x[2]]


## 例

makeRangePythonのような関数を定義しましょうrangemakeRange(n)RETURNSをジェネレーターと呼ぶ：

def makeRange(n):
# return 0,1,2,...,n-1
i = 0
while i < n:
yield i
i += 1

>>> makeRange(5)
<generator object makeRange at 0x19e4aa0>


ジェネレーターに保留中の値をすぐに返すように強制するには、それをに渡すことlist()ができます（反復可能なものと同じように）：

>>> list(makeRange(5))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]


## 例を「リストを返すだけ」と比較する

# list-version                   #  # generator-version
def makeRange(n):                #  def makeRange(n):
"""return [0,1,2,...,n-1]""" #~     """return 0,1,2,...,n-1"""
TO_RETURN = []               #>
i = 0                        #      i = 0
while i < n:                 #      while i < n:
TO_RETURN += [i]         #~         yield i
i += 1                   #          i += 1  ## indented

>>> makeRange(5)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]


ただし、大きな違いが1つあります。最後のセクションを参照してください。

## ジェネレーターの使い方

#                   _ITERABLE_
>>> [x+10 for x in makeRange(5)]
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14]


ジェネレーターの感触を良くするために、itertoolsモジュールをいじってみることができます（必要な場合chain.from_iterableではなく、必ず使用chainしてください）。たとえば、ジェネレータを使用して、のような無限に長いレイジーリストを実装することもできますitertools.count()。独自のを実装することも、whileループのキーワードをdef enumerate(iterable): zip(count(), iterable)使用して実装することもできyieldます。

Please note: generators can actually be used for many more things, such as implementing coroutines or non-deterministic programming or other elegant things. However, the "lazy lists" viewpoint I present here is the most common use you will find.

## Behind the scenes

This is how the "Python iteration protocol" works. That is, what is going on when you do list(makeRange(5)). This is what I describe earlier as a "lazy, incremental list".

>>> x=iter(range(5))
>>> next(x)
0
>>> next(x)
1
>>> next(x)
2
>>> next(x)
3
>>> next(x)
4
>>> next(x)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
StopIteration


The built-in function next() just calls the objects .next() function, which is a part of the "iteration protocol" and is found on all iterators. You can manually use the next() function (and other parts of the iteration protocol) to implement fancy things, usually at the expense of readability, so try to avoid doing that...

## Minutiae

Normally, most people would not care about the following distinctions and probably want to stop reading here.

In Python-speak, an iterable is any object which "understands the concept of a for-loop" like a list [1,2,3], and an iterator is a specific instance of the requested for-loop like [1,2,3].__iter__(). A generator is exactly the same as any iterator, except for the way it was written (with function syntax).

When you request an iterator from a list, it creates a new iterator. However, when you request an iterator from an iterator (which you would rarely do), it just gives you a copy of itself.

Thus, in the unlikely event that you are failing to do something like this...

> x = myRange(5)
> list(x)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
> list(x)
[]


... then remember that a generator is an iterator; that is, it is one-time-use. If you want to reuse it, you should call myRange(...) again. If you need to use the result twice, convert the result to a list and store it in a variable x = list(myRange(5)). Those who absolutely need to clone a generator (for example, who are doing terrifyingly hackish metaprogramming) can use itertools.tee if absolutely necessary, since the copyable iterator Python PEP standards proposal has been deferred.

414
Aaron Hall 2015-06-25 20:11.

What does the yield keyword do in Python?

• A function with yield, when called, returns a Generator.
• Generators are iterators because they implement the iterator protocol, so you can iterate over them.
• A generator can also be sent information, making it conceptually a coroutine.
• In Python 3, you can delegate from one generator to another in both directions with yield from.
• (Appendix critiques a couple of answers, including the top one, and discusses the use of return in a generator.)

# Generators:

yield is only legal inside of a function definition, and the inclusion of yield in a function definition makes it return a generator.

The idea for generators comes from other languages (see footnote 1) with varying implementations. In Python's Generators, the execution of the code is frozen at the point of the yield. When the generator is called (methods are discussed below) execution resumes and then freezes at the next yield.

yield provides an easy way of implementing the iterator protocol, defined by the following two methods: __iter__ and next (Python 2) or __next__ (Python 3). Both of those methods make an object an iterator that you could type-check with the Iterator Abstract Base Class from the collections module.

>>> def func():
...     yield 'I am'
...     yield 'a generator!'
...
>>> type(func)                 # A function with yield is still a function
<type 'function'>
>>> gen = func()
>>> type(gen)                  # but it returns a generator
<type 'generator'>
>>> hasattr(gen, '__iter__')   # that's an iterable
True
>>> hasattr(gen, 'next')       # and with .next (.__next__ in Python 3)
True                           # implements the iterator protocol.


The generator type is a sub-type of iterator:

>>> import collections, types
>>> issubclass(types.GeneratorType, collections.Iterator)
True


And if necessary, we can type-check like this:

>>> isinstance(gen, types.GeneratorType)
True
>>> isinstance(gen, collections.Iterator)
True


A feature of an Iterator is that once exhausted, you can't reuse or reset it:

>>> list(gen)
['I am', 'a generator!']
>>> list(gen)
[]


You'll have to make another if you want to use its functionality again (see footnote 2):

>>> list(func())
['I am', 'a generator!']


One can yield data programmatically, for example:

def func(an_iterable):
for item in an_iterable:
yield item


The above simple generator is also equivalent to the below - as of Python 3.3 (and not available in Python 2), you can use yield from:

def func(an_iterable):
yield from an_iterable


However, yield from also allows for delegation to subgenerators, which will be explained in the following section on cooperative delegation with sub-coroutines.

# Coroutines:

yield forms an expression that allows data to be sent into the generator (see footnote 3)

Here is an example, take note of the received variable, which will point to the data that is sent to the generator:

def bank_account(deposited, interest_rate):
while True:
calculated_interest = interest_rate * deposited

>>> my_account = bank_account(1000, .05)


First, we must queue up the generator with the builtin function, next. It will call the appropriate next or __next__ method, depending on the version of Python you are using:

>>> first_year_interest = next(my_account)
>>> first_year_interest
50.0


And now we can send data into the generator. (Sending None is the same as calling next.) :

>>> next_year_interest = my_account.send(first_year_interest + 1000)
>>> next_year_interest
102.5


## Cooperative Delegation to Sub-Coroutine with yield from

Now, recall that yield from is available in Python 3. This allows us to delegate coroutines to a subcoroutine:


def money_manager(expected_rate):
# must receive deposited value from .send():
under_management = yield                   # yield None to start.
while True:
try:
additional_investment = yield expected_rate * under_management
except GeneratorExit:
'''TODO: write function to send unclaimed funds to state'''
raise
finally:
'''TODO: write function to mail tax info to client'''

def investment_account(deposited, manager):
'''very simple model of an investment account that delegates to a manager'''
# must queue up manager:
next(manager)      # <- same as manager.send(None)
# This is where we send the initial deposit to the manager:
manager.send(deposited)
try:
yield from manager
except GeneratorExit:
return manager.close()  # delegate?


And now we can delegate functionality to a sub-generator and it can be used by a generator just as above:

my_manager = money_manager(.06)
my_account = investment_account(1000, my_manager)
first_year_return = next(my_account) # -> 60.0


Now simulate adding another 1,000 to the account plus the return on the account (60.0):

next_year_return = my_account.send(first_year_return + 1000)
next_year_return # 123.6


You can read more about the precise semantics of yield from in PEP 380.

## Other Methods: close and throw

The close method raises GeneratorExit at the point the function execution was frozen. This will also be called by __del__ so you can put any cleanup code where you handle the GeneratorExit:

my_account.close()


You can also throw an exception which can be handled in the generator or propagated back to the user:

import sys
try:
raise ValueError
except:
my_manager.throw(*sys.exc_info())


Raises:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
File "<stdin>", line 6, in money_manager
File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
ValueError


# Conclusion

I believe I have covered all aspects of the following question:

What does the yield keyword do in Python?

It turns out that yield does a lot. I'm sure I could add even more thorough examples to this. If you want more or have some constructive criticism, let me know by commenting below.

# Appendix:

## Critique of the Top/Accepted Answer**

• It is confused on what makes an iterable, just using a list as an example. See my references above, but in summary: an iterable has an __iter__ method returning an iterator. An iterator provides a .next (Python 2 or .__next__ (Python 3) method, which is implicitly called by for loops until it raises StopIteration, and once it does, it will continue to do so.
• It then uses a generator expression to describe what a generator is. Since a generator is simply a convenient way to create an iterator, it only confuses the matter, and we still have not yet gotten to the yield part.
• In Controlling a generator exhaustion he calls the .next method, when instead he should use the builtin function, next. It would be an appropriate layer of indirection, because his code does not work in Python 3.
• Itertools? This was not relevant to what yield does at all.
• No discussion of the methods that yield provides along with the new functionality yield from in Python 3. The top/accepted answer is a very incomplete answer.

## Critique of answer suggesting yield in a generator expression or comprehension.

The grammar currently allows any expression in a list comprehension.

expr_stmt: testlist_star_expr (annassign | augassign (yield_expr|testlist) |
('=' (yield_expr|testlist_star_expr))*)
...
yield_expr: 'yield' [yield_arg]
yield_arg: 'from' test | testlist


Since yield is an expression, it has been touted by some as interesting to use it in comprehensions or generator expression - in spite of citing no particularly good use-case.

The CPython core developers are discussing deprecating its allowance. Here's a relevant post from the mailing list:

On 30 January 2017 at 19:05, Brett Cannon wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jan 2017 at 16:39 Craig Rodrigues wrote:

I'm OK with either approach. Leaving things the way they are in Python 3 is no good, IMHO.

My vote is it be a SyntaxError since you're not getting what you expect from the syntax.

I'd agree that's a sensible place for us to end up, as any code relying on the current behaviour is really too clever to be maintainable.

In terms of getting there, we'll likely want:

• SyntaxWarning or DeprecationWarning in 3.7
• Py3k warning in 2.7.x
• SyntaxError in 3.8

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

Further, there is an outstanding issue (10544) which seems to be pointing in the direction of this never being a good idea (PyPy, a Python implementation written in Python, is already raising syntax warnings.)

Bottom line, until the developers of CPython tell us otherwise: Don't put yield in a generator expression or comprehension.

## The return statement in a generator

In Python 2:

In a generator function, the return statement is not allowed to include an expression_list. In that context, a bare return indicates that the generator is done and will cause StopIteration to be raised.

An expression_list is basically any number of expressions separated by commas - essentially, in Python 2, you can stop the generator with return, but you can't return a value.

In Python 3:

In a generator function, the return statement indicates that the generator is done and will cause StopIteration to be raised. The returned value (if any) is used as an argument to construct StopIteration and becomes the StopIteration.value attribute.

## Footnotes

1. The languages CLU, Sather, and Icon were referenced in the proposal to introduce the concept of generators to Python. The general idea is that a function can maintain internal state and yield intermediate data points on demand by the user. This promised to be superior in performance to other approaches, including Python threading, which isn't even available on some systems.

2. This means, for example, that xrange objects (range in Python 3) aren't Iterators, even though they are iterable, because they can be reused. Like lists, their __iter__ methods return iterator objects.

3. yield was originally introduced as a statement, meaning that it could only appear at the beginning of a line in a code block. Now yield creates a yield expression. https://docs.python.org/2/reference/simple_stmts.html#grammar-token-yield_stmt This change was proposed to allow a user to send data into the generator just as one might receive it. To send data, one must be able to assign it to something, and for that, a statement just won't work.

349
Douglas Mayle 2008-10-24 12:24.

yield is just like return - it returns whatever you tell it to (as a generator). The difference is that the next time you call the generator, execution starts from the last call to the yield statement. Unlike return, the stack frame is not cleaned up when a yield occurs, however control is transferred back to the caller, so its state will resume the next time the function is called.

In the case of your code, the function get_child_candidates is acting like an iterator so that when you extend your list, it adds one element at a time to the new list.

list.extend calls an iterator until it's exhausted. In the case of the code sample you posted, it would be much clearer to just return a tuple and append that to the list.

251
Claudiu 2008-10-24 22:44.

There's one extra thing to mention: a function that yields doesn't actually have to terminate. I've written code like this:

def fib():
last, cur = 0, 1
while True:
yield cur
last, cur = cur, last + cur


Then I can use it in other code like this:

for f in fib():
if some_condition: break
coolfuncs(f);


It really helps simplify some problems, and makes some things easier to work with.

248
Daniel 2013-01-19 07:25.

For those who prefer a minimal working example, meditate on this interactive Python session:

>>> def f():
...   yield 1
...   yield 2
...   yield 3
...
>>> g = f()
>>> for i in g:
...   print(i)
...
1
2
3
>>> for i in g:
...   print(i)
...
>>> # Note that this time nothing was printed

221
Bob Stein 2016-03-26 03:21.

TL;DR

def square_list(n):
the_list = []                         # Replace
for x in range(n):
y = x * x
the_list.append(y)                # these
return the_list                       # lines


# do this:

def square_yield(n):
for x in range(n):
y = x * x
yield y                           # with this one.


Whenever you find yourself building a list from scratch, yield each piece instead.

This was my first "aha" moment with yield.

yield is a sugary way to say

build a series of stuff

Same behavior:

>>> for square in square_list(4):
...     print(square)
...
0
1
4
9
>>> for square in square_yield(4):
...     print(square)
...
0
1
4
9


Different behavior:

Yield is single-pass: you can only iterate through once. When a function has a yield in it we call it a generator function. And an iterator is what it returns. Those terms are revealing. We lose the convenience of a container, but gain the power of a series that's computed as needed, and arbitrarily long.

Yield is lazy, it puts off computation. A function with a yield in it doesn't actually execute at all when you call it. It returns an iterator object that remembers where it left off. Each time you call next() on the iterator (this happens in a for-loop) execution inches forward to the next yield. return raises StopIteration and ends the series (this is the natural end of a for-loop).

Yield is versatile. Data doesn't have to be stored all together, it can be made available one at a time. It can be infinite.

>>> def squares_all_of_them():
...     x = 0
...     while True:
...         yield x * x
...         x += 1
...
>>> squares = squares_all_of_them()
>>> for _ in range(4):
...     print(next(squares))
...
0
1
4
9


If you need multiple passes and the series isn't too long, just call list() on it:

>>> list(square_yield(4))
[0, 1, 4, 9]


Brilliant choice of the word yield because both meanings apply:

yield — produce or provide (as in agriculture)

...provide the next data in the series.

yield — give way or relinquish (as in political power)

...relinquish CPU execution until the iterator advances.

204
RBansal 2013-01-16 20:42.

Yield gives you a generator.

def get_odd_numbers(i):
return range(1, i, 2)
def yield_odd_numbers(i):
for x in range(1, i, 2):
yield x
foo = get_odd_numbers(10)
bar = yield_odd_numbers(10)
foo
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
bar
<generator object yield_odd_numbers at 0x1029c6f50>
bar.next()
1
bar.next()
3
bar.next()
5


As you can see, in the first case foo holds the entire list in memory at once. It's not a big deal for a list with 5 elements, but what if you want a list of 5 million? Not only is this a huge memory eater, it also costs a lot of time to build at the time that the function is called.

In the second case, bar just gives you a generator. A generator is an iterable--which means you can use it in a for loop, etc, but each value can only be accessed once. All the values are also not stored in memory at the same time; the generator object "remembers" where it was in the looping the last time you called it--this way, if you're using an iterable to (say) count to 50 billion, you don't have to count to 50 billion all at once and store the 50 billion numbers to count through.

Again, this is a pretty contrived example, you probably would use itertools if you really wanted to count to 50 billion. :)

This is the most simple use case of generators. As you said, it can be used to write efficient permutations, using yield to push things up through the call stack instead of using some sort of stack variable. Generators can also be used for specialized tree traversal, and all manner of other things.

199
Jon Skeet 2008-10-24 12:26.

It's returning a generator. I'm not particularly familiar with Python, but I believe it's the same kind of thing as C#'s iterator blocks if you're familiar with those.

The key idea is that the compiler/interpreter/whatever does some trickery so that as far as the caller is concerned, they can keep calling next() and it will keep returning values - as if the generator method was paused. Now obviously you can't really "pause" a method, so the compiler builds a state machine for you to remember where you currently are and what the local variables etc look like. This is much easier than writing an iterator yourself.

179
aestrivex 2013-04-05 04:56.

There is one type of answer that I don't feel has been given yet, among the many great answers that describe how to use generators. Here is the programming language theory answer:

The yield statement in Python returns a generator. A generator in Python is a function that returns continuations (and specifically a type of coroutine, but continuations represent the more general mechanism to understand what is going on).

Continuations in programming languages theory are a much more fundamental kind of computation, but they are not often used, because they are extremely hard to reason about and also very difficult to implement. But the idea of what a continuation is, is straightforward: it is the state of a computation that has not yet finished. In this state, the current values of variables, the operations that have yet to be performed, and so on, are saved. Then at some point later in the program the continuation can be invoked, such that the program's variables are reset to that state and the operations that were saved are carried out.

Continuations, in this more general form, can be implemented in two ways. In the call/cc way, the program's stack is literally saved and then when the continuation is invoked, the stack is restored.

In continuation passing style (CPS), continuations are just normal functions (only in languages where functions are first class) which the programmer explicitly manages and passes around to subroutines. In this style, program state is represented by closures (and the variables that happen to be encoded in them) rather than variables that reside somewhere on the stack. Functions that manage control flow accept continuation as arguments (in some variations of CPS, functions may accept multiple continuations) and manipulate control flow by invoking them by simply calling them and returning afterwards. A very simple example of continuation passing style is as follows:

def save_file(filename):
def write_file_continuation():
write_stuff_to_file(filename)

check_if_file_exists_and_user_wants_to_overwrite(write_file_continuation)


In this (very simplistic) example, the programmer saves the operation of actually writing the file into a continuation (which can potentially be a very complex operation with many details to write out), and then passes that continuation (i.e, as a first-class closure) to another operator which does some more processing, and then calls it if necessary. (I use this design pattern a lot in actual GUI programming, either because it saves me lines of code or, more importantly, to manage control flow after GUI events trigger.)

The rest of this post will, without loss of generality, conceptualize continuations as CPS, because it is a hell of a lot easier to understand and read.

Now let's talk about generators in Python. Generators are a specific subtype of continuation. Whereas continuations are able in general to save the state of a computation (i.e., the program's call stack), generators are only able to save the state of iteration over an iterator. Although, this definition is slightly misleading for certain use cases of generators. For instance:

def f():
while True:
yield 4


This is clearly a reasonable iterable whose behavior is well defined -- each time the generator iterates over it, it returns 4 (and does so forever). But it isn't probably the prototypical type of iterable that comes to mind when thinking of iterators (i.e., for x in collection: do_something(x)). This example illustrates the power of generators: if anything is an iterator, a generator can save the state of its iteration.

To reiterate: Continuations can save the state of a program's stack and generators can save the state of iteration. This means that continuations are more a lot powerful than generators, but also that generators are a lot, lot easier. They are easier for the language designer to implement, and they are easier for the programmer to use (if you have some time to burn, try to read and understand this page about continuations and call/cc).

But you could easily implement (and conceptualize) generators as a simple, specific case of continuation passing style:

Whenever yield is called, it tells the function to return a continuation. When the function is called again, it starts from wherever it left off. So, in pseudo-pseudocode (i.e., not pseudocode, but not code) the generator's next method is basically as follows:

class Generator():
def __init__(self,iterable,generatorfun):
self.next_continuation = lambda:generatorfun(iterable)

def next(self):
value, next_continuation = self.next_continuation()
self.next_continuation = next_continuation
return value


where the yield keyword is actually syntactic sugar for the real generator function, basically something like:

def generatorfun(iterable):
if len(iterable) == 0:
raise StopIteration
else:
return (iterable[0], lambda:generatorfun(iterable[1:]))


Remember that this is just pseudocode and the actual implementation of generators in Python is more complex. But as an exercise to understand what is going on, try to use continuation passing style to implement generator objects without use of the yield keyword.

160
tzot 2008-10-24 14:36.

Here is an example in plain language. I will provide a correspondence between high-level human concepts to low-level Python concepts.

I want to operate on a sequence of numbers, but I don't want to bother my self with the creation of that sequence, I want only to focus on the operation I want to do. So, I do the following:

• I call you and tell you that I want a sequence of numbers which is produced in a specific way, and I let you know what the algorithm is.
This step corresponds to defining the generator function, i.e. the function containing a yield.
• Sometime later, I tell you, "OK, get ready to tell me the sequence of numbers".
This step corresponds to calling the generator function which returns a generator object. Note that you don't tell me any numbers yet; you just grab your paper and pencil.
• I ask you, "tell me the next number", and you tell me the first number; after that, you wait for me to ask you for the next number. It's your job to remember where you were, what numbers you have already said, and what is the next number. I don't care about the details.
This step corresponds to calling .next() on the generator object.
• … repeat previous step, until…
• eventually, you might come to an end. You don't tell me a number; you just shout, "hold your horses! I'm done! No more numbers!"
This step corresponds to the generator object ending its job, and raising a StopIteration exception The generator function does not need to raise the exception. It's raised automatically when the function ends or issues a return.

This is what a generator does (a function that contains a yield); it starts executing, pauses whenever it does a yield, and when asked for a .next() value it continues from the point it was last. It fits perfectly by design with the iterator protocol of Python, which describes how to sequentially request values.

The most famous user of the iterator protocol is the for command in Python. So, whenever you do a:

for item in sequence:


it doesn't matter if sequence is a list, a string, a dictionary or a generator object like described above; the result is the same: you read items off a sequence one by one.

Note that defining a function which contains a yield keyword is not the only way to create a generator; it's just the easiest way to create one.

For more accurate information, read about iterator types, the yield statement and generators in the Python documentation.

140
Mike McKerns 2014-02-04 16:27.

While a lot of answers show why you'd use a yield to create a generator, there are more uses for yield. It's quite easy to make a coroutine, which enables the passing of information between two blocks of code. I won't repeat any of the fine examples that have already been given about using yield to create a generator.

To help understand what a yield does in the following code, you can use your finger to trace the cycle through any code that has a yield. Every time your finger hits the yield, you have to wait for a next or a send to be entered. When a next is called, you trace through the code until you hit the yield… the code on the right of the yield is evaluated and returned to the caller… then you wait. When next is called again, you perform another loop through the code. However, you'll note that in a coroutine, yield can also be used with a send… which will send a value from the caller into the yielding function. If a send is given, then yield receives the value sent, and spits it out the left hand side… then the trace through the code progresses until you hit the yield again (returning the value at the end, as if next was called).

For example:

>>> def coroutine():
...     i = -1
...     while True:
...         i += 1
...         val = (yield i)
...
>>> sequence = coroutine()
>>> sequence.next()
0
>>> sequence.next()
1
>>> sequence.send('hello')
2
>>> sequence.close()

137
Sławomir Lenart 2014-07-25 11:15.

There is another yield use and meaning (since Python 3.3):

yield from <expr>


From PEP 380 -- Syntax for Delegating to a Subgenerator:

A syntax is proposed for a generator to delegate part of its operations to another generator. This allows a section of code containing 'yield' to be factored out and placed in another generator. Additionally, the subgenerator is allowed to return with a value, and the value is made available to the delegating generator.

The new syntax also opens up some opportunities for optimisation when one generator re-yields values produced by another.

Moreover this will introduce (since Python 3.5):

async def new_coroutine(data):
...
await blocking_action()


to avoid coroutines being confused with a regular generator (today yield is used in both).

123
Calculus 2017-11-15 02:02.

All great answers, however a bit difficult for newbies.

I assume you have learned the return statement.

As an analogy, return and yield are twins. return means 'return and stop' whereas 'yield means 'return, but continue'

1. Try to get a num_list with return.
def num_list(n):
for i in range(n):
return i


Run it:

In [5]: num_list(3)
Out[5]: 0


See, you get only a single number rather than a list of them. return never allows you prevail happily, just implements once and quit.

1. There comes yield

Replace return with yield:

In [10]: def num_list(n):
...:     for i in range(n):
...:         yield i
...:

In [11]: num_list(3)
Out[11]: <generator object num_list at 0x10327c990>

In [12]: list(num_list(3))
Out[12]: [0, 1, 2]


Now, you win to get all the numbers.

Comparing to return which runs once and stops, yield runs times you planed. You can interpret return as return one of them, and yield as return all of them. This is called iterable.

1. One more step we can rewrite yield statement with return
In [15]: def num_list(n):
...:     result = []
...:     for i in range(n):
...:         result.append(i)
...:     return result

In [16]: num_list(3)
Out[16]: [0, 1, 2]


It's the core about yield.

The difference between a list return outputs and the object yield output is:

You will always get [0, 1, 2] from a list object but only could retrieve them from 'the object yield output' once. So, it has a new name generator object as displayed in Out[11]: <generator object num_list at 0x10327c990>.

In conclusion, as a metaphor to grok it:

• return and yield are twins
• list and generator are twins
112
alinsoar 2013-08-22 09:01.

From a programming viewpoint, the iterators are implemented as thunks.

To implement iterators, generators, and thread pools for concurrent execution, etc. as thunks, one uses messages sent to a closure object, which has a dispatcher, and the dispatcher answers to "messages".

"next" is a message sent to a closure, created by the "iter" call.

There are lots of ways to implement this computation. I used mutation, but it is possible to do this kind of computation without mutation, by returning the current value and the next yielder (making it referential transparent). Racket uses a sequence of transformations of the initial program in some intermediary languages, one of such rewriting making the yield operator to be transformed in some language with simpler operators.

Here is a demonstration of how yield could be rewritten, which uses the structure of R6RS, but the semantics is identical to Python's. It's the same model of computation, and only a change in syntax is required to rewrite it using yield of Python.

Welcome to Racket v6.5.0.3.

-> (define gen
(lambda (l)
(define yield
(lambda ()
(if (null? l)
'END
(let ((v (car l)))
(set! l (cdr l))
v))))
(lambda(m)
(case m
('yield (yield))
('init  (lambda (data)
(set! l data)
'OK))))))
-> (define stream (gen '(1 2 3)))
-> (stream 'yield)
1
-> (stream 'yield)
2
-> (stream 'yield)
3
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
-> ((stream 'init) '(a b))
'OK
-> (stream 'yield)
'a
-> (stream 'yield)
'b
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
->

111
Dustin Getz 2012-10-04 10:38.

Here are some Python examples of how to actually implement generators as if Python did not provide syntactic sugar for them:

As a Python generator:

from itertools import islice

def fib_gen():
a, b = 1, 1
while True:
yield a
a, b = b, a + b

assert [1, 1, 2, 3, 5] == list(islice(fib_gen(), 5))


Using lexical closures instead of generators

def ftake(fnext, last):
return [fnext() for _ in xrange(last)]

def fib_gen2():
#funky scope due to python2.x workaround
#for python 3.x use nonlocal
def _():
_.a, _.b = _.b, _.a + _.b
return _.a
_.a, _.b = 0, 1
return _

assert [1,1,2,3,5] == ftake(fib_gen2(), 5)


Using object closures instead of generators (because ClosuresAndObjectsAreEquivalent)

class fib_gen3:
def __init__(self):
self.a, self.b = 1, 1

def __call__(self):
r = self.a
self.a, self.b = self.b, self.a + self.b
return r

assert [1,1,2,3,5] == ftake(fib_gen3(), 5)

103
johnzachary 2013-01-28 15:37.

I was going to post "read page 19 of Beazley's 'Python: Essential Reference' for a quick description of generators", but so many others have posted good descriptions already.

Also, note that yield can be used in coroutines as the dual of their use in generator functions. Although it isn't the same use as your code snippet, (yield) can be used as an expression in a function. When a caller sends a value to the method using the send() method, then the coroutine will execute until the next (yield) statement is encountered.

Generators and coroutines are a cool way to set up data-flow type applications. I thought it would be worthwhile knowing about the other use of the yield statement in functions.

89
Engin OZTURK 2013-12-21 03:07.

Here is a simple example:

def isPrimeNumber(n):
if n==1:
return False
for x in range(2,n):
if n % x == 0:
return False
return True

def primes (n=1):
while(True):
print "loop step ---------------- {}".format(n)
n += 1

for n in primes():
if n> 10:break
print "wiriting result {}".format(n)


Output:

loop step ---------------- 1
loop step ---------------- 2
loop step ---------------- 3
wiriting result 3
loop step ---------------- 4
loop step ---------------- 5
wiriting result 5
loop step ---------------- 6
loop step ---------------- 7
wiriting result 7
loop step ---------------- 8
loop step ---------------- 9
loop step ---------------- 10
loop step ---------------- 11


I am not a Python developer, but it looks to me yield holds the position of program flow and the next loop start from "yield" position. It seems like it is waiting at that position, and just before that, returning a value outside, and next time continues to work.

It seems to be an interesting and nice ability :D

73
Evgeni Sergeev 2013-06-15 06:36.

Here is a mental image of what yield does.

I like to think of a thread as having a stack (even when it's not implemented that way).

When a normal function is called, it puts its local variables on the stack, does some computation, then clears the stack and returns. The values of its local variables are never seen again.

With a yield function, when its code begins to run (i.e. after the function is called, returning a generator object, whose next() method is then invoked), it similarly puts its local variables onto the stack and computes for a while. But then, when it hits the yield statement, before clearing its part of the stack and returning, it takes a snapshot of its local variables and stores them in the generator object. It also writes down the place where it's currently up to in its code (i.e. the particular yield statement).

So it's a kind of a frozen function that the generator is hanging onto.

When next() is called subsequently, it retrieves the function's belongings onto the stack and re-animates it. The function continues to compute from where it left off, oblivious to the fact that it had just spent an eternity in cold storage.

Compare the following examples:

def normalFunction():
return
if False:
pass

def yielderFunction():
return
if False:
yield 12


When we call the second function, it behaves very differently to the first. The yield statement might be unreachable, but if it's present anywhere, it changes the nature of what we're dealing with.

>>> yielderFunction()
<generator object yielderFunction at 0x07742D28>


Calling yielderFunction() doesn't run its code, but makes a generator out of the code. (Maybe it's a good idea to name such things with the yielder prefix for readability.)

>>> gen = yielderFunction()
>>> dir(gen)
['__class__',
...
'__iter__',    #Returns gen itself, to make it work uniformly with containers
...            #when given to a for loop. (Containers return an iterator instead.)
'close',
'gi_code',
'gi_frame',
'gi_running',
'next',        #The method that runs the function's body.
'send',
'throw']


The gi_code and gi_frame fields are where the frozen state is stored. Exploring them with dir(..), we can confirm that our mental model above is credible.

65
Gavriel Cohen 2017-01-03 02:09.

An easy example to understand what it is: yield

def f123():
for _ in range(4):
yield 1
yield 2

for i in f123():
print (i)


The output is:

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2

64
Mangu Singh Rajpurohit 2015-07-29 20:11.

Like every answer suggests, yield is used for creating a sequence generator. It's used for generating some sequence dynamically. For example, while reading a file line by line on a network, you can use the yield function as follows:

def getNextLines():
while con.isOpen():


You can use it in your code as follows:

for line in getNextLines():
doSomeThing(line)


Execution Control Transfer gotcha

The execution control will be transferred from getNextLines() to the for loop when yield is executed. Thus, every time getNextLines() is invoked, execution begins from the point where it was paused last time.

Thus in short, a function with the following code

def simpleYield():
yield "first time"
yield "second time"
yield "third time"
yield "Now some useful value {}".format(12)

for i in simpleYield():
print i


will print

"first time"
"second time"
"third time"
"Now some useful value 12"

61
smwikipedia 2016-03-25 19:40.

(My below answer only speaks from the perspective of using Python generator, not the underlying implementation of generator mechanism, which involves some tricks of stack and heap manipulation.)

When yield is used instead of a return in a python function, that function is turned into something special called generator function. That function will return an object of generator type. The yield keyword is a flag to notify the python compiler to treat such function specially. Normal functions will terminate once some value is returned from it. But with the help of the compiler, the generator function can be thought of as resumable. That is, the execution context will be restored and the execution will continue from last run. Until you explicitly call return, which will raise a StopIteration exception (which is also part of the iterator protocol), or reach the end of the function. I found a lot of references about generator but this one from the functional programming perspective is the most digestable.

(Now I want to talk about the rationale behind generator, and the iterator based on my own understanding. I hope this can help you grasp the essential motivation of iterator and generator. Such concept shows up in other languages as well such as C#.)

As I understand, when we want to process a bunch of data, we usually first store the data somewhere and then process it one by one. But this naive approach is problematic. If the data volume is huge, it's expensive to store them as a whole beforehand. So instead of storing the data itself directly, why not store some kind of metadata indirectly, i.e. the logic how the data is computed.

There are 2 approaches to wrap such metadata.

1. The OO approach, we wrap the metadata as a class. This is the so-called iterator who implements the iterator protocol (i.e. the __next__(), and __iter__() methods). This is also the commonly seen iterator design pattern.
2. The functional approach, we wrap the metadata as a function. This is the so-called generator function. But under the hood, the returned generator object still IS-A iterator because it also implements the iterator protocol.

Either way, an iterator is created, i.e. some object that can give you the data you want. The OO approach may be a bit complex. Anyway, which one to use is up to you.

58
redbandit 2016-10-14 03:43.

In summary, the yield statement transforms your function into a factory that produces a special object called a generator which wraps around the body of your original function. When the generator is iterated, it executes your function until it reaches the next yield then suspends execution and evaluates to the value passed to yield. It repeats this process on each iteration until the path of execution exits the function. For instance,

def simple_generator():
yield 'one'
yield 'two'
yield 'three'

for i in simple_generator():
print i


simply outputs

one
two
three


The power comes from using the generator with a loop that calculates a sequence, the generator executes the loop stopping each time to 'yield' the next result of the calculation, in this way it calculates a list on the fly, the benefit being the memory saved for especially large calculations

Say you wanted to create a your own range function that produces an iterable range of numbers, you could do it like so,

def myRangeNaive(i):
n = 0
range = []
while n < i:
range.append(n)
n = n + 1
return range


and use it like this;

for i in myRangeNaive(10):
print i


But this is inefficient because

• You create an array that you only use once (this wastes memory)
• This code actually loops over that array twice! :(

Luckily Guido and his team were generous enough to develop generators so we could just do this;

def myRangeSmart(i):
n = 0
while n < i:
yield n
n = n + 1
return

for i in myRangeSmart(10):
print i


Now upon each iteration a function on the generator called next() executes the function until it either reaches a 'yield' statement in which it stops and 'yields' the value or reaches the end of the function. In this case on the first call, next() executes up to the yield statement and yield 'n', on the next call it will execute the increment statement, jump back to the 'while', evaluate it, and if true, it will stop and yield 'n' again, it will continue that way until the while condition returns false and the generator jumps to the end of the function.

56
Kaleem Ullah 2015-09-02 02:42.

Yield is an object

A return in a function will return a single value.

If you want a function to return a huge set of values, use yield.

More importantly, yield is a barrier.

like barrier in the CUDA language, it will not transfer control until it gets completed.

That is, it will run the code in your function from the beginning until it hits yield. Then, it’ll return the first value of the loop.

Then, every other call will run the loop you have written in the function one more time, returning the next value until there isn't any value to return.

54
Tom Fuller 2016-09-11 01:37.

Many people use return rather than yield, but in some cases yield can be more efficient and easier to work with.

Here is an example which yield is definitely best for:

return (in function)

import random

def return_dates():
dates = [] # With 'return' you need to create a list then return it
for i in range(5):
date = random.choice(["1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "5th", "6th", "7th", "8th", "9th", "10th"])
dates.append(date)
return dates


yield (in function)

def yield_dates():
for i in range(5):
date = random.choice(["1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "5th", "6th", "7th", "8th", "9th", "10th"])
yield date # 'yield' makes a generator automatically which works
# in a similar way. This is much more efficient.


Calling functions

dates_list = return_dates()
print(dates_list)
for i in dates_list:
print(i)

dates_generator = yield_dates()
print(dates_generator)
for i in dates_generator:
print(i)


Both functions do the same thing, but yield uses three lines instead of five and has one less variable to worry about.

This is the result from the code:

As you can see both functions do the same thing. The only difference is return_dates() gives a list and yield_dates() gives a generator.

A real life example would be something like reading a file line by line or if you just want to make a generator.

44
Will Dereham 2015-05-20 20:19.

yield is like a return element for a function. The difference is, that the yield element turns a function into a generator. A generator behaves just like a function until something is 'yielded'. The generator stops until it is next called, and continues from exactly the same point as it started. You can get a sequence of all the 'yielded' values in one, by calling list(generator()).

44
Bahtiyar Özdere 2015-11-19 09:37.

The yield keyword simply collects returning results. Think of yield like return +=

38
Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard 2016-02-21 07:41.

Here's a simple yield based approach, to compute the fibonacci series, explained:

def fib(limit=50):
a, b = 0, 1
for i in range(limit):
yield b
a, b = b, a+b


When you enter this into your REPL and then try and call it, you'll get a mystifying result:

>>> fib()
<generator object fib at 0x7fa38394e3b8>


This is because the presence of yield signaled to Python that you want to create a generator, that is, an object that generates values on demand.

So, how do you generate these values? This can either be done directly by using the built-in function next, or, indirectly by feeding it to a construct that consumes values.

Using the built-in next() function, you directly invoke .next/__next__, forcing the generator to produce a value:

>>> g = fib()
>>> next(g)
1
>>> next(g)
1
>>> next(g)
2
>>> next(g)
3
>>> next(g)
5


Indirectly, if you provide fib to a for loop, a list initializer, a tuple initializer, or anything else that expects an object that generates/produces values, you'll "consume" the generator until no more values can be produced by it (and it returns):

results = []
for i in fib(30):       # consumes fib
results.append(i)
# can also be accomplished with
results = list(fib(30)) # consumes fib


Similarly, with a tuple initializer:

>>> tuple(fib(5))       # consumes fib
(1, 1, 2, 3, 5)


A generator differs from a function in the sense that it is lazy. It accomplishes this by maintaining it's local state and allowing you to resume whenever you need to.

When you first invoke fib by calling it:

f = fib()


Python compiles the function, encounters the yield keyword and simply returns a generator object back at you. Not very helpful it seems.

When you then request it generates the first value, directly or indirectly, it executes all statements that it finds, until it encounters a yield, it then yields back the value you supplied to yield and pauses. For an example that better demonstrates this, let's use some print calls (replace with print "text" if on Python 2):

def yielder(value):
""" This is an infinite generator. Only use next on it """
while 1:
print("I'm going to generate the value for you")
print("Then I'll pause for a while")
yield value
print("Let's go through it again.")


Now, enter in the REPL:

>>> gen = yielder("Hello, yield!")


you have a generator object now waiting for a command for it to generate a value. Use next and see what get's printed:

>>> next(gen) # runs until it finds a yield
I'm going to generate the value for you
Then I'll pause for a while
'Hello, yield!'


The unquoted results are what's printed. The quoted result is what is returned from yield. Call next again now:

>>> next(gen) # continues from yield and runs again
Let's go through it again.
I'm going to generate the value for you
Then I'll pause for a while
'Hello, yield!'


The generator remembers it was paused at yield value and resumes from there. The next message is printed and the search for the yield statement to pause at it performed again (due to the while` loop).

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