What are the differences between a generator and an iterator?

What are the differences between a generator and an iterator?

Generators and iterators are both used to iterate over data, but they have key differences. An iterator is an object that implements the iterator protocol, which consists of the methods iter() and next(). A generator, on the other hand, is a special type of iterator created using a function with the yield statement.

Can you explain how a generator works?

Sure! A generator function allows you to declare a function that behaves like an iterator. When you call a generator function, it doesn't execute the function body immediately. Instead, it returns a generator object that can be iterated over. Each time you call next() on the generator, it resumes execution until it hits a yield statement, which returns a value and pauses the function's state.

What are the advantages of using generators?

Generators are memory efficient because they yield items one at a time and only when required, rather than storing all items in memory. This makes them ideal for working with large datasets or streams of data.

Can you give me an example of a generator?

Certainly! Here's a simple example of a generator that yields the first n square numbers:

def square_numbers(n):
    for i in range(n):
        yield i * i

You can use it like this:

for square in square_numbers(5):
    print(square)