Chapter 1

Generators & Iterators

iteratorsgeneratorsyielditertools

Learning Path

Hands-on Labs

Each objective has a coding lab that opens in VS Code in your browser

Objective 1

Understand iteration

Goal

You will understand Python's iteration protocol. Implement __iter__ and __next__ methods, create a custom iterator class, and use iter() on sequences to get iterators.

Objective 2

Create generators

Goal

You will create memory-efficient generators. Write your first generator function with yield, understand how yield produces values lazily, and compare memory usage to returning a full list.

Objective 3

Use generator expressions

Goal

You will use compact generator expressions. Convert list comprehensions to generator expressions, chain generators together, and measure memory savings compared to lists.

Objective 4

Build data pipelines

Goal

You will build efficient data processing pipelines. Chain multiple generators together, process large files lazily without loading into memory, and filter and transform data streams.

Objective 5

Use itertools

Goal

You will leverage the itertools module. Use islice to limit iterations, use chain to combine iterables, and use groupby for aggregation patterns.