The Python Apprentice

The first stateful generator: take()

The first generator we'll look at is take() which retrieves a specified number of elements from the front of a sequence:

def take(count, iterable):    """Take items from the front of an iterable.    Args:        count: The maximum number of items to retrieve.        iterable: The source of the items.    Yields:        At most 'count' items from 'iterable'.    """    counter = 0    for item in iterable:        if counter == count:            return        counter += 1        yield item

Note That the function defines a generator because it contains at least one yield statement. This particular generator also contains a return statement to terminate the stream of yielded values. The generator simply uses a counter to keep track of how many elements have been yielded so far, ...