How does __iter__ work?

Question

Despite reading up on it, I still dont quite understand how __iter__ works. What would be a simple explaination?

I\'ve seen def__iter__(self): retu

Answer 1

An iterator needs to define two methods: __iter__() and __next__() (next() in python2). Usually, the object itself defines the __next__() or next() method, so it just returns itself as the iterator. This creates an iterable that is also itself an iterator. These methods are used by for and in statements.

• Python 3 docs: docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#iterator-types

• Python 2 docs: docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#iterator-types