Adapt an iterator to behave like a file-like object in Python

Question

I have a generator producing a list of strings. Is there a utility/adapter in Python that could make it look like a file?

For example,

>>> d         


        

Answer 1

Here's a modified version of John and Matt's answer that can read a list/generator of strings and output bytearrays

import itertools as it
from io import TextIOBase

class IterStringIO(TextIOBase):
    def __init__(self, iterable=None):
        iterable = iterable or []
        self.iter = it.chain.from_iterable(iterable)

    def not_newline(self, s):
        return s not in {'\n', '\r', '\r\n'}

    def write(self, iterable):
        to_chain = it.chain.from_iterable(iterable)
        self.iter = it.chain.from_iterable([self.iter, to_chain])

    def read(self, n=None):
        return bytearray(it.islice(self.iter, None, n))

    def readline(self, n=None):
        to_read = it.takewhile(self.not_newline, self.iter)
        return bytearray(it.islice(to_read, None, n))

usage:

ff = IterStringIO(c * 3 for c in ['a', 'b', 'c'])

while True:
    data = ff.read(4)

    if not data:
        break

    print data

aaab
bbcc
c

alternate usage:

ff = IterStringIO()
ff.write('ffffd')
ff.write(c * 3 for c in ['a', 'b', 'c'])

while True:
    data = ff.read(4)

    if not data:
        break

    print data

ffffda
aabb
bccc