Why did Python 2.6 add a global next() function?

Question

I noticed that Python2.6 added a next() to it\'s list of global functions.

next(iterator[, default])

Retrieve the next item from the i         


        

Answer 1

It's just for consistency with functions like len(). I believe next(i) calls i.__next__() internally.

See http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3114/