Python Yield Example
In Python, there is a bit of functionality that makes it convenient at times to process data while it is being processed inside another method. For example, let’s say you are searching for files within a directory that match a certain pattern, but you don’t want to wait the full time for the files to be found before you started processing them. You can use what’s called a generator which basically sends out the results as they are found within that method.
Or let’s say you were retrieving results from a database or data file and wanted to process them one at a time rather than storing them all in a list (which can be very memory intensive). Generators can come in very handy for this. In Python, a generator is created using the yield keyword.
Here’s the basic structure of how you use it:
def yieldExample(): for x in getResult(): yield x
Then to invoke this method, you would do it this way:
for y in yieldExample(): print y
This post shows an example of how you would use yield and explains more detail.