itertools.cycle

Describing itertools.cycle(itr)

• The cycle function is used to cycle through each element in an iterable
• The iterable comes from the parameter itr
• It returns an iterator of individual elements
• The cycle function is considered an infinite iterator
• This is because the iterator keeps cycling through the elements of an iterable in infinite number of times

Illustrating the cycle Function

>>> from itertools import cycle
>>> letters = 'abc'
>>> l = cycle(letters)
>>> for i in range(5):
...     print(next(l))
'a'
'b'
'c'
'a'
'b'

>>> fruits = ['apple', 'banana', 'orange']
>>> f = cycle(fruits)
>>> for i in range(5):
...     print(next(f))
'apple'
'banana'
'orange'
'apple'
'banana'

References

• Documentation of the Cycle Function from Itertools