Introduction to Generators

Generators are a special type of iterator in Python that allow you to iterate over data lazily. Instead of returning all the data at once, they yield one item at a time, making them memory-efficient.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create and use generators in Python.

What Is a Generator?

A generator is a function that uses the yield keyword to return values one at a time. Each call to the generator’s next() method resumes execution from where it last yielded.

# Basic generator example
def my_generator():
    yield 1
    yield 2
    yield 3

# Using the generator
gen = my_generator()
print(next(gen))  # Outputs: 1
print(next(gen))  # Outputs: 2
print(next(gen))  # Outputs: 3