Question

Consider the following Python code:

def f(*args):
    for a in args:
        pass

foo = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']

# Python generator expressions FTW
gen = (f for f in foo)

f(*gen)

Does *args automatically expand the generator at call-time? Put another way, am I iterating over gen twice within f(*gen), once to expand *args and once to iterate over args? Or is the generator preserved in pristine condition, while iteration only happens once during the for loop?

Answer 1

The generator is expanded at the time of the function call, as you can easily check:

def f(*args):
    print(args)
foo = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
gen = (f for f in foo)
f(*gen)

will print

('foo', 'bar', 'baz')