Question

How do you name a function that returns a generator (that is, uses yield foo instead of return foo)?

• It’s definitely not getFoo() because it does not return a value of Foo.
• It’s probably not foos() because I’d rather have an easy-to-distinguish prefix.
• It’s probably not exactly listFoo() because it does not return a list.
• It’s probably not iterateFoo() because this prefix is too long.

What’s your preferred solution?

Update:

While foos() may be a perfectly good solution in some cases, note how method names tend to begin with a verb. The verb conveys the idea that this is a method, not a data field, and thus helps readability. If possible, I’d prefer a solution that makes it easy to tell a method from a data field.

Answer 1

Some terse suggestions:

getFoos()
generateFoos()
yieldFoos()
allFoos()

Since you don’t normally need a generator to just get all your foos, it’s pretty common for the specific function of the generator to suggest a more interesting name:

getActiveFoos()
getGreenFoos()
getFoosMatchingCriteria(someCriteria)
getFoosOverTheNetworkIfTheDatabaseIsntBeingAJerkface()