Question

I have a method within which I need to pass an ever-increasing integer to another function.

I can do this like so:

def foo(i):
    print i

def bar():

    class Incrementer(object):
        def __init__(self, start=0):
            self.i = start

        def __get__(self):
            j = self.i
            self.i += 1
            return j

    number = Incrementer()
    foo(number)
    foo(number)
    foo(number)

which correctly outputs 0 1 2 ... but I feel like I’m overlooking a much easier (or built-in) way of doing this?

Answer 1

Try itertools.count() — it does exactly what you need:

>>> c = itertools.count()
>>> next(c)
0
>>> next(c)
1
>>> next(c)
2