Question

I would like to know how to write python function which can flatten generator which yields another generators or iteables (which can also yield another generators/iterables … possibly infinitely).

Here is example:

gen(gen(1,2,3), gen(4,5,6), [7,8,9], [gen(10,11,12), gen(13,14,15)])

note: gen – means generator object, content between parentheses after gen is data that will generator gen yield.

The expected result after “flattening”:
gen(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15)

It is necessary for the flatten function to return generator too! (because otherwise, the preceeding usage of generators would be meaningless).

Just to note, I am using python 3.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The easiest way is a recursive flattening function. Assuming you want to descend into every iterable except for strings, you could do this:

def flatten(it):
    for x in it:
        if (isinstance(x, collections.Iterable) and
            not isinstance(x, str)):
            for y in flatten(x):
                yield y
        else:
            yield x

Starting from Python 3.3, you can also write

def flatten(it):
    for x in it:
        if (isinstance(x, collections.Iterable) and
            not isinstance(x, str)):
            yield from flatten(x)
        else:
            yield x