21. More Language Features

21.1. Overview

With this last lecture, our advice is to skip it on first pass, unless you have a burning desire to read it.

It’s here

1. as a reference, so we can link back to it when required, and

2. for those who have worked through a number of applications, and now want to learn more about the Python language

A variety of topics are treated in the lecture, including iterators, decorators and descriptors, and generators.

21.2. Iterables and Iterators

We’ve already said something about iterating in Python.

Now let’s look more closely at how it all works, focusing in Python’s implementation of the for loop.

21.2.1. Iterators

Iterators are a uniform interface to stepping through elements in a collection.

Here we’ll talk about using iterators—later we’ll learn how to build our own.

Formally, an iterator is an object with a __next__ method.

For example, file objects are iterators .

To see this, let’s have another look at the US cities data, which is written to the present working directory in the following cell

%%file us_cities.txt
new york: 8244910
los angeles: 3819702
chicago: 2707120
houston: 2145146
philadelphia: 1536471
phoenix: 1469471
san antonio: 1359758
san diego: 1326179
dallas: 1223229

Writing us_cities.txt

f = open('us_cities.txt')
f.__next__()

'new york: 8244910\n'

f.__next__()

'los angeles: 3819702\n'

We see that file objects do indeed have a __next__ method, and that calling this method returns the next line in the file.

The next method can also be accessed via the builtin function next(), which directly calls this method

next(f)

'chicago: 2707120\n'

The objects returned by enumerate() are also iterators

e = enumerate(['foo', 'bar'])
next(e)

(0, 'foo')

next(e)

(1, 'bar')

as are the reader objects from the csv module .

Let’s create a small csv file that contains data from the NIKKEI index

%%file test_table.csv
Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume,Adj Close
2009-05-21,9280.35,9286.35,9189.92,9264.15,133200,9264.15
2009-05-20,9372.72,9399.40,9311.61,9344.64,143200,9344.64
2009-05-19,9172.56,9326.75,9166.97,9290.29,167000,9290.29
2009-05-18,9167.05,9167.82,8997.74,9038.69,147800,9038.69
2009-05-15,9150.21,9272.08,9140.90,9265.02,172000,9265.02
2009-05-14,9212.30,9223.77,9052.41,9093.73,169400,9093.73
2009-05-13,9305.79,9379.47,9278.89,9340.49,176000,9340.49
2009-05-12,9358.25,9389.61,9298.61,9298.61,188400,9298.61
2009-05-11,9460.72,9503.91,9342.75,9451.98,230800,9451.98
2009-05-08,9351.40,9464.43,9349.57,9432.83,220200,9432.83

Writing test_table.csv

from csv import reader

f = open('test_table.csv', 'r')
nikkei_data = reader(f)
next(nikkei_data)

['Date', 'Open', 'High', 'Low', 'Close', 'Volume', 'Adj Close']

next(nikkei_data)

['2009-05-21', '9280.35', '9286.35', '9189.92', '9264.15', '133200', '9264.15']

21.2.2. Iterators in For Loops

All iterators can be placed to the right of the in keyword in for loop statements.

In fact this is how the for loop works: If we write

for x in iterator:
    <code block>

then the interpreter

• calls iterator.___next___() and binds x to the result

• executes the code block

• repeats until a StopIteration error occurs

So now you know how this magical looking syntax works

f = open('somefile.txt', 'r')
for line in f:
    # do something

The interpreter just keeps

1. calling f.__next__() and binding line to the result

2. executing the body of the loop

This continues until a StopIteration error occurs.

21.2.3. Iterables

You already know that we can put a Python list to the right of in in a for loop

for i in ['spam', 'eggs']:
    print(i)

spam
eggs

So does that mean that a list is an iterator?

The answer is no

x = ['foo', 'bar']
type(x)

list

next(x)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[12], line 1
----> 1 next(x)

TypeError: 'list' object is not an iterator

So why can we iterate over a list in a for loop?

The reason is that a list is iterable (as opposed to an iterator).

Formally, an object is iterable if it can be converted to an iterator using the built-in function iter().

Lists are one such object

x = ['foo', 'bar']
type(x)

list

y = iter(x)
type(y)

list_iterator

next(y)

'foo'

next(y)

'bar'

next(y)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
StopIteration                             Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[17], line 1
----> 1 next(y)

StopIteration: 

Many other objects are iterable, such as dictionaries and tuples.

Of course, not all objects are iterable

iter(42)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[18], line 1
----> 1 iter(42)

TypeError: 'int' object is not iterable

To conclude our discussion of for loops

• for loops work on either iterators or iterables.

• In the second case, the iterable is converted into an iterator before the loop starts.

21.2.4. Iterators and built-ins

Some built-in functions that act on sequences also work with iterables

• max(), min(), sum(), all(), any()

For example

x = [10, -10]
max(x)

10

y = iter(x)
type(y)

list_iterator

max(y)

10

One thing to remember about iterators is that they are depleted by use

x = [10, -10]
y = iter(x)
max(y)

10

max(y)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[23], line 1
----> 1 max(y)

ValueError: max() iterable argument is empty

21.3. * and ** Operators

* and ** are convenient and widely used tools to unpack lists and tuples and to allow users to define functions that take arbitrarily many arguments as input.

In this section, we will explore how to use them and distinguish their use cases.

21.3.1. Unpacking Arguments

When we operate on a list of parameters, we often need to extract the content of the list as individual arguments instead of a collection when passing them into functions.

Luckily, the * operator can help us to unpack lists and tuples into positional arguments in function calls.

To make things concrete, consider the following examples:

Without *, the print function prints a list

l1 = ['a', 'b', 'c']

print(l1)

['a', 'b', 'c']

While the print function prints individual elements since * unpacks the list into individual arguments

print(*l1)

a b c

Unpacking the list using * into positional arguments is equivalent to defining them individually when calling the function

print('a', 'b', 'c')

a b c

However, * operator is more convenient if we want to reuse them again

l1.append('d')

print(*l1)

a b c d

Similarly, ** is used to unpack arguments.

The difference is that ** unpacks dictionaries into keyword arguments.

** is often used when there are many keyword arguments we want to reuse.

For example, assuming we want to draw multiple graphs using the same graphical settings, it may involve repetitively setting many graphical parameters, usually defined using keyword arguments.

In this case, we can use a dictionary to store these parameters and use ** to unpack dictionaries into keyword arguments when they are needed.

Let’s walk through a simple example together and distinguish the use of * and **

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Set up the frame and subplots
fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 1)
plt.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.7)

# Create a function that generates synthetic data
def generate_data(β_0, β_1, σ=30, n=100):
    x_values = np.arange(0, n, 1)
    y_values = β_0 + β_1 * x_values + np.random.normal(size=n, scale=σ)
    return x_values, y_values

# Store the keyword arguments for lines and legends in a dictionary
line_kargs = {'lw': 1.5, 'alpha': 0.7}
legend_kargs = {'bbox_to_anchor': (0., 1.02, 1., .102), 
                'loc': 3, 
                'ncol': 4,
                'mode': 'expand', 
                'prop': {'size': 7}}

β_0s = [10, 20, 30]
β_1s = [1, 2, 3]

# Use a for loop to plot lines
def generate_plots(β_0s, β_1s, idx, line_kargs, legend_kargs):
    label_list = []
    for βs in zip(β_0s, β_1s):
    
        # Use * to unpack tuple βs and the tuple output from the generate_data function
        # Use ** to unpack the dictionary of keyword arguments for lines
        ax[idx].plot(*generate_data(*βs), **line_kargs)

        label_list.append(f'$β_0 = {βs[0]}$ | $β_1 = {βs[1]}$')

    # Use ** to unpack the dictionary of keyword arguments for legends
    ax[idx].legend(label_list, **legend_kargs)

generate_plots(β_0s, β_1s, 0, line_kargs, legend_kargs)

# We can easily reuse and update our parameters
β_1s.append(-2)
β_0s.append(40)
line_kargs['lw'] = 2
line_kargs['alpha'] = 0.4

generate_plots(β_0s, β_1s, 1, line_kargs, legend_kargs)
plt.show()

In this example, * unpacked the zipped parameters βs and the output of generate_data function stored in tuples, while ** unpacked graphical parameters stored in legend_kargs and line_kargs.

To summarize, when *list/*tuple and **dictionary are passed into function calls, they are unpacked into individual arguments instead of a collection.

The difference is that * will unpack lists and tuples into positional arguments, while ** will unpack dictionaries into keyword arguments.

21.3.2. Arbitrary Arguments

When we define functions, it is sometimes desirable to allow users to put as many arguments as they want into a function.

You might have noticed that the ax.plot() function could handle arbitrarily many arguments.

If we look at the documentation of the function, we can see the function is defined as

Axes.plot(*args, scalex=True, scaley=True, data=None, **kwargs)

We found * and ** operators again in the context of the function definition.

In fact, *args and **kargs are ubiquitous in the scientific libraries in Python to reduce redundancy and allow flexible inputs.

*args enables the function to handle positional arguments with a variable size

l1 = ['a', 'b', 'c']
l2 = ['b', 'c', 'd']

def arb(*ls):
    print(ls)

arb(l1, l2)

(['a', 'b', 'c'], ['b', 'c', 'd'])

The inputs are passed into the function and stored in a tuple.

Let’s try more inputs

l3 = ['z', 'x', 'b']
arb(l1, l2, l3)

(['a', 'b', 'c'], ['b', 'c', 'd'], ['z', 'x', 'b'])

Similarly, Python allows us to use **kargs to pass arbitrarily many keyword arguments into functions

def arb(**ls):
    print(ls)

# Note that these are keyword arguments
arb(l1=l1, l2=l2)

{'l1': ['a', 'b', 'c'], 'l2': ['b', 'c', 'd']}

We can see Python uses a dictionary to store these keyword arguments.

Let’s try more inputs

arb(l1=l1, l2=l2, l3=l3)

{'l1': ['a', 'b', 'c'], 'l2': ['b', 'c', 'd'], 'l3': ['z', 'x', 'b']}

Overall, *args and **kargs are used when defining a function; they enable the function to take input with an arbitrary size.

The difference is that functions with *args will be able to take positional arguments with an arbitrary size, while **kargs will allow functions to take arbitrarily many keyword arguments.

21.4. Decorators and Descriptors

Let’s look at some special syntax elements that are routinely used by Python developers.

You might not need the following concepts immediately, but you will see them in other people’s code.

Hence you need to understand them at some stage of your Python education.

21.4.1. Decorators

Decorators are a bit of syntactic sugar that, while easily avoided, have turned out to be popular.

It’s very easy to say what decorators do.

On the other hand it takes a bit of effort to explain why you might use them.

21.4.1.1. An Example

Suppose we are working on a program that looks something like this

import numpy as np

def f(x):
    return np.log(np.log(x))

def g(x):
    return np.sqrt(42 * x)

# Program continues with various calculations using f and g

Now suppose there’s a problem: occasionally negative numbers get fed to f and g in the calculations that follow.

If you try it, you’ll see that when these functions are called with negative numbers they return a NumPy object called nan .

This stands for “not a number” (and indicates that you are trying to evaluate a mathematical function at a point where it is not defined).

Perhaps this isn’t what we want, because it causes other problems that are hard to pick up later on.

Suppose that instead we want the program to terminate whenever this happens, with a sensible error message.

This change is easy enough to implement

import numpy as np

def f(x):
    assert x >= 0, "Argument must be nonnegative"
    return np.log(np.log(x))

def g(x):
    assert x >= 0, "Argument must be nonnegative"
    return np.sqrt(42 * x)

# Program continues with various calculations using f and g

Notice however that there is some repetition here, in the form of two identical lines of code.

Repetition makes our code longer and harder to maintain, and hence is something we try hard to avoid.

Here it’s not a big deal, but imagine now that instead of just f and g, we have 20 such functions that we need to modify in exactly the same way.

This means we need to repeat the test logic (i.e., the assert line testing nonnegativity) 20 times.

The situation is still worse if the test logic is longer and more complicated.

In this kind of scenario the following approach would be neater

import numpy as np

def check_nonneg(func):
    def safe_function(x):
        assert x >= 0, "Argument must be nonnegative"
        return func(x)
    return safe_function

def f(x):
    return np.log(np.log(x))

def g(x):
    return np.sqrt(42 * x)

f = check_nonneg(f)
g = check_nonneg(g)
# Program continues with various calculations using f and g

This looks complicated so let’s work through it slowly.

To unravel the logic, consider what happens when we say f = check_nonneg(f).

This calls the function check_nonneg with parameter func set equal to f.

Now check_nonneg creates a new function called safe_function that verifies x as nonnegative and then calls func on it (which is the same as f).

Finally, the global name f is then set equal to safe_function.

Now the behavior of f is as we desire, and the same is true of g.

At the same time, the test logic is written only once.

21.4.1.2. Enter Decorators

The last version of our code is still not ideal.

For example, if someone is reading our code and wants to know how f works, they will be looking for the function definition, which is

def f(x):
    return np.log(np.log(x))

They may well miss the line f = check_nonneg(f).

For this and other reasons, decorators were introduced to Python.

With decorators, we can replace the lines

def f(x):
    return np.log(np.log(x))

def g(x):
    return np.sqrt(42 * x)

f = check_nonneg(f)
g = check_nonneg(g)

with

@check_nonneg
def f(x):
    return np.log(np.log(x))

@check_nonneg
def g(x):
    return np.sqrt(42 * x)

These two pieces of code do exactly the same thing.

If they do the same thing, do we really need decorator syntax?

Well, notice that the decorators sit right on top of the function definitions.

Hence anyone looking at the definition of the function will see them and be aware that the function is modified.

In the opinion of many people, this makes the decorator syntax a significant improvement to the language.

21.4.2. Descriptors

Descriptors solve a common problem regarding management of variables.

To understand the issue, consider a Car class, that simulates a car.

Suppose that this class defines the variables miles and kms, which give the distance traveled in miles and kilometers respectively.

A highly simplified version of the class might look as follows

class Car:

    def __init__(self, miles=1000):
        self.miles = miles
        self.kms = miles * 1.61

    # Some other functionality, details omitted

One potential problem we might have here is that a user alters one of these variables but not the other

car = Car()
car.miles

1000

car.kms

1610.0

car.miles = 6000
car.kms

1610.0

In the last two lines we see that miles and kms are out of sync.

What we really want is some mechanism whereby each time a user sets one of these variables, the other is automatically updated.

21.4.2.1. A Solution

In Python, this issue is solved using descriptors.

A descriptor is just a Python object that implements certain methods.

These methods are triggered when the object is accessed through dotted attribute notation.

The best way to understand this is to see it in action.

Consider this alternative version of the Car class

class Car:

    def __init__(self, miles=1000):
        self._miles = miles
        self._kms = miles * 1.61

    def set_miles(self, value):
        self._miles = value
        self._kms = value * 1.61

    def set_kms(self, value):
        self._kms = value
        self._miles = value / 1.61

    def get_miles(self):
        return self._miles

    def get_kms(self):
        return self._kms

    miles = property(get_miles, set_miles)
    kms = property(get_kms, set_kms)

First let’s check that we get the desired behavior

car = Car()
car.miles

1000

car.miles = 6000
car.kms

9660.0

Yep, that’s what we want — car.kms is automatically updated.

21.4.2.2. How it Works

The names _miles and _kms are arbitrary names we are using to store the values of the variables.

The objects miles and kms are properties, a common kind of descriptor.

The methods get_miles, set_miles, get_kms and set_kms define what happens when you get (i.e. access) or set (bind) these variables

• So-called “getter” and “setter” methods.

The builtin Python function property takes getter and setter methods and creates a property.

For example, after car is created as an instance of Car, the object car.miles is a property.

Being a property, when we set its value via car.miles = 6000 its setter method is triggered — in this case set_miles.

21.4.2.3. Decorators and Properties

These days its very common to see the property function used via a decorator.

Here’s another version of our Car class that works as before but now uses decorators to set up the properties

class Car:

    def __init__(self, miles=1000):
        self._miles = miles
        self._kms = miles * 1.61

    @property
    def miles(self):
        return self._miles

    @property
    def kms(self):
        return self._kms

    @miles.setter
    def miles(self, value):
        self._miles = value
        self._kms = value * 1.61

    @kms.setter
    def kms(self, value):
        self._kms = value
        self._miles = value / 1.61

We won’t go through all the details here.

For further information you can refer to the descriptor documentation.

21.5. Generators

A generator is a kind of iterator (i.e., it works with a next function).

We will study two ways to build generators: generator expressions and generator functions.

21.5.1. Generator Expressions

The easiest way to build generators is using generator expressions.

Just like a list comprehension, but with round brackets.

Here is the list comprehension:

singular = ('dog', 'cat', 'bird')
type(singular)

tuple

plural = [string + 's' for string in singular]
plural

['dogs', 'cats', 'birds']

type(plural)

list

And here is the generator expression

singular = ('dog', 'cat', 'bird')
plural = (string + 's' for string in singular)
type(plural)

generator

next(plural)

'dogs'

next(plural)

'cats'

next(plural)

'birds'

Since sum() can be called on iterators, we can do this

sum((x * x for x in range(10)))

285

The function sum() calls next() to get the items, adds successive terms.

In fact, we can omit the outer brackets in this case

sum(x * x for x in range(10))

285

21.5.2. Generator Functions

The most flexible way to create generator objects is to use generator functions.

Let’s look at some examples.

21.5.2.1. Example 1

Here’s a very simple example of a generator function

def f():
    yield 'start'
    yield 'middle'
    yield 'end'

It looks like a function, but uses a keyword yield that we haven’t met before.

Let’s see how it works after running this code

type(f)

function

gen = f()
gen

<generator object f at 0x7f820d59acf0>

next(gen)

'start'

next(gen)

'middle'

next(gen)

'end'

next(gen)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
StopIteration                             Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[62], line 1
----> 1 next(gen)

StopIteration: 

The generator function f() is used to create generator objects (in this case gen).

Generators are iterators, because they support a next method.

The first call to next(gen)

• Executes code in the body of f() until it meets a yield statement.

• Returns that value to the caller of next(gen).

The second call to next(gen) starts executing from the next line

def f():
    yield 'start'
    yield 'middle'  # This line!
    yield 'end'

and continues until the next yield statement.

At that point it returns the value following yield to the caller of next(gen), and so on.

When the code block ends, the generator throws a StopIteration error.

21.5.2.2. Example 2

Our next example receives an argument x from the caller

def g(x):
    while x < 100:
        yield x
        x = x * x

Let’s see how it works

g

<function __main__.g(x)>

gen = g(2)
type(gen)

generator

next(gen)

2

next(gen)

4

next(gen)

16

next(gen)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
StopIteration                             Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[70], line 1
----> 1 next(gen)

StopIteration: 

The call gen = g(2) binds gen to a generator.

Inside the generator, the name x is bound to 2.

When we call next(gen)

• The body of g() executes until the line yield x, and the value of x is returned.

Note that value of x is retained inside the generator.

When we call next(gen) again, execution continues from where it left off

def g(x):
    while x < 100:
        yield x
        x = x * x  # execution continues from here

When x < 100 fails, the generator throws a StopIteration error.

Incidentally, the loop inside the generator can be infinite

def g(x):
    while 1:
        yield x
        x = x * x

21.5.3. Advantages of Iterators

What’s the advantage of using an iterator here?

Suppose we want to sample a binomial(n,0.5).

One way to do it is as follows

import random
n = 10000000
draws = [random.uniform(0, 1) < 0.5 for i in range(n)]
sum(draws)

4999971

But we are creating two huge lists here, range(n) and draws.

This uses lots of memory and is very slow.

If we make n even bigger then this happens

n = 100000000
draws = [random.uniform(0, 1) < 0.5 for i in range(n)]

We can avoid these problems using iterators.

Here is the generator function

def f(n):
    i = 1
    while i <= n:
        yield random.uniform(0, 1) < 0.5
        i += 1

Now let’s do the sum

n = 10000000
draws = f(n)
draws

<generator object f at 0x7f820cbab850>

sum(draws)

4998483

In summary, iterables

• avoid the need to create big lists/tuples, and

• provide a uniform interface to iteration that can be used transparently in for loops

21.6. Exercises

Exercise 21.1

Complete the following code, and test it using this csv file, which we assume that you’ve put in your current working directory

def column_iterator(target_file, column_number):
    """A generator function for CSV files.
    When called with a file name target_file (string) and column number
    column_number (integer), the generator function returns a generator
    that steps through the elements of column column_number in file
    target_file.
    """
    # put your code here

dates = column_iterator('test_table.csv', 1)

for date in dates:
    print(date)

Solution to Exercise 21.1

One solution is as follows

def column_iterator(target_file, column_number):
    """A generator function for CSV files.
    When called with a file name target_file (string) and column number
    column_number (integer), the generator function returns a generator
    which steps through the elements of column column_number in file
    target_file.
    """
    f = open(target_file, 'r')
    for line in f:
        yield line.split(',')[column_number - 1]
    f.close()

dates = column_iterator('test_table.csv', 1)

i = 1
for date in dates:
    print(date)
    if i == 10:
        break
    i += 1

Date
2009-05-21
2009-05-20
2009-05-19
2009-05-18
2009-05-15
2009-05-14
2009-05-13
2009-05-12
2009-05-11