python - What's the difference between __iter__ and __getitem__?

Question

This happens in Python 2.7.6 and 3.3.3 for me. When I define a class like this

class foo:
    def __getitem__(self, *args):
        print(*args)

And then try to iterate (and what I thought would call iter) on an instance,

bar = foo()
for i in bar:
    print(i)

it just counts up by one for the args and prints None forever. Is this intentional as far as the language design is concerned?

Sample output

0
None
1
None
2
None
3
None
4
None
5
None
6
None
7
None
8
None
9
None
10
None

Answer 1

Yes, this is an intended design. It is documented, well-tested, and relied upon by sequence types such as str.

The __getitem__ version is a legacy before Python had modern iterators. The idea was that any sequence (something that is indexable and has a length) would be automatically iterable using the series s[0], s[1], s[2], ... until IndexError or StopIteration is raised.

In Python 2.7 for example, strings are iterable because of the __getitem__ method (the str type does not have an __iter__ method).

In contrast, the iterator protocol lets any class be iterable without necessarily being indexable (dicts and sets for example).

Here is how to make an iterable class using the legacy style for sequences:

>>> class A:
        def __getitem__(self, index):
            if index >= 10:
                raise IndexError
            return index * 111

>>> list(A())
[0, 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, 999]

Here is how to make an iterable using the __iter__ approach:

>>> class B:
        def __iter__(self):
            yield 10
            yield 20
            yield 30


>>> list(B())
[10, 20, 30]

For those who are interested in the details, the relevant code is in Objects/iterobject.c:

static PyObject *
iter_iternext(PyObject *iterator)
{
    seqiterobject *it;
    PyObject *seq;
    PyObject *result;

    assert(PySeqIter_Check(iterator));
    it = (seqiterobject *)iterator;
    seq = it->it_seq;
    if (seq == NULL)
        return NULL;

    result = PySequence_GetItem(seq, it->it_index);
    if (result != NULL) {
        it->it_index++;
        return result;
    }
    if (PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_IndexError) ||
        PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_StopIteration))
    {
        PyErr_Clear();
        Py_DECREF(seq);
        it->it_seq = NULL;
    }
    return NULL;
}

and in Objects/abstract.c:

int
PySequence_Check(PyObject *s)
{
    if (s == NULL)
        return 0;
    if (PyInstance_Check(s))
        return PyObject_HasAttrString(s, "__getitem__");
    if (PyDict_Check(s))
        return 0;
    return  s->ob_type->tp_as_sequence &&
        s->ob_type->tp_as_sequence->sq_item != NULL;
}