What is the use of the yield keyword in Python? What does it do?

For example, I'm trying to understand this code¹:

def _get_child_candidates(self, distance, min_dist, max_dist):
    if self._leftchild and distance - max_dist < self._median:
        yield self._leftchild
    if self._rightchild and distance + max_dist >= self._median:
        yield self._rightchild  

And this is the caller:

result, candidates = [], [self]
while candidates:
    node = candidates.pop()
    distance = node._get_dist(obj)
    if distance <= max_dist and distance >= min_dist:
        result.extend(node._values)
    candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist))
return result

What happens when the method _get_child_candidates is called? Is a list returned? A single element? Is it called again? When will subsequent calls stop?

_{1. The code comes from Jochen Schulz (jrschulz), who made a great Python library for metric spaces. This is the link to the complete source: Module mspace.}

To understand what yield does, you must understand what generators are. And before generators come iterables.

Iterables

When you create a list, you can read its items one by one. Reading its items one by one is called iteration:

>>> mylist = [1, 2, 3]
>>> for i in mylist:
...    print(i)
1
2
3

mylist is an iterable. When you use a list comprehension, you create a list, and so an iterable:

>>> mylist = [x*x for x in range(3)]
>>> for i in mylist:
...    print(i)
0
1
4

Everything you can use "for... in..." on is an iterable; lists, strings, files...

These iterables are handy because you can read them as much as you wish, but you store all the values in memory and this is not always what you want when you have a lot of values.

Generators

Generators are iterators, a kind of iterable you can only iterate over once. Generators do not store all the values in memory, they generate the values on the fly:

>>> mygenerator = (x*x for x in range(3))
>>> for i in mygenerator:
...    print(i)
0
1
4

It is just the same except you used () instead of []. BUT, you cannot perform for i in mygenerator a second time since generators can only be used once: they calculate 0, then forget about it and calculate 1, and end calculating 4, one by one.

Yield

yield is a keyword that is used like return, except the function will return a generator.

>>> def createGenerator():
...    mylist = range(3)
...    for i in mylist:
...        yield i*i
...
>>> mygenerator = createGenerator() # create a generator
>>> print(mygenerator) # mygenerator is an object!
<generator object createGenerator at 0xb7555c34>
>>> for i in mygenerator:
...     print(i)
0
1
4

Here it's a useless example, but it's handy when you know your function will return a huge set of values that you will only need to read once.

To master yield, you must understand that when you call the function, the code you have written in the function body does not run. The function only returns the generator object, this is a bit tricky :-)

Then, your code will be run each time the for uses the generator.

Now the hard part:

The first time the for calls the generator object created from your function, it will run the code in your function from the beginning until it hits yield, then it'll return the first value of the loop. Then, each other call will run the loop you have written in the function one more time, and return the next value, until there is no value to return.

The generator is considered empty once the function runs, but does not hit yield anymore. It can be because the loop had come to an end, or because you do not satisfy an "if/else" anymore.

Your code explained

Generator:

# Here you create the method of the node object that will return the generator
def _get_child_candidates(self, distance, min_dist, max_dist):

    # Here is the code that will be called each time you use the generator object:

    # If there is still a child of the node object on its left
    # AND if distance is ok, return the next child
    if self._leftchild and distance - max_dist < self._median:
        yield self._leftchild

    # If there is still a child of the node object on its right
    # AND if distance is ok, return the next child
    if self._rightchild and distance + max_dist >= self._median:
        yield self._rightchild

    # If the function arrives here, the generator will be considered empty
    # there is no more than two values: the left and the right children

Caller:

# Create an empty list and a list with the current object reference
result, candidates = list(), [self]

# Loop on candidates (they contain only one element at the beginning)
while candidates:

    # Get the last candidate and remove it from the list
    node = candidates.pop()

    # Get the distance between obj and the candidate
    distance = node._get_dist(obj)

    # If distance is ok, then you can fill the result
    if distance <= max_dist and distance >= min_dist:
        result.extend(node._values)

    # Add the children of the candidate in the candidates list
    # so the loop will keep running until it will have looked
    # at all the children of the children of the children, etc. of the candidate
    candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist))

return result

This code contains several smart parts:

• The loop iterates on a list, but the list expands while the loop is being iterated :-) It's a concise way to go through all these nested data even if it's a bit dangerous since you can end up with an infinite loop. In this case, candidates.extend(node._get_child_candidates(distance, min_dist, max_dist)) exhausts all the values of the generator, but while keeps creating new generator objects which will produce different values from the previous ones since it's not applied on the same node.

• The extend() method is a list object method that expects an iterable and adds its values to the list.

Usually we pass a list to it:

>>> a = [1, 2]
>>> b = [3, 4]
>>> a.extend(b)
>>> print(a)
[1, 2, 3, 4]

But in your code it gets a generator, which is good because:

1. You don't need to read the values twice.
2. You may have a lot of children and you don't want them all stored in memory.

And it works because Python does not care if the argument of a method is a list or not. Python expects iterables so it will work with strings, lists, tuples and generators! This is called duck typing and is one of the reason why Python is so cool. But this is another story, for another question...

You can stop here, or read a little bit to see an advanced use of a generator:

Controlling a generator exhaustion

>>> class Bank(): # Let's create a bank, building ATMs
...    crisis = False
...    def create_atm(self):
...        while not self.crisis:
...            yield "$100"
>>> hsbc = Bank() # When everything's ok the ATM gives you as much as you want
>>> corner_street_atm = hsbc.create_atm()
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
$100
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
$100
>>> print([corner_street_atm.next() for cash in range(5)])
['$100', '$100', '$100', '$100', '$100']
>>> hsbc.crisis = True # Crisis is coming, no more money!
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> wall_street_atm = hsbc.create_atm() # It's even true for new ATMs
>>> print(wall_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> hsbc.crisis = False # The trouble is, even post-crisis the ATM remains empty
>>> print(corner_street_atm.next())
<type 'exceptions.StopIteration'>
>>> brand_new_atm = hsbc.create_atm() # Build a new one to get back in business
>>> for cash in brand_new_atm:
...    print cash
$100
$100
$100
$100
$100
$100
$100
$100
$100
...

Note: For Python 3, useprint(corner_street_atm.__next__()) or print(next(corner_street_atm))

It can be useful for various things like controlling access to a resource.

Itertools, your best friend

The itertools module contains special functions to manipulate iterables. Ever wish to duplicate a generator? Chain two generators? Group values in a nested list with a one-liner? Map / Zip without creating another list?

Then just import itertools.

An example? Let's see the possible orders of arrival for a four-horse race:

>>> horses = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> races = itertools.permutations(horses)
>>> print(races)
<itertools.permutations object at 0xb754f1dc>
>>> print(list(itertools.permutations(horses)))
[(1, 2, 3, 4),
 (1, 2, 4, 3),
 (1, 3, 2, 4),
 (1, 3, 4, 2),
 (1, 4, 2, 3),
 (1, 4, 3, 2),
 (2, 1, 3, 4),
 (2, 1, 4, 3),
 (2, 3, 1, 4),
 (2, 3, 4, 1),
 (2, 4, 1, 3),
 (2, 4, 3, 1),
 (3, 1, 2, 4),
 (3, 1, 4, 2),
 (3, 2, 1, 4),
 (3, 2, 4, 1),
 (3, 4, 1, 2),
 (3, 4, 2, 1),
 (4, 1, 2, 3),
 (4, 1, 3, 2),
 (4, 2, 1, 3),
 (4, 2, 3, 1),
 (4, 3, 1, 2),
 (4, 3, 2, 1)]

Understanding the inner mechanisms of iteration

Iteration is a process implying iterables (implementing the __iter__() method) and iterators (implementing the __next__() method). Iterables are any objects you can get an iterator from. Iterators are objects that let you iterate on iterables.

There is more about it in this article about how for loops work.

yield is just like return - it returns whatever you tell it to (as a generator). The difference is that the next time you call the generator, execution starts from the last call to the yield statement. Unlike return, the stack frame is not cleaned up when a yield occurs, however control is transferred back to the caller, so its state will resume the next time the function.

In the case of your code, the function get_child_candidates is acting like an iterator so that when you extend your list, it adds one element at a time to the new list.

list.extend calls an iterator until it's exhausted. In the case of the code sample you posted, it would be much clearer to just return a tuple and append that to the list.

It's returning a generator. I'm not particularly familiar with Python, but I believe it's the same kind of thing as C#'s iterator blocks if you're familiar with those.

The key idea is that the compiler/interpreter/whatever does some trickery so that as far as the caller is concerned, they can keep calling next() and it will keep returning values - as if the generator method was paused. Now obviously you can't really "pause" a method, so the compiler builds a state machine for you to remember where you currently are and what the local variables etc look like. This is much easier than writing an iterator yourself.

Think of it this way:

An iterator is just a fancy sounding term for an object that has a next() method. So a yield-ed function ends up being something like this:

Original version:

def some_function():
    for i in xrange(4):
        yield i

for i in some_function():
    print i

This is basically what the Python interpreter does with the above code:

class it:
    def __init__(self):
        # Start at -1 so that we get 0 when we add 1 below.
        self.count = -1

    # The __iter__ method will be called once by the 'for' loop.
    # The rest of the magic happens on the object returned by this method.
    # In this case it is the object itself.
    def __iter__(self):
        return self

    # The next method will be called repeatedly by the 'for' loop
    # until it raises StopIteration.
    def next(self):
        self.count += 1
        if self.count < 4:
            return self.count
        else:
            # A StopIteration exception is raised
            # to signal that the iterator is done.
            # This is caught implicitly by the 'for' loop.
            raise StopIteration

def some_func():
    return it()

for i in some_func():
    print i

For more insight as to what's happening behind the scenes, the for loop can be rewritten to this:

iterator = some_func()
try:
    while 1:
        print iterator.next()
except StopIteration:
    pass

Does that make more sense or just confuse you more? :)

I should note that this is an oversimplification for illustrative purposes. :)

Here is an example in plain language. I will provide a correspondence between high-level human concepts to low-level Python concepts.

I want to operate on a sequence of numbers, but I don't want to bother my self with the creation of that sequence, I want only to focus on the operation I want to do. So, I do the following:

• I call you and tell you that I want a sequence of numbers which is produced in a specific way, and I let you know what the algorithm is.
  This step corresponds to defining the generator function, i.e. the function containing a yield.
• Sometime later, I tell you, "OK, get ready to tell me the sequence of numbers".
  This step corresponds to calling the generator function which returns a generator object. Note that you don't tell me any numbers yet; you just grab your paper and pencil.
• I ask you, "tell me the next number", and you tell me the first number; after that, you wait for me to ask you for the next number. It's your job to remember where you were, what numbers you have already said, and what is the next number. I don't care about the details.
  This step corresponds to calling .next() on the generator object.
• … repeat previous step, until…
• eventually, you might come to an end. You don't tell me a number; you just shout, "hold your horses! I'm done! No more numbers!"
  This step corresponds to the generator object ending its job, and raising a StopIteration exception The generator function does not need to raise the exception. It's raised automatically when the function ends or issues a return.

This is what a generator does (a function that contains a yield); it starts executing, pauses whenever it does a yield, and when asked for a .next() value it continues from the point it was last. It fits perfectly by design with the iterator protocol of Python, which describes how to sequentially request values.

The most famous user of the iterator protocol is the for command in Python. So, whenever you do a:

for item in sequence:

it doesn't matter if sequence is a list, a string, a dictionary or a generator object like described above; the result is the same: you read items off a sequence one by one.

Note that defining a function which contains a yield keyword is not the only way to create a generator; it's just the easiest way to create one.

For more accurate information, read about iterator types, the yield statement and generators in the Python documentation.

There's one extra thing to mention: a function that yields doesn't actually have to terminate. I've written code like this:

def fib():
    last, cur = 0, 1
    while True: 
        yield cur
        last, cur = cur, last + cur

Then I can use it in other code like this:

for f in fib():
    if some_condition: break
    coolfuncs(f);

It really helps simplify some problems, and makes some things easier to work with.

Shortcut to Grokking yield

When you see a function with yield statements, apply this easy trick to understand what will happen:

1. Insert a line result = [] at the start of the function.
2. Replace each yield expr with result.append(expr).
3. Insert a line return result at the bottom of the function.
4. Yay - no more yield statements! Read and figure out code.
5. Compare function to original definition.

This trick may give you an idea of the logic behind the function, but what actually happens with yield is significantly different that what happens in the list based approach. In many cases the yield approach will be a lot more memory efficient and faster too. In other cases this trick will get you stuck in an infinite loop, even though the original function works just fine. Read on to learn more...

Don't confuse your Iterables, Iterators and Generators

First, the iterator protocol - when you write

for x in mylist:
    ...loop body...

Python performs the following two steps:

1. Gets an iterator for mylist:

   Call iter(mylist) -> this returns an object with a next() method (or __next__() in Python 3).

   [This is the step most people forget to tell you about]

2. Uses the iterator to loop over items:

   Keep calling the next() method on the iterator returned from step 1. The return value from next() is assigned to x and the loop body is executed. If an exception StopIteration is raised from within next(), it means there are no more values in the iterator and the loop is exited.

The truth is Python performs the above two steps anytime it wants to loop over the contents of an object - so it could be a for loop, but it could also be code like otherlist.extend(mylist) (where otherlist is a Python list).

Here mylist is an iterable because it implements the iterator protocol. In a user defined class, you can implement the __iter__() method to make instances of your class iterable. This method should return an iterator. An iterator is an object with a next() method. It is possible to implement both __iter__() and next() on the same class, and have __iter__() return self. This will work for simple cases, but not when you want two iterators looping over the same object at the same time.

So that's the iterator protocol, many objects implement this protocol:

1. Built-in lists, dictionaries, tuples, sets, files.
2. User defined classes that implement __iter__().
3. Generators.

Note that a for loop doesn't know what kind of object it's dealing with - it just follows the iterator protocol, and is happy to get item after item as it calls next(). Built-in lists return their items one by one, dictionaries return the keys one by one, files return the lines one by one, etc. And generators return... well that's where yield comes in:

def f123():
    yield 1
    yield 2
    yield 3

for item in f123():
    print item

Instead of yield statements, if you had three return statements in f123() only the first would get executed, and the function would exit. But f123() is no ordinary function. When f123() is called, it does not return any of the values in the yield statements! It returns a generator object. Also, the function does not really exit - it goes into a suspended state. When the for loop tries to loop over the generator object, the function resumes from its suspended state at the very next line after the yield it previously returned from, executes the next line of code, in this case a yield statement, and returns that as the next item. This happens until the function exits, at which point the generator raises StopIteration, and the loop exits.

So the generator object is sort of like an adapter - at one end it exhibits the iterator protocol, by exposing __iter__() and next() methods to keep the for loop happy. At the other end however, it runs the function just enough to get the next value out of it, and puts it back in suspended mode.

Why Use Generators?

Usually you can write code that doesn't use generators but implements the same logic. One option is to use the temporary list 'trick' I mentioned before. That will not work in all cases, for e.g. if you have infinite loops, or it may make inefficient use of memory when you have a really long list. The other approach is to implement a new iterable class SomethingIter that keeps state in instance members and performs the next logical step in it's next() (or __next__() in Python 3) method. Depending on the logic, the code inside the next() method may end up looking very complex and be prone to bugs. Here generators provide a clean and easy solution.

The yield keyword is reduced to two simple facts:

1. If the compiler detects the yield keyword anywhere inside a function, that function no longer returns via the return statement. Instead, it immediately returns a lazy "pending list" object called a generator
2. A generator is iterable. What is an iterable? It's anything like a list or set or range or dict-view, with a built-in protocol for visiting each element in a certain order.

In a nutshell: a generator is a lazy, incrementally-pending list, and yield statements allow you to use function notation to program the list values the generator should incrementally spit out.

generator = myYieldingFunction(...)
x = list(generator)

   generator
       v
[x[0], ..., ???]

         generator
             v
[x[0], x[1], ..., ???]

               generator
                   v
[x[0], x[1], x[2], ..., ???]

                       StopIteration exception
[x[0], x[1], x[2]]     done

list==[x[0], x[1], x[2]]

Example

Let's define a function makeRange that's just like Python's range. Calling makeRange(n) RETURNS A GENERATOR:

def makeRange(n):
    # return 0,1,2,...,n-1
    i = 0
    while i < n:
        yield i
        i += 1

>>> makeRange(5)
<generator object makeRange at 0x19e4aa0>

To force the generator to immediately return its pending values, you can pass it into list() (just like you could any iterable):

>>> list(makeRange(5))
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

Comparing example to "just returning a list"

The above example can be thought of as merely creating a list which you append to and return:

# list-version                   #  # generator-version
def makeRange(n):                #  def makeRange(n):
    """return [0,1,2,...,n-1]""" #~     """return 0,1,2,...,n-1"""
    TO_RETURN = []               #>
    i = 0                        #      i = 0
    while i < n:                 #      while i < n:
        TO_RETURN += [i]         #~         yield i
        i += 1                   #          i += 1  ## indented
    return TO_RETURN             #>

>>> makeRange(5)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

There is one major difference, though; see the last section.

How you might use generators

An iterable is the last part of a list comprehension, and all generators are iterable, so they're often used like so:

#                   _ITERABLE_
>>> [x+10 for x in makeRange(5)]
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

To get a better feel for generators, you can play around with the itertools module (be sure to use chain.from_iterable rather than chain when warranted). For example, you might even use generators to implement infinitely-long lazy lists like itertools.count(). You could implement your own def enumerate(iterable): zip(count(), iterable), or alternatively do so with the yield keyword in a while-loop.

Please note: generators can actually be used for many more things, such as implementing coroutines or non-deterministic programming or other elegant things. However, the "lazy lists" viewpoint I present here is the most common use you will find.

Behind the scenes

This is how the "Python iteration protocol" works. That is, what is going on when you do list(makeRange(5)). This is what I describe earlier as a "lazy, incremental list".

>>> x=iter(range(5))
>>> next(x)
0
>>> next(x)
1
>>> next(x)
2
>>> next(x)
3
>>> next(x)
4
>>> next(x)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
StopIteration

The built-in function next() just calls the objects .next() function, which is a part of the "iteration protocol" and is found on all iterators. You can manually use the next() function (and other parts of the iteration protocol) to implement fancy things, usually at the expense of readability, so try to avoid doing that...

Minutiae

Normally, most people would not care about the following distinctions and probably want to stop reading here.

In Python-speak, an iterable is any object which "understands the concept of a for-loop" like a list [1,2,3], and an iterator is a specific instance of the requested for-loop like [1,2,3].__iter__(). A generator is exactly the same as any iterator, except for the way it was written (with function syntax).

When you request an iterator from a list, it creates a new iterator. However, when you request an iterator from an iterator (which you would rarely do), it just gives you a copy of itself.

Thus, in the unlikely event that you are failing to do something like this...

> x = myRange(5)
> list(x)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
> list(x)
[]

... then remember that a generator is an iterator; that is, it is one-time-use. If you want to reuse it, you should call myRange(...) again. If you need to use the result twice, convert the result to a list and store it in a variable x = list(myRange(5)). Those who absolutely need to clone a generator (for example, who are doing terrifyingly hackish metaprogramming) can use itertools.tee if absolutely necessary, since the copyable iterator Python PEP standards proposal has been deferred.

Here are some Python examples of how to actually implement generators as if Python did not provide syntactic sugar for them:

As a Python generator:

from itertools import islice

def fib_gen():
    a, b = 1, 1
    while True:
        yield a
        a, b = b, a + b

assert [1, 1, 2, 3, 5] == list(islice(fib_gen(), 5))

Using lexical closures instead of generators

def ftake(fnext, last):
    return [fnext() for _ in xrange(last)]

def fib_gen2():
    #funky scope due to python2.x workaround
    #for python 3.x use nonlocal
    def _():
        _.a, _.b = _.b, _.a + _.b
        return _.a
    _.a, _.b = 0, 1
    return _

assert [1,1,2,3,5] == ftake(fib_gen2(), 5)

Using object closures instead of generators (because ClosuresAndObjectsAreEquivalent)

class fib_gen3:
    def __init__(self):
        self.a, self.b = 1, 1

    def __call__(self):
        r = self.a
        self.a, self.b = self.b, self.a + self.b
        return r

assert [1,1,2,3,5] == ftake(fib_gen3(), 5)

Yield gives you a generator.

def get_odd_numbers(i):
    return range(1, i, 2)
def yield_odd_numbers(i):
    for x in range(1, i, 2):
       yield x
foo = get_odd_numbers(10)
bar = yield_odd_numbers(10)
foo
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
bar
<generator object yield_odd_numbers at 0x1029c6f50>
bar.next()
1
bar.next()
3
bar.next()
5

As you can see, in the first case foo holds the entire list in memory at once. It's not a big deal for a list with 5 elements, but what if you want a list of 5 million? Not only is this a huge memory eater, it also costs a lot of time to build at the time that the function is called. In the second case, bar just gives you a generator. A generator is an iterable--which means you can use it in a for loop, etc, but each value can only be accessed once. All the values are also not stored in memory at the same time; the generator object "remembers" where it was in the looping the last time you called it--this way, if you're using an iterable to (say) count to 50 billion, you don't have to count to 50 billion all at once and store the 50 billion numbers to count through. Again, this is a pretty contrived example, you probably would use itertools if you really wanted to count to 50 billion. :)

This is the most simple use case of generators. As you said, it can be used to write efficient permutations, using yield to push things up through the call stack instead of using some sort of stack variable. Generators can also be used for specialized tree traversal, and all manner of other things.

For those who prefer a minimal working example, meditate on this interactive Python session:

>>> def f():
...   yield 1
...   yield 2
...   yield 3
... 
>>> g = f()
>>> for i in g:
...   print i
... 
1
2
3
>>> for i in g:
...   print i
... 
>>> # Note that this time nothing was printed

I was going to post "read page 19 of Beazley's 'Python: Essential Reference' for a quick description of generators", but so many others have posted good descriptions already.

Also, note that yield can be used in coroutines as the dual of their use in generator functions. Although it isn't the same use as your code snippet, (yield) can be used as an expression in a function. When a caller sends a value to the method using the send() method, then the coroutine will execute until the next (yield) statement is encountered.

Generators and coroutines are a cool way to set up data-flow type applications. I thought it would be worthwhile knowing about the other use of the yield statement in functions.

Here is a mental image of what yield does.

I like to think of a thread as having a stack (even when it's not implemented that way).

When a normal function is called, it puts its local variables on the stack, does some computation, then clears the stack and returns. The values of its local variables are never seen again.

With a yield function, when its code begins to run (i.e. after the function is called, returning a generator object, whose next() method is then invoked), it similarly puts its local variables onto the stack and computes for a while. But then, when it hits the yield statement, before clearing its part of the stack and returning, it takes a snapshot of its local variables and stores them in the generator object. It also writes down the place where it's currently up to in its code (i.e. the particular yield statement).

So it's a kind of a frozen function that the generator is hanging onto.

When next() is called subsequently, it retrieves the function's belongings onto the stack and re-animates it. The function continues to compute from where it left off, oblivious to the fact that it had just spent an eternity in cold storage.

Compare the following examples:

def normalFunction():
    return
    if False:
        pass

def yielderFunction():
    return
    if False:
        yield 12

When we call the second function, it behaves very differently to the first. The yield statement might be unreachable, but if it's present anywhere, it changes the nature of what we're dealing with.

>>> yielderFunction()
<generator object yielderFunction at 0x07742D28>

Calling yielderFunction() doesn't run its code, but makes a generator out of the code. (Maybe it's a good idea to name such things with the yielder prefix for readability.)

>>> gen = yielderFunction()
>>> dir(gen)
['__class__',
 ...
 '__iter__',    #Returns gen itself, to make it work uniformly with containers
 ...            #when given to a for loop. (Containers return an iterator instead.)
 'close',
 'gi_code',
 'gi_frame',
 'gi_running',
 'next',        #The method that runs the function's body.
 'send',
 'throw']

The gi_code and gi_frame fields are where the frozen state is stored. Exploring them with dir(..), we can confirm that our mental model above is credible.

From a programming viewpoint, the iterators are implemented as thunks.

To implement iterators, generators, and thread pools for concurrent execution, etc. as thunks (also called anonymous functions), one uses messages sent to a closure object, which has a dispatcher, and the dispatcher answers to "messages".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_passing

"next" is a message sent to a closure, created by the "iter" call.

There are lots of ways to implement this computation. I used mutation, but it is easy to do it without mutation, by returning the current value and the next yielder.

Here is a demonstration which uses the structure of R6RS, but the semantics is absolutely identical to Python's. It's the same model of computation, and only a change in syntax is required to rewrite it in Python.

Welcome to Racket v6.5.0.3.

-> (define gen
     (lambda (l)
       (define yield
         (lambda ()
           (if (null? l)
               'END
               (let ((v (car l)))
                 (set! l (cdr l))
                 v))))
       (lambda(m)
         (case m
           ('yield (yield))
           ('init  (lambda (data)
                     (set! l data)
                     'OK))))))
-> (define stream (gen '(1 2 3)))
-> (stream 'yield)
1
-> (stream 'yield)
2
-> (stream 'yield)
3
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
-> ((stream 'init) '(a b))
'OK
-> (stream 'yield)
'a
-> (stream 'yield)
'b
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
-> (stream 'yield)
'END
->

Here is a simple example:

def isPrimeNumber(n):
    print "isPrimeNumber({}) call".format(n)
    if n==1:
        return False
    for x in range(2,n):
        if n % x == 0:
            return False
    return True

def primes (n=1):
    while(True):
        print "loop step ---------------- {}".format(n)
        if isPrimeNumber(n): yield n
        n += 1

for n in primes():
    if n> 10:break
    print "wiriting result {}".format(n)

Output:

loop step ---------------- 1
isPrimeNumber(1) call
loop step ---------------- 2
isPrimeNumber(2) call
loop step ---------------- 3
isPrimeNumber(3) call
wiriting result 3
loop step ---------------- 4
isPrimeNumber(4) call
loop step ---------------- 5
isPrimeNumber(5) call
wiriting result 5
loop step ---------------- 6
isPrimeNumber(6) call
loop step ---------------- 7
isPrimeNumber(7) call
wiriting result 7
loop step ---------------- 8
isPrimeNumber(8) call
loop step ---------------- 9
isPrimeNumber(9) call
loop step ---------------- 10
isPrimeNumber(10) call
loop step ---------------- 11
isPrimeNumber(11) call

I am not a Python developer, but it looks to me yield holds the position of program flow and the next loop start from "yield" position. It seems like it is waiting at that position, and just before that, returning a value outside, and next time continues to work.

It seems to be an interesting and nice ability :D

While a lot of answers show why you'd use a yield to create a generator, there are more uses for yield. It's quite easy to make a coroutine, which enables the passing of information between two blocks of code. I won't repeat any of the fine examples that have already been given about using yield to create a generator.

To help understand what a yield does in the following code, you can use your finger to trace the cycle through any code that has a yield. Every time your finger hits the yield, you have to wait for a next or a send to be entered. When a next is called, you trace through the code until you hit the yield… the code on the right of the yield is evaluated and returned to the caller… then you wait. When next is called again, you perform another loop through the code. However, you'll note that in a coroutine, yield can also be used with a send… which will send a value from the caller into the yielding function. If a send is given, then yield receives the value sent, and spits it out the left hand side… then the trace through the code progresses until you hit the yield again (returning the value at the end, as if next was called).

For example:

>>> def coroutine():
...     i = -1
...     while True:
...         i += 1
...         val = (yield i)
...         print("Received %s" % val)
...
>>> sequence = coroutine()
>>> sequence.next()
0
>>> sequence.next()
Received None
1
>>> sequence.send('hello')
Received hello
2
>>> sequence.close()

There is another yield use and meaning (since Python 3.3):

yield from <expr>

From PEP 380 -- Syntax for Delegating to a Subgenerator:

A syntax is proposed for a generator to delegate part of its operations to another generator. This allows a section of code containing 'yield' to be factored out and placed in another generator. Additionally, the subgenerator is allowed to return with a value, and the value is made available to the delegating generator.

The new syntax also opens up some opportunities for optimisation when one generator re-yields values produced by another.

Moreover this will introduce (since Python 3.5):

async def new_coroutine(data):
   ...
   await blocking_action()

to avoid coroutines being confused with a regular generator (today yield is used in both).

yield is like a return element for a function. The difference is, that the yield element turns a function into a generator. A generator behaves just like a function until something is 'yielded'. The generator stops until it is next called, and continues from exactly the same point as it started. You can get a sequence of all the 'yielded' values in one, by calling list(generator()).

What does the yield keyword do in Python?

Answer Outline/Summary

• A function with yield, when called, returns a Generator.
• Generators are iterators because they implement the iterator protocol, so you can iterate over them.
• A generator can also be sent information, making it conceptually a coroutine.
• In Python 3, you can delegate from one generator to another in both directions with yield from.
• (Appendix critiques a couple of answers, including the top one, and discusses the use of return in a generator.)

Generators:

yield is only legal inside of a function definition, and the inclusion of yield in a function definition makes it return a generator.

The idea for generators comes from other languages (see footnote 1) with varying implementations. In Python's Generators, the execution of the code is frozen at the point of the yield. When the generator is called (methods are discussed below) execution resumes and then freezes at the next yield.

yield provides an easy way of implementing the iterator protocol, defined by the following two methods: __iter__ and next (Python 2) or __next__ (Python 3). Both of those methods make an object an iterator that you could type-check with the Iterator Abstract Base Class from the collections module.

>>> def func():
...     yield 'I am'
...     yield 'a generator!'
... 
>>> type(func)                 # A function with yield is still a function
<type 'function'>
>>> gen = func()
>>> type(gen)                  # but it returns a generator
<type 'generator'>
>>> hasattr(gen, '__iter__')   # that's an iterable
True
>>> hasattr(gen, 'next')       # and with .next (.__next__ in Python 3)
True                           # implements the iterator protocol.

The generator type is a sub-type of iterator:

>>> import collections, types
>>> issubclass(types.GeneratorType, collections.Iterator)
True

And if necessary, we can type-check like this:

>>> isinstance(gen, types.GeneratorType)
True
>>> isinstance(gen, collections.Iterator)
True

A feature of an Iterator is that once exhausted, you can't reuse or reset it:

>>> list(gen)
['I am', 'a generator!']
>>> list(gen)
[]

You'll have to make another if you want to use its functionality again (see footnote 2):

>>> list(func())
['I am', 'a generator!']

One can yield data programmatically, for example:

def func(an_iterable):
    for item in an_iterable:
        yield item

The above simple generator is also equivalent to the below - as of Python 3.3 (and not available in Python 2), you can use yield from:

def func(an_iterable):
    yield from an_iterable

However, yield from also allows for delegation to subgenerators, which will be explained in the following section on cooperative delegation with sub-coroutines.

Coroutines:

yield forms an expression that allows data to be sent into the generator (see footnote 3)

Here is an example, take note of the received variable, which will point to the data that is sent to the generator:

def bank_account(deposited, interest_rate):
    while True:
        calculated_interest = interest_rate * deposited 
        received = yield calculated_interest
        if received:
            deposited += received


>>> my_account = bank_account(1000, .05)

First, we must queue up the generator with the builtin function, next. It will call the appropriate next or __next__ method, depending on the version of Python you are using:

>>> first_year_interest = next(my_account)
>>> first_year_interest
50.0

And now we can send data into the generator. (Sending None is the same as calling next.) :

>>> next_year_interest = my_account.send(first_year_interest + 1000)
>>> next_year_interest
102.5

Cooperative Delegation to Sub-Coroutine with yield from

Now, recall that yield from is available in Python 3. This allows us to delegate coroutines to a subcoroutine:

def money_manager(expected_rate):
    under_management = yield     # must receive deposited value
    while True:
        try:
            additional_investment = yield expected_rate * under_management 
            if additional_investment:
                under_management += additional_investment
        except GeneratorExit:
            '''TODO: write function to send unclaimed funds to state'''
        finally:
            '''TODO: write function to mail tax info to client'''


def investment_account(deposited, manager):
    '''very simple model of an investment account that delegates to a manager'''
    next(manager) # must queue up manager
    manager.send(deposited)
    while True:
        try:
            yield from manager
        except GeneratorExit:
            return manager.close()

And now we can delegate functionality to a sub-generator and it can be used by a generator just as above:

>>> my_manager = money_manager(.06)
>>> my_account = investment_account(1000, my_manager)
>>> first_year_return = next(my_account)
>>> first_year_return
60.0
>>> next_year_return = my_account.send(first_year_return + 1000)
>>> next_year_return
123.6

You can read more about the precise semantics of yield from in PEP 380.

Other Methods: close and throw

The close method raises GeneratorExit at the point the function execution was frozen. This will also be called by __del__ so you can put any cleanup code where you handle the GeneratorExit:

>>> my_account.close()

You can also throw an exception which can be handled in the generator or propagated back to the user:

>>> import sys
>>> try:
...     raise ValueError
... except:
...     my_manager.throw(*sys.exc_info())
... 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
ValueError

Conclusion

I believe I have covered all aspects of the following question:

What does the yield keyword do in Python?

It turns out that yield does a lot. I'm sure I could add even more thorough examples to this. If you want more or have some constructive criticism, let me know by commenting below.

Appendix:

Critique of the Top/Accepted Answer**

• It is confused on what makes an iterable, just using a list as an example. See my references above, but in summary: an iterable has an __iter__ method returning an iterator. An iterator provides a .next (Python 2 or .__next__ (Python 3) method, which is implicitly called by for loops until it raises StopIteration, and once it does, it will continue to do so.
• It then uses a generator expression to describe what a generator is. Since a generator is simply a convenient way to create an iterator, it only confuses the matter, and we still have not yet gotten to the yield part.
• In Controlling a generator exhaustion he calls the .next method, when instead he should use the builtin function, next. It would be an appropriate layer of indirection, because his code does not work in Python 3.
• Itertools? This was not relevant to what yield does at all.
• No discussion of the methods that yield provides along with the new functionality yield from in Python 3. The top/accepted answer is a very incomplete answer.

Critique of answer suggesting yield in a generator expression or comprehension.

The grammar currently allows any expression in a list comprehension.

expr_stmt: testlist_star_expr (annassign | augassign (yield_expr|testlist) |
                     ('=' (yield_expr|testlist_star_expr))*)
...
yield_expr: 'yield' [yield_arg]
yield_arg: 'from' test | testlist

Since yield is an expression, it has been touted by some as interesting to use it in comprehensions or generator expression - in spite of citing no particularly good use-case.

The CPython core developers are discussing deprecating its allowance. Here's a relevant post from the mailing list:

On 30 January 2017 at 19:05, Brett Cannon wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jan 2017 at 16:39 Craig Rodrigues wrote:

I'm OK with either approach. Leaving things the way they are in Python 3 is no good, IMHO.

My vote is it be a SyntaxError since you're not getting what you expect from the syntax.

I'd agree that's a sensible place for us to end up, as any code relying on the current behaviour is really too clever to be maintainable.

In terms of getting there, we'll likely want:

• SyntaxWarning or DeprecationWarning in 3.7
• Py3k warning in 2.7.x
• SyntaxError in 3.8

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

Further, there is an outstanding issue (10544) which seems to be pointing in the direction of this never being a good idea (PyPy, a Python implementation written in Python, is already raising syntax warnings.)

Bottom line, until the developers of CPython tell us otherwise: Don't put yield in a generator expression or comprehension.

The return statement in a generator

In Python 2:

In a generator function, the return statement is not allowed to include an expression_list. In that context, a bare return indicates that the generator is done and will cause StopIteration to be raised.

An expression_list is basically any number of expressions separated by commas - essentially, in Python 2, you can stop the generator with return, but you can't return a value.

In Python 3:

In a generator function, the return statement indicates that the generator is done and will cause StopIteration to be raised. The returned value (if any) is used as an argument to construct StopIteration and becomes the StopIteration.value attribute.

Footnotes

1. _{The languages CLU, Sather, and Icon were referenced in the proposal to introduce the concept of generators to Python. The general idea is that a function can maintain internal state and yield intermediate data points on demand by the user. This promised to be superior in performance to other approaches, including Python threading, which isn't even available on some systems.}

2. _{This means, for example, that xrange objects (range in Python 3) aren't Iterators, even though they are iterable, because they can be reused. Like lists, their __iter__ methods return iterator objects.}

3. _{yield was originally introduced as a statement, meaning that it could only appear at the beginning of a line in a code block. Now yield creates a yield expression. https://docs.python.org/2/reference/simple_stmts.html#grammar-token-yield_stmt This change was proposed to allow a user to send data into the generator just as one might receive it. To send data, one must be able to assign it to something, and for that, a statement just won't work.}

Like every answer suggests, yield is used for creating a sequence generator. It's used for generating some sequence dynamically. For example, while reading a file line by line on a network, you can use the yield function as follows:

def getNextLines():
   while con.isOpen():
       yield con.read()

You can use it in your code as follows:

for line in getNextLines():
    doSomeThing(line)

Execution Control Transfer gotcha

The execution control will be transferred from getNextLines() to the for loop when yield is executed. Thus, every time getNextLines() is invoked, execution begins from the point where it was paused last time.

Thus in short, a function with the following code

def simpleYield():
    yield "first time"
    yield "second time"
    yield "third time"
    yield "Now some useful value {}".format(12)

for i in simpleYield():
    print i

will print

"first time"
"second time"
"third time"
"Now some useful value 12"

Yield is an object

A return in a function will return a single value.

If you want a function to return a huge set of values, use yield.

More importantly, yield is a barrier.

like barrier in the CUDA language, it will not transfer control until it gets completed.

That is, it will run the code in your function from the beginning until it hits yield. Then, it’ll return the first value of the loop.

Then, every other call will run the loop you have written in the function one more time, returning the next value until there isn't any value to return.

The yield keyword simply collects returning results. Think of yield like return +=

Here's a simple yield based approach, to compute the fibonacci series, explained:

def fib(limit=50):
    a, b = 0, 1
    for i in range(limit):
       yield b
       a, b = b, a+b

When you enter this into your REPL and then try and call it, you'll get a mystifying result:

>>> fib()
<generator object fib at 0x7fa38394e3b8>

This is because the presence of yield signaled to Python that you want to create a generator, that is, an object that generates values on demand.

So, how do you generate these values? This can either be done directly by using the built-in function next, or, indirectly by feeding it to a construct that consumes values.

Using the built-in next() function, you directly invoke .next/__next__, forcing the generator to produce a value:

>>> g = fib()
>>> next(g)
1
>>> next(g)
1
>>> next(g)
2
>>> next(g)
3
>>> next(g)
5

Indirectly, if you provide fib to a for loop, a list initializer, a tuple initializer, or anything else that expects an object that generates/produces values, you'll "consume" the generator until no more values can be produced by it (and it returns):

results = []
for i in fib(30):       # consumes fib
    results.append(i) 
# can also be accomplished with
results = list(fib(30)) # consumes fib

Similarly, with a tuple initializer:

>>> tuple(fib(5))       # consumes fib
(1, 1, 2, 3, 5)

A generator differs from a function in the sense that it is lazy. It accomplishes this by maintaining it's local state and allowing you to resume whenever you need to.

When you first invoke fib by calling it:

f = fib()

Python compiles the function, encounters the yield keyword and simply returns a generator object back at you. Not very helpful it seems.

When you then request it generates the first value, directly or indirectly, it executes all statements that it finds, until it encounters a yield, it then yields back the value you supplied to yield and pauses. For an example that better demonstrates this, let's use some print calls (replace with print "text" if on Python 2):

def yielder(value):
    """ This is an infinite generator. Only use next on it """ 
    while 1:
        print("I'm going to generate the value for you")
        print("Then I'll pause for a while")
        yield value
        print("Let's go through it again.")

Now, enter in the REPL:

>>> gen = yielder("Hello, yield!")

you have a generator object now waiting for a command for it to generate a value. Use next and see what get's printed:

>>> next(gen) # runs until it finds a yield
I'm going to generate the value for you
Then I'll pause for a while
'Hello, yield!'

The unquoted results are what's printed. The quoted result is what is returned from yield. Call next again now:

>>> next(gen) # continues from yield and runs again
Let's go through it again.
I'm going to generate the value for you
Then I'll pause for a while
'Hello, yield!'

The generator remembers it was paused at yield value and resumes from there. The next message is printed and the search for the yield statement to pause at it performed again (due to the while loop).

(My below answer only speaks from the perspective of using Python generator, not the underlying implementation of generator mechanism, which involves some tricks of stack and heap manipulation.)

When yield is used instead of a return in a python function, that function is turned into something special called generator function. That function will return an object of generator type. The yield keyword is a flag to notify the python compiler to treat such function specially. Normal functions will terminate once some value is returned from it. But with the help of the compiler, the generator function can be thought of as resumable. That is, the execution context will be restored and the execution will continue from last run. Until you explicitly call return, which will raise a StopIteration exception (which is also part of the iterator protocol), or reach the end of the function. I found a lot of references about generator but this one from the functional programming perspective is the most digestable.

(Now I want to talk about the rationale behind generator, and the iterator based on my own understanding. I hope this can help you grasp the essential motivation of iterator and generator. Such concept shows up in other languages as well such as C#.)

As I understand, when we want to process a bunch of data, we usually first store the data somewhere and then process it one by one. But this intuitive approach is problematic. If the data volume is huge, it's expensive to store them as a whole beforehand. So instead of storing the data itself directly, why not store some kind of metadata indirectly, i.e. the logic how the data is computed.

There are 2 approaches to wrap such metadata.

1. The OO approach, we wrap the metadata as a class. This is the so-called iterator who implements the iterator protocol (i.e. the __next__(), and __iter__() methods). This is also the commonly seen iterator design pattern.
2. The functional approach, we wrap the metadata as a function. This is the so-called generator function. But under the hood, the returned generator object still IS-A iterator because it also implements the iterator protocol.

Either way, an iterator is created, i.e. some object that can give you the data you want. The OO approach may be a bit complex. Anyway, which one to use is up to you.

TL;DR

Instead of this:

def squares_list(n):
    the_list = []                         # Replace
    for x in range(n):
        y = x * x
        the_list.append(y)                # these
    return the_list                       # lines

do this:

def squares_the_yield_way(n):
    for x in range(n):
        y = x * x
        yield y                           # with this one.

Whenever you find yourself building a list from scratch, yield each piece instead.

This was my first "aha" moment with yield.

yield is a sugary way to say

build a series of stuff

Same behavior:

>>> for square in squares_list(4):
...     print(square)
...
0
1
4
9
>>> for square in squares_the_yield_way(4):
...     print(square)
...
0
1
4
9

Different behavior:

Yield is single-pass: you can only iterate through once. When a function has a yield in it we call it a generator function. And an iterator is what it returns. That's revealing. We lose the convenience of a container, but gain the power of an arbitrarily long series.

Yield is lazy, it puts off computation. A function with a yield in it doesn't actually execute at all when you call it. The iterator object it returns uses magic to maintain the function's internal context. Each time you call next() on the iterator (this happens in a for-loop) execution inches forward to the next yield. (return raises StopIteration and ends the series.)

Yield is versatile. It can do infinite loops:

>>> def squares_all_of_them():
...     x = 0
...     while True:
...         yield x * x
...         x += 1
...
>>> squares = squares_all_of_them()
>>> for _ in range(4):
...     print(next(squares))
...
0
1
4
9

If you need multiple passes and the series isn't too long, just call list() on it:

>>> list(squares_the_yield_way(4))
[0, 1, 4, 9]

Brilliant choice of the word yield because both meanings apply:

yield — produce or provide (as in agriculture)

...provide the next data in the series.

yield — give way or relinquish (as in political power)

...relinquish CPU execution until the iterator advances.

Yet another TL;DR

Iterator on list: next() returns the next element of the list

Iterator generator: next() will compute the next element on the fly (execute code)

You can see the yield/generator as a way to manually run the control flow from outside (like continue loop one step), by calling next, however complex the flow.

Note: The generator is NOT a normal function. It remembers the previous state like local variables (stack). See other answers or articles for detailed explanation. The generator can only be iterated on once. You could do without yield, but it would not be as nice, so it can be considered 'very nice' language sugar.

Many people use return rather than yield, but in some cases yield can be more efficient and easier to work with.

Here is an example which yield is definitely best for:

return (in function)

import random

def return_dates():
    dates = [] # With 'return' you need to create a list then return it
    for i in range(5):
        date = random.choice(["1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "5th", "6th", "7th", "8th", "9th", "10th"])
        dates.append(date)
    return dates

yield (in function)

def yield_dates():
    for i in range(5):
        date = random.choice(["1st", "2nd", "3rd", "4th", "5th", "6th", "7th", "8th", "9th", "10th"])
        yield date # 'yield' makes a generator automatically which works
                   # in a similar way. This is much more efficient.

Calling functions

dates_list = return_dates()
print(dates_list)
for i in dates_list:
    print(i)

dates_generator = yield_dates()
print(dates_generator)
for i in dates_generator:
    print(i)

Both functions do the same thing, but yield uses three lines instead of five and has one less variable to worry about.

This is the result from the code:

As you can see both functions do the same thing. The only difference is return_dates() gives a list and yield_dates() gives a generator.

A real life example would be something like reading a file line by line or if you just want to make a generator.

In summary, the yield statement transforms your function into a factory that produces a special object called a generator which wraps around the body of your original function. When the generator is iterated, it executes your function until it reaches the next yield then suspends execution and evaluates to the value passed to yield. It repeats this process on each iteration until the path of execution exits the function. For instance,

def simple_generator():
    yield 'one'
    yield 'two'
    yield 'three'

for i in simple_generator():
    print i

simply outputs

one
two
three

The power comes from using the generator with a loop that calculates a sequence, the generator executes the loop stopping each time to 'yield' the next result of the calculation, in this way it calculates a list on the fly, the benefit being the memory saved for especially large calculations

Say you wanted to create a your own range function that produces an iterable range of numbers, you could do it like so,

def myRangeNaive(i):
    n = 0
    range = []
    while n < i:
        range.append(n)
        n = n + 1
    return range

and use it like this;

for i in myRangeNaive(10):
    print i

But this is inefficient because

• You create an array that you only use once (this wastes memory)
• This code actually loops over that array twice! :(

Luckily Guido and his team were generous enough to develop generators so we could just do this;

def myRangeSmart(i):
    n = 0
    while n < i:
       yield n
       n = n + 1
    return

for i in myRangeSmart(10):
    print i

Now upon each iteration a function on the generator called next() executes the function until it either reaches a 'yield' statement in which it stops and 'yields' the value or reaches the end of the function. In this case on the first call, next() executes up to the yield statement and yield 'n', on the next call it will execute the increment statement, jump back to the 'while', evaluate it, and if true, it will stop and yield 'n' again, it will continue that way until the while condition returns false and the generator jumps to the end of the function.

All great answers, however a bit difficult for newbies.

I assume you have learned the return statement.

As an analogy, return and yield are twins. return means 'return and stop' whereas 'yield` means 'return, but continue'

1. Try to get a num_list with return.

def num_list(n):
    for i in range(n):
        return i

Run it:

In [5]: num_list(3)
Out[5]: 0

See, you get only a single number rather than a list of them. return never allows you prevail happily, just implements once and quit.

2. There comes yield

Replace return with yield:

In [10]: def num_list(n):
    ...:     for i in range(n):
    ...:         yield i
    ...:

In [11]: num_list(3)
Out[11]: <generator object num_list at 0x10327c990>

In [12]: list(num_list(3))
Out[12]: [0, 1, 2]

Now, you win to get all the numbers.

Comparing to return which runs once and stops, yield runs times you planed. You can interpret return as return one of them, and yield as return all of them. This is called iterable.

3. One more step we can rewrite yield statement with return

In [15]: def num_list(n):
    ...:     result = []
    ...:     for i in range(n):
    ...:         result.append(i)
    ...:     return result

In [16]: num_list(3)
Out[16]: [0, 1, 2]

It's the core about yield.

The difference between a list return outputs and the object yield output is:

You will always get [0, 1, 2] from a list object but only could retrieve them from 'the object yield output' once. So, it has a new name generator object as displayed in Out[11]: <generator object num_list at 0x10327c990>.

In conclusion, as a metaphor to grok it:

• return and yield are twins
• list and generator are twins