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An input-dependent iterator will terminate based on the length of one or more input values. They are great for working with and modifying existing iterators.

A useful itertool that is an input-dependent iterator is the chain() itertool. chain() takes in one or more iterables and combine them into a single iterator. Here is what the base syntax looks like:

chain(*iterables)

The input value of chain() is one or more iterables of the same or varying iterable types. For example, we could use the chain() itertool to combine a list and a set into one iterator.

To show how it’s used in a scenario, suppose we want to combine a list containing odd numbers and a set containing even numbers:

import itertools odd = [5, 7, 9] even = {6, 8, 10} all_numbers = itertools.chain(odd, even) for number in all_numbers: print(number)

The above example:

  • Imports the itertools module.
  • Sets all_numbers to the iterator returned by the itertool chain().
  • Uses the list iterable odd and the set iterable even as the arguments to chain().
  • Implements a for loop using the iterator in all_numbers
  • Prints the results, which will be:
    5 7 9 8 10 6

The output is finite since the input iterables, odd and even are also finite. Note that Python sets are not ordered so the last 3 numbers in this example’s output will not always be in the initialized order.

Let’s use chain() to work with SKU iterables in our pet store!

Instructions

1.

We have separate lists of SKUs for each bag of dog food per brand. Obtain a master list of SKU numbers for all bags of dog food, regardless of brand.

Use the chain() itertool set to a variable named all_skus_iterator to combine the SKU lists.

2.

Using all_skus_iterator implement a for loop to output each SKU.

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