iterobj

Iterobj is a term used to denote an iterator object in a programming language. It represents the runtime state of an ongoing traversal over a collection and yields values one at a time as the traversal advances. An iterobj is typically created by requesting an iterator from an iterable or generator, and it maintains internal state such as the current position in the sequence.

In Python, an iterobj implements the iterator protocol by defining __iter__ (which returns self) and __next__ (which returns the next value or raises StopIteration when the sequence is exhausted). In contrast, JavaScript iterator objects expose a next() method that returns an object with properties value and done, where done indicates completion.

Usage of an iterobj is characterized by lazy evaluation and statefulness. It may be finite or infinite and is commonly consumed by for loops or by explicit loops that repeatedly call next or __next__ until exhaustion. This allows efficient processing of large or streaming data without loading the entire sequence into memory.

Examples illustrate the concept across languages. In Python, a generator yields values and an external consumer repeatedly calls next(it). In JavaScript, an array’s iterator can be advanced with next(), used within a loop that checks the done flag before processing each value.

See also: Iterator protocol, Iterable, Generator, Enumerator. Iterobj is a broad, language-agnostic label for an object that adheres to a language’s iteration interface and yields elements on demand.