hasNext in Python iterators?

There's an alternative to the StopIteration by using next(iterator, default_value).

For exapmle:

>>> a = iter('hi')
>>> print next(a, None)
h
>>> print next(a, None)
i
>>> print next(a, None)
None

So you can detect for None or other pre-specified value for end of the iterator if you don't want the exception way.

No, there is no such method. The end of iteration is indicated by an exception. See the documentation.

If you really need a has-next functionality (because you're just faithfully transcribing an algorithm from a reference implementation in Java, say, or because you're writing a prototype that will need to be easily transcribed to Java when it's finished), it's easy to obtain it with a little wrapper class. For example:

class hn_wrapper(object):
  def __init__(self, it):
    self.it = iter(it)
    self._hasnext = None
  def __iter__(self): return self
  def next(self):
    if self._hasnext:
      result = self._thenext
    else:
      result = next(self.it)
    self._hasnext = None
    return result
  def hasnext(self):
    if self._hasnext is None:
      try: self._thenext = next(self.it)
      except StopIteration: self._hasnext = False
      else: self._hasnext = True
    return self._hasnext

now something like

x = hn_wrapper('ciao')
while x.hasnext(): print next(x)

emits

c
i
a
o

as required.

Note that the use of next(sel.it) as a built-in requires Python 2.6 or better; if you're using an older version of Python, use self.it.next() instead (and similarly for next(x) in the example usage). [[You might reasonably think this note is redundant, since Python 2.6 has been around for over a year now -- but more often than not when I use Python 2.6 features in a response, some commenter or other feels duty-bound to point out that they are 2.6 features, thus I'm trying to forestall such comments for once;-)]]