How to look ahead one element (peek) in a Python generator?

For sake of completeness, the more-itertools package (which should probably be part of any Python programmer's toolbox) includes a peekable wrapper that implements this behavior. As the code example in the documentation shows:

>>> p = peekable(['a', 'b'])
>>> p.peek()
'a'
>>> next(p)
'a'

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However, it's often possible to rewrite code that would use this functionality so that it doesn't actually need it. For example, your realistic code sample from the question could be written like this:

gen = element_generator()
command = gen.next_value()
if command == 'STOP':
  quit_application()
else:
  process(command)

(reader's note: I've preserved the syntax in the example from the question as of when I'm writing this, even though it refers to an outdated version of Python)

The Python generator API is one way: You can't push back elements you've read. But you can create a new iterator using the itertools module and prepend the element:

import itertools

gen = iter([1,2,3])
peek = gen.next()
print list(itertools.chain([peek], gen))