Looping from 1 to infinity in Python

Using itertools.count:

import itertools
for i in itertools.count(start=1):
    if there_is_a_reason_to_break(i):
        break

In Python 2, range() and xrange() were limited to sys.maxsize. In Python 3 range() can go much higher, though not to infinity:

import sys
for i in range(sys.maxsize**10):  # you could go even higher if you really want
    if there_is_a_reason_to_break(i):
        break

So it's probably best to use count().


def to_infinity():
    index = 0
    while True:
        yield index
        index += 1

for i in to_infinity():
    if i > 10:
        break

Tags:

Python

Loops