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Generator (computer programming) - Wikipedia

Generator (computer programming)

In computer science, a generator is a routine that can be used to control the iteration behaviour of a loop. All generators are also iterators.1 A generator is very similar to a function that returns an array, in that a generator has parameters, can be called, and generates a sequence of values. However, instead of building an array containing all the values and returning them all at once, a generator yields the values one at a time, which requires less memory and allows the caller to get started processing the first few values immediately. In short, a generator looks like a function but behaves like an iterator.

Generators can be implemented in terms of more expressive control flow constructs, such as coroutines or first-class continuations.2 Generators, also known as semicoroutines,3 are a special case of (and weaker than) coroutines, in that they always yield control back to the caller (when passing a value back), rather than specifying a coroutine to jump to; see comparison of coroutines with generators.

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. What is the difference between an Iterator and a Generator? ↩

  2. Kiselyov, Oleg (January 2004). “General ways to traverse collections in Scheme”. ↩

  3. Anthony Ralston (2000). Encyclopedia of computer science. Nature Pub. Group. ISBN 978-1-56159-248-7. Retrieved 11 May 2013. ↩

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