CodeQL documentation

Iterator does not return self from __iter__ method

ID: py/iter-returns-non-self
Kind: problem
Security severity: 
Severity: error
Precision: high
Tags:
   - reliability
   - correctness
Query suites:
   - python-security-and-quality.qls

Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository

The __iter__ method of an iterator should return self. This is important so that iterators can be used as sequences in any context that expect a sequence. To do so requires that __iter__ is idempotent on iterators.

Note that sequences and mapping should return a new iterator, it is just the returned iterator that must obey this constraint.

Recommendation

Make the __iter__ return self unless the class should not be an iterator, in which case rename the next (Python 2) or __next__ (Python 3) to something else.

Example

In this example the Counter class’s __iter__ method does not return self (or even an iterator). This will cause the program to fail when anyone attempts to use the iterator in a for loop or in statement.

class MyRange(object):
    def __init__(self, low, high):
        self.current = low
        self.high = high

    def __iter__(self):
        return self.current

    def next(self):
        if self.current > self.high:
            raise StopIteration
        self.current += 1
        return self.current - 1

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