itrx - A Chainable Iterable Adaptor

itrx is a Python library that adapts iterators, iterables, and generators, providing a Rust-inspired Iterator trait experience with added Pythonic conveniences. It enables developers to build complex data processing pipelines with a fluent, chainable, and lazy API. In most cases, it simply wraps itertools in syntactic sugar.

Heavily inspired by Rust's Iterator trait, itrx offers a familiar and robust pattern for sequence manipulation.

Key Features & Why Itr?

• Compatibility: Itr is designed to work seamlessly with various Python iterable types, including sequences, ranges, custom iterators, and generators.
• Fluent & Chainable API: Write expressive, left-to-right sequences of operations on your data.
• Lazy Evaluation: Operations are only performed when their results are needed, improving efficiency for large or infinite sequences.
• Rust-Inspired Patterns: Bring the power and clarity of Rust's Iterator design to your Python projects.
• Pythonic Additions: Includes convenient methods like starmap that integrate smoothly with Python's ecosystem.
• Simplifies Complex Logic: Often provides a more readable and concise alternative to nested itertools or built-in functions.

Installation

pip install itrx

Quick Start & Core Functionality

Chaining

Itr wraps Python Iterators, Iterables, and Generators, allowing efficient chaining methods for data transformation. In this completely arbitrary example we take some integers, reverse them, discard some, take every 4th value and print it if its square ends with the digit 9:

>>> from itrx import Itr
>>> Itr(range(100)).rev().step_by(4).skip(10).map(lambda x: x * x).filter(lambda x: x % 10 == 9).for_each(print)
2209
1849
729
529
49
9

For reference, the equivalent expression using built-ins and itertools can be significantly less readable:

from itertools import islice

for item in filter(
    lambda x: x % 10 == 9,
    map(lambda x: x * x, islice(islice(reversed(range(100)), None, None, 4), 10, None)),
):
    print(item)

Outputs

While Itr methods typically return self or another Itr instance, the collect() method allows you to materialize the results into various Python collections: tuple (default), list, set, or dict.

Here's how to group words by their length into a dictionary:

>>> from itrx import Itr
>>> Itr(("apple", "banana", "carrot")).groupby(len).collect(dict)
{5: ('apple',), 6: ('banana', 'carrot')}

For reference, an equivalent using itertools directly:

>>> import itertools
>>> {k: tuple(v) for k, v in itertools.groupby(("apple", "banana", "carrot"), key=len)}
{5: ('apple',), 6: ('banana', 'carrot')}

Note: Using collect(dict) requires an iterable that produces 2-tuples (key-value pairs).

How Itr Works: Lazy vs. Eager

Most Itr methods are lazy transformations, meaning they return a new Itr instance without immediately processing any data. This allows for arbitrary chaining and efficient memory usage, as items are only processed as they are requested. In most cases, Itr simply acts as a convenient wrapper around itertools, enabling this left-to-right chaining syntax.

• Combining and splitting: partition, copy, batched, pairwise, rolling, chain, cycle, repeat, product
• Transformation and filtering: filter, map, starmap, flatten, flat_map, skip_while, take_while, groupby

However, some methods are eager consumers. These methods iterate over and consume the underlying data, returning concrete values, collections, or aggregates. Examples include:

• Collection methods: collect, next, next_chunk, nth
• Aggregation methods: count, reduce, max, min, all, any, last, find, fold

Important Considerations

When working with Itr, keep these points in mind:

• Single-Pass Iterators: Like all Python iterators, Itr instances (and their underlying iterators) can generally only be consumed once. If you need to process the same sequence multiple times, use methods like copy(), cycle(), or repeat() as necessary.
• No Rewinding: It's not possible to rewind an Itr to an earlier state. You can "preview" the next value using the peek() method, but be aware that peek() often copies the iterator internally, which can be inefficient if used excessively.
• Infinite Iterators: Be cautious with open-ended iterators (e.g., those from itertools.count() or custom generators). Eager evaluation methods (like collect(), count(), reduce()) will attempt to consume the entire sequence, potentially leading to infinite loops or out-of-memory errors if applied to an infinite source.

API Reference

Itr provides a comprehensive set of methods for various iterable operations. For a complete list of methods and their detailed descriptions, please refer to the API documentation.

Note: apidoc.md is auto-generated using Itr - see introspect.py.

Examples

Some worked examples can be found in this notebook.