Differences Between Iterables and Iterators

In Python, an iterable refers to any object, like a list, tuple, or string, that can return its elements one at a time and thus is considered a repeatable object.

Iterables can be used in for loops and with functions like list(), set(), and tuple().

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# A list is an iterable
my_list = [1, 2, 3]

# A list is a repeatable object
for item in my_list:
    print(item)

On the other hand, an iterator is an object that allows us to traverse through all the elements of an iterable one element at a time.

An iterator can be created from an iterable using the iter() function, and we can access the next element using the next() function.

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# A list is an iterable
my_list = [1, 2, 3]

# Creating an iterator
my_iterator = iter(my_list)

# Access the next element
print(next(my_iterator))  # 1
print(next(my_iterator))  # 2
print(next(my_iterator))  # 3