Generators overview
(PHP 5 >= 5.5.0, PHP 7)
Generators provide an easy way to implement simple iterators without the overhead or complexity of implementing a class that implements the Iterator interface.
A generator allows you to write code that uses foreach to iterate over a set of data without needing to build an array in memory, which may cause you to exceed a memory limit, or require a considerable amount of processing time to generate. Instead, you can write a generator function, which is the same as a normal function, except that instead of returning once, a generator can yield as many times as it needs to in order to provide the values to be iterated over.
A simple example of this is to reimplement the range() function as a generator. The standard range() function has to generate an array with every value in it and return it, which can result in large arrays: for example, calling range(0, 1000000) will result in well over 100 MB of memory being used.
As an alternative, we can implement an xrange() generator, which will only ever need enough memory to create an Iterator object and track the current state of the generator internally, which turns out to be less than 1 kilobyte.
Example #1 Implementing range() as a generator
<?php
function xrange($start, $limit, $step = 1) {
if ($start <= $limit) {
if ($step <= 0) {
throw new LogicException('Step must be positive');
}
for ($i = $start; $i <= $limit; $i += $step) {
yield $i;
}
} else {
if ($step >= 0) {
throw new LogicException('Step must be negative');
}
for ($i = $start; $i >= $limit; $i += $step) {
yield $i;
}
}
}
/*
* Note that both range() and xrange() result in the same
* output below.
*/
echo 'Single digit odd numbers from range(): ';
foreach (range(1, 9, 2) as $number) {
echo "$number ";
}
echo "\n";
echo 'Single digit odd numbers from xrange(): ';
foreach (xrange(1, 9, 2) as $number) {
echo "$number ";
}
?>
The above example will output:
Single digit odd numbers from range(): 1 3 5 7 9 Single digit odd numbers from xrange(): 1 3 5 7 9
Generator objects
When a generator function is called, a new object of the internal Generator class is returned. This object implements the Iterator interface in much the same way as a forward-only iterator object would, and provides methods that can be called to manipulate the state of the generator, including sending values to and returning values from it.
English translation
You have asked to visit this site in English. For now, only the interface is translated, but not all the content yet.If you want to help me in translations, your contribution is welcome. All you need to do is register on the site, and send me a message asking me to add you to the group of translators, which will give you the opportunity to translate the pages you want. A link at the bottom of each translated page indicates that you are the translator, and has a link to your profile.
Thank you in advance.
Document created the 30/01/2003, last modified the 26/10/2018
Source of the printed document:https://www.gaudry.be/en/php-rf-language.generators.overview.html
The infobrol is a personal site whose content is my sole responsibility. The text is available under CreativeCommons license (BY-NC-SA). More info on the terms of use and the author.
References
These references and links indicate documents consulted during the writing of this page, or which may provide additional information, but the authors of these sources can not be held responsible for the content of this page.
The author This site is solely responsible for the way in which the various concepts, and the freedoms that are taken with the reference works, are presented here. Remember that you must cross multiple source information to reduce the risk of errors.
