create and return a new iterator for the object; if the object is its

own iterator, this method can just return \code{self}. In particular,

iterators will usually be their own iterators. Extension types

return an iterator, and extension types that want to behave as

So, after all this, what do iterators actually do? They have one

required method, \method{next()}, which takes no arguments and returns

it expects something for which \function{iter()} will return an iterator.

For backward compatibility and convenience, an iterator is

automatically constructed for sequences that don't implement

[1,2,3]} will still work. Wherever the Python interpreter loops over

a sequence, it's been changed to use the iterator protocol. This

means you can do things like this:

statement. The big difference between \keyword{yield} and a

\keyword{return} statement is that on reaching a \keyword{yield} the

generator's state of execution is suspended and local variables are

the function will resume executing immediately after the

\keyword{yield} statement. (For complicated reasons, the

\keyword{yield} statement isn't allowed inside the \keyword{try} block

explanation of the interaction between \keyword{yield} and

exceptions.)

\item Classes can define methods called \method{__truediv__} and

\method{__floordiv__} to overload the two division operators. At the

so extension types can define the two operators.

\item Python 2.2 supports some command-line arguments for testing

function \function{help()} that uses the \module{pydoc} module

introduced in Python 2.1 to provide interactive help.

\code{help(\var{object})} displays any available help text about

help utility, where you can enter the names of functions, classes,

or modules to read their help text.

(Contributed by Guido van Rossum, using Ka-Ping Yee's \module{pydoc} module.)

\cfunction{PyArg_UnpackTuple()}, has been added that's simpler and

presumably faster. Instead of specifying a format string, the

caller simply gives the minimum and maximum number of arguments

will be filled in with argument values.

\item Two new flags \constant{METH_NOARGS} and \constant{METH_O} are

now convert it to an MBCS encoded string, as used by the Microsoft

file APIs. As MBCS is explicitly used by the file APIs, Python's

choice of ASCII as the default encoding turns out to be an

\function{locale.nl_langinfo(CODESET)} is available. (Windows

support was contributed by Mark Hammond with assistance from

\item Large file support is now enabled on Windows. (Contributed by

Tim Peters.)