Iterator Protocol ***************** New in version 2.2. There are two functions specifically for working with iterators. int PyIter_Check(PyObject *o) Return true if the object *o* supports the iterator protocol. This function can return a false positive in the case of old-style classes because those classes always define a "tp_iternext" slot with logic that either invokes a "next()" method or raises a "TypeError". PyObject* PyIter_Next(PyObject *o) *Return value: New reference.* Return the next value from the iteration *o*. The object must be an iterator (it is up to the caller to check this). If there are no remaining values, returns *NULL* with no exception set. If an error occurs while retrieving the item, returns *NULL* and passes along the exception. To write a loop which iterates over an iterator, the C code should look something like this: PyObject *iterator = PyObject_GetIter(obj); PyObject *item; if (iterator == NULL) { /* propagate error */ } while ((item = PyIter_Next(iterator))) { /* do something with item */ ... /* release reference when done */ Py_DECREF(item); } Py_DECREF(iterator); if (PyErr_Occurred()) { /* propagate error */ } else { /* continue doing useful work */ }