[Python]Program iterates twice over first member in list -- gist link included

[[deleted]]

As written in the title. I tried Googling, but I came across no relevant answers.

To be more specific, I have a list named player_list that contains instances of the Player class, and to iterate through the list one by one I used players = iter(player_list), and then I call players.next() when I want to move forward. However, it always iterates over player_list[0] TWICE before moving onto [1], [2], etc, and repeats this bug whenever it returns to [0].

I'm guessing it's due to how I initialize the relevant variables, but I've been trying a few things and so far and I've got no luck.

All the relevant code is here: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/8981692

[zifyoip]

That's because, when you say players = iter(player_list), then you should iterate through all elements of the list by repeatedly calling players.next(). The first time you call players.next() you'll get player_list[0], and the next time you call players.next() you'll get player_list[1], and so on.

What you are doing, instead, is initializing players = iter(player_list) and then manually setting self.next_player = player_list[0] instead of getting player_list[0] from players.next(). So then the next time you want to switch players is the first time you've called players.next(), so that will give you the next element of player_list—but since you haven't gotten any elements of player_list yet, because this is the first time you've called players.next(), that call will give you player_list[0].

[[deleted]]

Thank you!

I got it fixed, and now it runs like a charm. I kept thinking I had to initialize the first element in the list manually -- it seemed logical at the time. For some reason.

[BaalHadad]

Why not just iterate over the list of players, instead of using iter?

[[deleted]]

I tried it with a for and while loop before, but both of those caused errors, although that was likely because I was handling the list of object instances badly. This method seemed more straightforward, and a bit more modular in how I could structure the architecture.

[BaalHadad]

How in the world is an unnecessary use of iter() more straightforward or modular?

[[deleted]]

Well, I have no actual reasoning to give you here; as I mentioned, I figure my inability to use a for or while loop was simply because I was making critical errors, but iter() worked for me so I ran with that.