Python Morsels: Python Terminology: an unofficial glossary

Table of contents

1. Looping
2. Data Types
3. Collections
4. Variables and Assignment
5. Objects and Mutation
6. Modules
7. Scripts and REPL
8. Functions
9. Classes
10. Exceptions
11. Lazy Looping
12. Syntax
13. Code Style
14. Practice Python

Looping

These terms are all about looping and objects you can loop over.

Iteration

Looping over an iterable object.

A for loop is the epitome of iteration, but there are many other ways to iterate over an iterable in Python.

List comprehensions iterate. Tuple unpacking iterates. Using * operator in a function call iterates (see Unpacking iterables into function arguments). Using * operator in a list literal iterates (see Unpacking iterables into iterables).

Iterable

(Our perspective as Python users) Anything you can loop over with a for loop or by various other forms of iteration. More on iterables in What is an iterable.

(Python's perspective) Anything that can be passed to the built-in iter function to get an iterator from it. If you're inventing your own iterable class, also see How to make an iterable.

Data Types

These terms are related to …