How to skip first element of a Generator/Iterator in Python

Use the skip_first() utility function from UliEngineering:

First, install UliEngineering using

pip install --user UliEngineering

Note that UliEngineeringrequires Python 3.3+.

Now you can use skip_first() like this:

from UliEngineering.Utils.Iterable import skip_first

for v in skip_first(v for v in [1,2,3,4,5]):
    print(v) # Prints 2,3,4,5

skip_first() will work for any Iterable or Iterator.

Don’t want to install UliEngineering?

Copy the skip_first() utility function into your own code:

import collections

def skip_first(it):
    """
    Skip the first element of an Iterator or Iterable,
    like a Generator or a list.
    This will always return a generator or raise TypeError()
    in case the argument's type is not compatible
    """
    if isinstance(it, collections.Iterator):
        try:
            next(it)
            yield from it
        except StopIteration:
            return
    elif isinstance(it, collections.Iterable):
        yield from skip_first(it.__iter__())
    else:
        raise TypeError(f"You must pass an Iterator or an Iterable to skip_first(), but you passed {it}")