In python is there an easier way to write 6 nested for loops?

Question

This problem has been getting at me for a while now. Is there an easier way to write nested for loops in python? For example if my code went something like this:

  for y in range(3):     for x in range(3):       do_something()       for y1 in range(3):         for x1 in range(3):           do_something_else() 

would there be an easier way to do this? I know that this code works but when you indent instead of using 2 spaces, like me, it can get to be a problem.

Oh in the example there were only 4 nested for loops to make things easier.

Answer 1

If you're frequently iterating over a Cartesian product like in your example, you might want to investigate Python 2.6's itertools.product -- or write your own if you're in an earlier Python.

from itertools import product for y, x in product(range(3), repeat=2):   do_something()   for y1, x1 in product(range(3), repeat=2):     do_something_else() 

Answer 2

This is fairly common when looping over multidimensional spaces. My solution is:

xy_grid = [(x, y) for x in range(3) for y in range(3)]  for x, y in xy_grid:     # do something     for x1, y1 in xy_grid:         # do something else