Python is already so slow that it's comparable to normal iteration. But here's an example: timeit('next(x)', 'x = iter(range(1<<30))', number=1<<22) # 0.22

Python is already so slow that it's comparable to normal iteration. But here's an example: timeit('next(x)', 'x = iter(range(1<<30))', number=1<<22) # 0.22 timeit('''try: raise StopIteration() except StopIteration: pass''', number=1<<22) # 0.78