Yield

What does yield mean in programming?

Yield is a keyword in generator-based programming languages such as Python that pauses the execution of a function and returns a value without losing the state of the function. This allows a function to return iterative results without having to reinitialize its entire context.

Advantages and application examples

Yield enables memory-efficient processing of large amounts of data, as data is generated step by step and only when required. Typical applications are data stream processing, iterators and pipelines. For example, a generator with yield can read large files line by line without holding the entire file in memory. Yield promotes efficiency and improves the readability of code.