Column to be initialized by iterator

[bsipocz]

To create a single Column from a nested list, I do something along these lines:

import itertools
from astropy.table import Column

a = [[x] * x for x in range(1, 5)]
Column(list(itertools.chain(*a)))

I wonder whether it would make any sense to modify Column to directly accept iterators as initialization? I tried to find issues where this was discussed, and I guess probably this is upstream as np arrays work exactly the same.

[taldcroft]

In theory one might allow this via np.fromiter. In this case it is required to provide a dtype.

One question is whether there is a good reason np.array does not allow initialization from iterators and forces going through fromiter.

[mhvk]

One question is whether there is a good reason np.array does not allow initialization from iterators and forces going through fromiter.

There is a PR: numpy/numpy#5863, but the discussion has not been in favour: http://numpy-discussion.10968.n7.nabble.com/FeatureRequest-support-for-array-construction-from-iterators-td41729.html