Python 3.4.0 (default, May 20 2014, 20:42:24)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.1 (clang-503.0.40)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> zip([1, 2, 3], ["a", "b", "c"])
<zip object at 0x1017c79c8>
>>>


Python 2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> zip([1, 2, 3], ["a", "b", "c"])
[(1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')]

This is the correct behaviour. In python 3 zip returns an iterator. Detailed information is available in documentation. https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#zip

It may be the correct behavior but that doesn't mean we cannot update the repr to be more informative.  We've already done that for a number of types that previously used the default __repr__() implementation.  So in the case, how hard would it be to have the following repr?

>>> zip([1, 2, 3], ["a", "b", "c"])
zip([1, 2, 3], ["a", "b", "c"])

"zip(<list_iterator object at 0xb70c7c8c>, <list_iterator object at 0xb70c7cac>)" doesn't look more readable to me.

It's also showing up in iPython. list(...) is a reasonable workaround but I disagree with the "not a bug" opinion. This is definitely the regression vs Python 2. Who else can I talk to about reopening this?

> "zip(<list_iterator object at 0xb70c7c8c>, <list_iterator object at 0xb70c7cac>)" doesn't look more readable to me.

Well, that seems more informative to me.  Now you know that you're
zipping together two list iterators.  By "readable" do you mean
shorter?  In my opinion the size of a repr is less of a concern
(though not insignificant) than the usefulness of the information the
repr contains.  The fact that some objects (like list iterators) don't
themselves have informative reprs is an issue for any object with a
custom repr that reports it's attrs/args.

How do you display the contents of an iterable without using them up, or have I grossly overlooked something?

>>> How do you display the contents of an iterable without using them up <<<

In general case you can't, but zip object _is_ reusable iterable so we can reuse it?

>> How do you display the contents of an iterable without using them up
> In general case you can't, but zip object _is_ reusable iterable so we can reuse it?
I think you're misunderstanding what an iterator is or how it functions. Just to make it clear, it cannot be "reused". What Eric suggested, was to look at the inputs of zip and construct a representation of zip object that is more user friendly. The point that Serhiy's is making is that its usefulness is actually fairly limited.

Yep, you are right. Even the zip thingy is not reusable. Oh well...