Sequential Iterator

Question

I currently have the need for a certain type of Iterator / generator (not actually sure which is the appropriate term) that will generate a character sequence such as the following:

axxx
bxxx
cxxx
dxxx
...
aaxx
abxx
and so on

So for every iteration through the alphabet it moves to the next place and replaces 'x' and repeats...

I have tried Iterators and generators with Python but cant seem to get this fixed character functionality.

Apologies, x represents the literal character 'x' within the alphabet, And yes base 26 — d ll, Aug 11 '16 at 03:34
start here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2063425/python-elegant-inverse-function-of-intstring-base — Itay Moav -Malimovka, Aug 11 '16 at 03:35
I understand the iterative aspect of it. I just cant seem to figure out how i would keep the length of the string as 4 characters and then with every loop through the alphabet - replace the next character along in the 4 character string with the next iteration. — d ll, Aug 11 '16 at 03:38

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 11 '16 at 03:36

OK, break this down into two problems. I'm cribbing from

http://code.activestate.com/recipes/65212-convert-from-decimal-to-any-base-number/

for the actual baseN code.

First, generate a sequence of numbers in base 26, encoded a=0, b=1, .. z=25. After an example from "trottler"

def basealpha(num,numerals="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"):
    return ((num == 0) and  "0" ) or ( basealpha(num // 26, 26).lstrip("0") + numerals[num % 26])

Loop through this, and then right pad out the string with 'x' to a length of four.

The problem I see on looking at this is that 'x' serves double duty, and you'll have a hard time telling what 'aaxx' means, since it could show up in several sequences:

aaxx
aayx
aazx

or

aaxx
abxx
acxx

This is great! exactly what i was looking for! and yes, the duplicates are not an issue as it isnt a permutation. More just wanted a 4 character sequence with x as a placeholder for the future combinations — d ll, Aug 11 '16 at 03:40

Sequential Iterator

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