Comparing generators with Iterator objects

Comparing generators with Iterator objects

The primary advantage of generators is their simplicity. Much less boilerplate code has to be written compared to implementing an Iterator class, and the code is generally much more readable. For example, the following function and class are equivalent:

<?php
function getLinesFromFile($fileName) {
    if (!$fileHandle = fopen($fileName, 'r')) {
        return;
    }
 
    while (false !== $line = fgets($fileHandle)) {
        yield $line;
    }
 
    fclose($fileHandle);
}

// versus...

class LineIterator implements Iterator {
    protected $fileHandle;
 
    protected $line;
    protected $i;
 
    public function __construct($fileName) {
        if (!$this->fileHandle = fopen($fileName, 'r')) {
            throw new RuntimeExce