ERROR: MethodError: no method matching iterate(::Symbol)

General Usage
1

Hi,
if you try to iterate over ::Symbol you get an error:
MWE:

for i in :c @show i end
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching iterate(::Symbol)

however it works fine with Int:

for i in 5 @show i end
i = 5

note also that it works for:

for i in [:c] @show i end

Is there a solution for this?

3

This is the solution, isn’t it?
Integers are iterable (I think for convenience, but have to search for the why), but not everything is iterable.

Another solution would be to implement iterate for Symbol.

Iterable Number has been usefull before broadcasting was introduced in Julia 0.5. See discussions below.

4

Here is listed what is iterable:
https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/collections/#lib-collections-iteration

Some discussion is found here:
https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/18509

Linked from here:
https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/7903

5

Is there a rationale behind for not having Iterate for Symbol?

6

Yes, there is no point to it.

7

As in the discussions above stated: there is not much rationale behind making Number iterable.