Group a list into chunks in Python

More than once I've had to take a list of items and group them. For instance, maybe I have a flat list of key-value pairs in alternation, like this:

[key1, value1, key2, value2, key3, value3]

It could have been that they were easier to enter that way (fewer parentheses or brackets), or maybe that's just how they come from an outside source.

Nevertheless, to actually use them, it would be better to have them in tuples:

[(key1, value1), (key2, value2), (key3, value3)]

That way, I could make them into a dictionary, urlencode them, etc.

I looked through Python's entire itertools module for a pre-existing solution, but didn't find one. itertools does have the reverse operation, chain, but not this one.

So, to save you the trouble, here's the code:

def group_iter(iterator, n=2, strict=False):
    """ Transforms a sequence of values into a sequence of n-tuples.
    e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, ...] => [(1, 2), (3, 4), ...] (when n == 2)
    If strict, then it will raise ValueError if there is a group of fewer
    than n items at the end of the sequence. """
    accumulator = []
    for item in iterator:
        accumulator.append(item)
        if len(accumulator) == n: # tested as fast as separate counter
            yield tuple(accumulator)
            accumulator = [] # tested faster than accumulator[:] = []
            # and tested as fast as re-using one list object
    if strict and len(accumulator) != 0:
        raise ValueError("Leftover values")