Polish from /simplify review

Three small follow-ups to c206c0c addressing review findings:

1. Restore the AGENCY-ID hint in _check_monitoring_location_id's TypeError.
   The refactor through _normalize_str_iterable accidentally dropped the
   trailing "Expected 'AGENCY-ID' format, e.g., 'USGS-01646500'." that
   the original wrapper carried. Catch+re-raise so monitoring_location_id
   keeps its helpful error while the generic helper stays generic.
   Pinned with a new assertion in test_integer_raises_type_error.

2. Document the date-range exclusion in _normalize_str_iterable's docstring.
   `time`, `last_modified`, `begin`, `end`, `datetime` bypass this helper
   because _format_api_dates handles their single-string-or-range semantics
   inside _construct_api_requests; the exclusion lived only in the prior
   commit message.

3. Single-pass validation. The helper previously did `values = list(value)`
   followed by a separate `for v in values` isinstance loop. Folded into
   one loop that builds the list while validating per-element.

Plus tests: hoist `from unittest import mock` to module level
(matches the rest of the repo's test files) instead of importing it
inside the test body.

No behavior change for valid inputs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: thodson-usgs

dataretrieval/waterdata/utils.py

@@ -1165,12 +1165,17 @@ def _normalize_str_iterable(
     Used by every public waterdata getter for multi-value string parameters
     (``parameter_code``, ``statistic_id``, ``state_name``, ...) so any
     sequence-like input — ``list``, ``tuple``, ``pandas.Series``,
-    ``pandas.Index``, ``numpy.ndarray``, generators, sets — works at the
-    public boundary. The downstream ``_construct_api_requests`` branches
-    on ``isinstance(v, (list, tuple))``, so iterables are materialized to
-    a ``list`` here. ``Mapping`` types are rejected because iterating a
+    ``pandas.Index``, ``numpy.ndarray``, generators — works at the public
+    boundary. The downstream ``_construct_api_requests`` branches on
+    ``isinstance(v, (list, tuple))``, so iterables are materialized to a
+    ``list`` here. ``Mapping`` types are rejected because iterating a
     mapping yields keys, which would be a footgun.
 
+    Date-range params (``time``, ``last_modified``, ``begin``, ``end``,
+    ``datetime``) deliberately bypass this helper; their single-string-or-
+    two-element-range semantics are handled by ``_format_api_dates`` inside
+    ``_construct_api_requests``.
+
     Parameters
     ----------
     value : None, str, or iterable of str
@@ -1199,13 +1204,14 @@ def _normalize_str_iterable(
             f"{param_name} must be a string or iterable of strings, "
             f"not {type(value).__name__} (got {value!r})."
         )
-    values = list(value)
-    for v in values:
+    values: list[str] = []
+    for v in value:
         if not isinstance(v, str):
             raise TypeError(
                 f"{param_name} elements must be strings, "
                 f"not {type(v).__name__} (got {v!r})."
             )
+        values.append(v)
     return values
 
 
@@ -1237,7 +1243,15 @@ def _check_monitoring_location_id(
         If any identifier doesn't contain a hyphen separator
         (per the OGC API spec: AGENCY-ID format, e.g. ``USGS-01646500``).
     """
-    value = _normalize_str_iterable(monitoring_location_id, "monitoring_location_id")
+    try:
+        value = _normalize_str_iterable(
+            monitoring_location_id, "monitoring_location_id"
+        )
+    except TypeError as exc:
+        # Re-raise with the AGENCY-ID hint the generic helper doesn't carry.
+        raise TypeError(
+            f"{exc} Expected 'AGENCY-ID' format, e.g., 'USGS-01646500'."
+        ) from None
     if value is None:
         return None
     if isinstance(value, str):

tests/waterdata_test.py

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import datetime
 import sys
+from unittest import mock
 
 import pandas as pd
 import pytest
@@ -407,9 +408,12 @@ def test_none_passes(self):
         assert _check_monitoring_location_id(None) is None
 
     def test_integer_raises_type_error(self):
-        """An integer ID raises TypeError with a helpful message."""
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="not int"):
+        """An integer ID raises TypeError with a helpful AGENCY-ID hint."""
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="not int") as exc_info:
             _check_monitoring_location_id(5129115)
+        # The wrapper appends the AGENCY-ID format hint that the generic
+        # helper alone doesn't carry.
+        assert "USGS-01646500" in str(exc_info.value)
 
     def test_integer_in_list_raises_type_error(self):
         """An integer inside a list raises TypeError."""
@@ -541,10 +545,8 @@ def test_get_daily_parameter_code_as_series(self):
         URL (or POST body). Post-fix, ``_normalize_str_iterable`` materializes
         it to ``list`` at the function boundary.
         """
-        from unittest import mock as _mock
-
-        with _mock.patch("dataretrieval.waterdata.api.get_ogc_data") as fake:
-            fake.return_value = (pd.DataFrame(), _mock.MagicMock(spec=[]))
+        with mock.patch("dataretrieval.waterdata.api.get_ogc_data") as fake:
+            fake.return_value = (pd.DataFrame(), mock.MagicMock(spec=[]))
             get_daily(
                 monitoring_location_id="USGS-05427718",
                 parameter_code=pd.Series(["00060", "00010"]),