Collections: Iterators

Python

Java

An iterator is an object that supports the traversal of a collection. The PVM automatically uses an iterator whenever it sees a for loop.

The iter function expects an iterable collection as an argument and returns an iterator object for that collection.

Example:

i = iter([1, 2, 3])

An iterator tracks a current position pointer to an element in the collection. The iterator method next() advances this pointer and returns the most recently visited element.

Example:

print i.next(), i.next(), i.next()

When next has returned the last element in the collection, any subsequent call of next will raise a StopIteration exception. When the programmer is finished using an iterator, it should be closed by using the close() method.

To traverse all of the elements with an iterator, embed the call of next in a try/except statement, as follows:

while True:

try:

element = i.next()

# process element

except StopIteration:

i.close()

break

An iterator is an object that supports the traversal of a collection. The compiler generates code that uses an iterator whenever it sees an enhanced for loop.

All collections implement the Iterable interface. This interface includes a single method, iterator(), which returns an iterator object.

An iterator object implements the Iterator interface. This interface includes the methods next(), hastNext(), and remove().

Like collections, iterators can be generic. Thus, the generic collection’s element type must be specified when a variable of type Iterator is declared.

Example use:

# Create a list of strings

List<String> lyst = new ArrayList<String>();

# Add some strings to lyst

# Open an iterator on lyst

Iterator<String> i = lyst.iterator();

# Print all the strings in lyst using the iterator

while (i.hasNext()){

String s = i.next();

System.out.println(s);

}

Index