Can we use iterator in ArrayList?

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Java - how to use Iterator with ArrayList

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Can we use iterator in ArrayList?
Violet-Hoffman
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In this article, we would like to show you how to use iterator with ArrayList in Java.

Quick solution:

Iterator myIterator = myArrayList.iterator(); while (myIterator.hasNext()) { System.out.print(myIterator.next() + " "); }

Introduction

Iterator is an object that can be used to loop through collections. In this article, we will focus on the ArrayList collection and loop through it.

Create iterator

To use Iterator, the first thing we need to do is obtain it from a Collection. To do so, we use iterator() method in the following way:

List myArrayList = ... Iterator myIterator = myArrayList.iterator();

Iterator methods

  • hasNext() -checksif there is at least one element left to iterate over, it's commonlyused as a condition in while loops.
  • next() -stepsover the next element and obtainsit.

Practical example

In this example, we create an iterator for letters ArrayList to display all the elements in the proper order.

import java.util.*; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { List letters = new ArrayList<>(); letters.add("A"); letters.add("B"); letters.add("C"); // create an iterator Iterator myIterator = letters.iterator(); // display values after iterating through the ArrayList System.out.println("The iterator values of the list are: "); while (myIterator.hasNext()) { System.out.print(myIterator.next() + " "); } } }

Output:

The iterator values of the list are: A B C