Can we write our own iterator in Java?

Question

If I have a list containing [alice, bob, abigail, charlie] and I want to write an iterator such that it iterates over elements that begin with 'a', can I write my own ? How can I do that ?

Answer 1

The best reusable option is to implement the interface Iterable and override the method iterator().

Here's an example of a an ArrayList like class implementing the interface, in which you override the method Iterator().

import java.util.Iterator;  public class SOList<Type> implements Iterable<Type> {      private Type[] arrayList;     private int currentSize;      public SOList(Type[] newArray) {         this.arrayList = newArray;         this.currentSize = arrayList.length;     }      @Override     public Iterator<Type> iterator() {         Iterator<Type> it = new Iterator<Type>() {              private int currentIndex = 0;              @Override             public boolean hasNext() {                 return currentIndex < currentSize && arrayList[currentIndex] != null;             }              @Override             public Type next() {                 return arrayList[currentIndex++];             }              @Override             public void remove() {                 throw new UnsupportedOperationException();             }         };         return it;     } } 

This class implements the Iterable interface using Generics. Considering you have elements to the array, you will be able to get an instance of an Iterator, which is the needed instance used by the "foreach" loop, for instance.

You can just create an anonymous instance of the iterator without creating extending Iterator and take advantage of the value of currentSize to verify up to where you can navigate over the array (let's say you created an array with capacity of 10, but you have only 2 elements at 0 and 1). The instance will have its owner counter of where it is and all you need to do is to play with hasNext(), which verifies if the current value is not null, and the next(), which will return the instance of your currentIndex. Below is an example of using this API...

public static void main(String[] args) {     // create an array of type Integer     Integer[] numbers = new Integer[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5};      // create your list and hold the values.     SOList<Integer> stackOverflowList = new SOList<Integer>(numbers);      // Since our class SOList is an instance of Iterable, then we can use it on a foreach loop     for(Integer num : stackOverflowList) {         System.out.print(num);     }      // creating an array of Strings     String[] languages = new String[]{"C", "C++", "Java", "Python", "Scala"};      // create your list and hold the values using the same list implementation.     SOList<String> languagesList = new SOList<String>(languages);      System.out.println("");     // Since our class SOList is an instance of Iterable, then we can use it on a foreach loop     for(String lang : languagesList) {         System.out.println(lang);     } } // will print "12345 //C //C++ //Java //Python //Scala 

If you want, you can iterate over it as well using the Iterator instance:

// navigating the iterator while (allNumbers.hasNext()) {     Integer value = allNumbers.next();     if (allNumbers.hasNext()) {         System.out.print(value + ", ");     } else {         System.out.print(value);     } }  // will print 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

The foreach documentation is located at http://download.oracle.com/javase/1,5.0/docs/guide/language/foreach.html. You can take a look at a more complete implementation at my personal practice google code.

Now, to get the effects of what you need I think you need to plug a concept of a filter in the Iterator... Since the iterator depends on the next values, it would be hard to return true on hasNext(), and then filter the next() implementation with a value that does not start with a char "a" for instance. I think you need to play around with a secondary Interator based on a filtered list with the values with the given filter.

Answer 2

Sure. An iterator is just an implementation of the java.util.Iterator interface. If you're using an existing iterable object (say, a LinkedList) from java.util, you'll need to either subclass it and override its iterator function so that you return your own, or provide a means of wrapping a standard iterator in your special Iterator instance (which has the advantage of being more broadly used), etc.