Java LinkedList safest way to delete while iterating

Question

I remember from a while back (I think it was some Java book) that the safest way to delete an element while iterating through a collection is using iterator.remove.

 while(iterator.hasNext())
 {
    if(it.next().condition())
      iterator.remove();
 }

As I cannot find that reference and need a relative quick confirmation, can some java veteran confirm this?

Answer 1

This is the only legal way to structurally modify a LinkedList during iteration.

Any other way of removing an element from a linked list during iteration will (if you're lucky) throw a ConcurrentModificationException.

From the documentation:

The iterators returned by this class's iterator and listIterator methods are fail-fast: if the list is structurally modified at any time after the iterator is created, in any way except through the Iterator's own remove or add methods, the iterator will throw a ConcurrentModificationException.