What is the difference between iterator and iterable and how to use them?

Question

I am new in Java and I'm really confused with iterator and iterable. Can anyone explain to me and give some examples?

Answer 1

An Iterable is a simple representation of a series of elements that can be iterated over. It does not have any iteration state such as a "current element". Instead, it has one method that produces an Iterator.

An Iterator is the object with iteration state. It lets you check if it has more elements using hasNext() and move to the next element (if any) using next().

Typically, an Iterable should be able to produce any number of valid Iterators.

Answer 2

An implementation of Iterable is one that provides an Iterator of itself:

public interface Iterable<T> {     Iterator<T> iterator(); } 

An iterator is a simple way of allowing some to loop through a collection of data without assignment privileges (though with ability to remove).

public interface Iterator<E> {     boolean hasNext();     E next();     void remove(); } 

See Javadoc.