For vs. For Each loops?

**jean28** · February 5th, 2013, 02:07 PM

I am a bit new to for each loops and I'm trying to understand what are the main differences between them when working with arrays. Is there any particular set where the for each is more convenient? Is the for each basically saying for (int i = 0; i <= array.length(); i++) { array[0]} ???

Thanks.

**KevinWorkman** · February 5th, 2013, 02:17 PM

Let's say you have an array of Strings:

String[] animals = {"cats", "dogs", "lizards"};

Then this:

for(String s : animals){
   System.out.println(s);
}

...is equivalent to this:

for(int i = 0; i < animals.length; i++){
   String s = animals[i];
   System.out.println(s);
}

It's a little more complicated than that for collections, but for arrays that's pretty much all that's happening. You should choose whichever makes more sense to you, there really isn't a huge benefit of one over the other, except for a few keystrokes.

**Norm** · February 5th, 2013, 04:11 PM

One difference is when using a for each with a collection. The "hidden code" uses an iterator which can cause problems if the contents of the collection are changed in the loop.

When deleting elements from an arraylist I like to start at the last element and move towards the first element so there are no changes in the indexes to the elements to be looked at next.

**jean28** · February 5th, 2013, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by Norm

One difference is when using a for each with a collection. The "hidden code" uses an iterator which can cause problems if the contents of the collection are changed in the loop.

When deleting elements from an arraylist I like to start at the last element and move towards the first element so there are no changes in the indexes to the elements to be looked at next.

So I will always need to implement the iterator interface if I am making my own collection?

**Norm** · February 5th, 2013, 06:19 PM

need to implement the iterator interface if I am making my own collection?

What do you mean by "making your own collection"? Are you writing a class that implements Collection? It has a lot of methods that you will have to implement.

**jean28** · February 5th, 2013, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by Norm

What do you mean by "making your own collection"? Are you writing a class that implements Collection? It has a lot of methods that you will have to implement.

In my class the professor was showing us a "Bag" program that he was writing and it was a collection. He told us that a way to be able to iterate the Bag program was to put a subclass called BagIterator which implements Iterator and later he was able to use a for each loop to iterate the specific class where he was declaring all the methods in "Bag".

**Norm** · February 5th, 2013, 06:27 PM

I was talking about the java interface: Collection

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