Iterator Pattern

The Iterator Pattern

Collections are one of the most commonly used data structures in software engineering. A Collection is just a group of objects. A collection can be a List, an array, a map, a tree or anything. So, a collection should provide some way to access its elements without exposing its internal structure. We should be able to traverse it in a same irrespective of type of collection it is.

The iterator pattern idea is to take the responsibility of accessing the object of a collection and put it in an iterator object. The iterator object in return will maintain the order of iteration, keep a track of current item and must be having a way to fetch the next element.

Usually, the collection class carries two components: the class itself, and it’s Iterator.

public interface Iterator {
   public boolean hasNext();
   public Object next();
}

public class FruitsList {
    public String fruits[] = {"Banana", "Apple", "Pear", "Peach", "Blueberry"};

    public Iterator getIterator() {
       return new FruitIterator();
    }

    private class FruitIterator implements Iterator {
       int index;

       @Override
       public boolean hasNext() {
           return index < fruits.length;
       }

       @Override
       public Object next() {
   
          if(this.hasNext()) {
            return names[index++];
          }
          return null;
       }        
    }
}