Iterator and Collection, both has helped and comforted the programmers at many a times. But there usage and application has a very wide difference.
Iterator
Decleration
public interface Iterator
Type Parameters:
E - the type of elements returned by this iterator
Iterators are used in Collection framework in Java to retrieve elements one by one.
Method Summary
Modifier and Type Method Description
default void forEachRemaining(Consumer<? super E> action) Performs the given action for each remaining element until all elements have been processed or the action throws an exception.
boolean hasNext() Returns true if the iteration has more elements.
E next() Returns the next element in the iteration.
default void remove() Removes from the underlying collection the last element returned by this iterator (optional operation).
Collection
Declaration:
public interface Collection<E> extends Iterable<E>
Type Parameters:
E - the type of elements returned by this iterator
A Collection is a group of individual objects represented as a single unit. Java provides Collection Framework which defines several classes and interfaces to represent a group of objects as a single unit.
Method Summary
Modifier and Type Method Description
- boolean add(E e) Ensures that this collection contains the specified element (optional operation).
- boolean addAll(Collection<? extends E> c) Adds all of the elements in the specified collection to this collection (optional operation).
- void clear() Removes all of the elements from this collection (optional operation).
- boolean contains(Object o) Returns true if this collection contains the specified element.
- boolean containsAll(Collection<?> c) Returns true if this collection contains all of the elements in the specified collection.
- boolean equals(Object o) Compares the specified object with this collection for equality.
- int hashCode() Returns the hash code value for this collection.
- boolean isEmpty() Returns true if this collection contains no elements.
- Iterator<E> iterator() Returns an iterator over the elements in this collection.
- default Stream<E> parallelStream() Returns a possibly parallel Stream with this collection as its source.
- boolean remove(Object o) Removes a single instance of the specified element from this collection, if it is present (optional operation).
- boolean removeAll(Collection<?> c) Removes all of this collection’s elements that are also contained in the specified collection (optional operation).
- default boolean removeIf(Predicate<? super E> filter) Removes all of the elements of this collection that satisfy the given predicate.
- boolean retainAll(Collection<?> c) Retains only the elements in this collection that are contained in the specified collection (optional operation).
- int size() Returns the number of elements in this collection.
- default Spliterator<E> spliterator() Creates a Spliterator over the elements in this collection.
- default Stream<E> stream() Returns a sequential Stream with this collection as its source.
- Object[] toArray() Returns an array containing all of the elements in this collection.
- T[] toArray(T[] a) Returns an array containing all of the elements in this collection; the runtime type of the returned array is that of the specified array.
Iterator Vs. Collection
- Iterator can only move to next() element or remove() an element.
- However Collection can add(), iterate, remove() or clear() the elements of the collection.
- Iterator provides a better speed than Collections, as the Iterator interface has limited number of operations.
- java.sql.SQLException extends Iterable. Hence it allows the caller to safely iterate over causes of SQLException.
- Using a collection, in this case, would be expensive because, in a chain of n exceptions, use of a collection in the SQLException interface would potentially require the construction of O(n^2) elements.
- However, use of Iterable provides O(n) access to the exception chain.