Comments on: Looping through Collections is fun in Java 5

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:55:36 +0000

I’ve been developing in Java for about 10 years now, and it seems I’m always re-writing the same code again and again. So I’ve decided that this time around I’m going to do it right…

randomCoder is an experiment of mine. It’s an open-ended site that contains tutorials and best practices on how to get common things done in Java EE development. In addition, all the code in use on the site is under a BSD license so that hopefully, not only do I not have to reinvent the wheel, but others won’t have to either.

I’ve also posted some libraries that I’ve written, including some common JSP taglibs and a J2EE security replacement. All of it is open-sourced, and available through Subversion.

By: nitinpai

nitinpai — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:30:01 +0000

Hi Craig,

I saw your site randomcoder.com. Could you please tell me something about it. What’s your objective in it?
Just was curious to know.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:20:47 +0000

Not a problem… I’m actually a bit disappointed as I was hoping there actually were some improvements in Java 6 in this regard.

Good article regardless.

By: nitinpai

nitinpai — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:16:30 +0000

@craig – I think I jumped on the bandwagon quite a bit late. I had not explored Java for a long time and I just mistook the features offered through the collections framework were of Java 6. But I have still seen people around me use the age old technique of using the Iterator and absorbed the for-each block as a feature of Java 6 since I use the JDK 1.6 api’s.

This post should have been of Java 5 instead of Java 6. Thanks for the clarification.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:13:05 +0000

Everything you mention in the article was already available in Java 5, including generics support and Iterable (custom iterators). Where I work, we have been using these features for years.

I’ve played a bit with Java 6, but haven’t noticed any changes in this area. What specifically has been added? I’d be curious to know, as there are currently some glaring annoyances with Java 5, like the fact that Iterators aren’t themselves Iterable, making looping over them more complicated than necessary.

By: nitinpai

nitinpai — Thu, 17 May 2007 08:13:22 +0000

@paulo – What is the purpose of of making a custom iterator? Could you please elaborate on the aspect you have stated.

@craig – yes I have mentioned that it was introduced in Java 5 but its use with generics is more easier to be worked upon in Java 6.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:34:19 +0000

Not to nitpick, but this feature was actually introduced in Java 5.

By: paulo

paulo — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:28:38 +0000

You can do more (ominous sound) you can make a custom iterator that implements iterable, and then you can use that iterator in the for each loop. That means you can make a “lazy list” that produces values on iteration. Of course you loose the index effect in a real lazy list, but that is really cool anyway