Java ListIterator interface

Java ListIterator interface is bi-directional iterator which is used to iterate over the elements of list in either direction previous or next.

We can obtain the reference to list iterator for any given list using list.listIterator() method call. Follow given ListIterator syntax.

ListIterator<T> listIterator = list.listIterator();

1. Java ListIterator Features

Following is a list of features provided by ListIterator in Java.

  1. ListIterator is available since Java 1.2.
  2. ListIterator extends Iterator interface.
  3. ListIterator is applicable only for List implemented classes.
  4. Unlike Iterator, ListIterator supports all CRUD operations (CREATE, READ, UPDATE and DELETE) over a list of elements.
  5. Unlike Iterator, ListIterator is bi-directional. It supports both forward direction and backward direction iterations.
  6. It has no current element; its cursor position always lies between the element that would be returned by a call to previous() and the element that would be returned by a call to next().

2. Java ListIterator Example

Let’s start with a simple Java example of ListIterator to iterate over elements of an ArrayList. Please note that array indices start with '0'.

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
        
list.add("A");
list.add("B");
list.add("C");
list.add("D");
list.add("E");
list.add("F");

ListIterator<String> listIterator = list.listIterator();

System.out.println("Forward iteration");

//Forward iterator
while(listIterator.hasNext()) {
    System.out.print(listIterator.next() + ",");
}

System.out.println("Backward iteration");

//Backward iterator
while(listIterator.hasPrevious()) {
    System.out.print(listIterator.previous() + ",");
}

System.out.println("Iteration from specified position");
        
//Start iterating from index 2
listIterator = list.listIterator(2);

while(listIterator.hasNext()) {
    System.out.print(listIterator.next() + ",");
}

Program Output.

Forward iteration
A,B,C,D,E,F,

Backward iteration
F,E,D,C,B,A,

Iteration from specified position
C,D,E,F,

3. Java ListIterator Methods

  1. void add(Object o) : Inserts the specified element into the list (optional operation).
  2. boolean hasNext() : Returns true if this list iterator has more elements when traversing the list in the forward direction.
  3. boolean hasPrevious() : Returns true if this list iterator has more elements when traversing the list in the reverse direction.
  4. Object next() : Returns the next element in the list and advances the cursor position.
  5. int nextIndex() : Returns the index of the element that would be returned by a subsequent call to next().
  6. Object previous() : Returns the previous element in the list and moves the cursor position backwards.
  7. int previousIndex() : Returns the index of the element that would be returned by a subsequent call to previous().
  8. void remove() : Removes from the list the last element that was returned by next() or previous() (optional operation).
  9. void set(Object o) : Replaces the last element returned by next() or previous() with the specified element (optional operation).

4. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned the Java ListIterator interface. We learned the ListIterator methods and simple examples to iterate over list elements in forward and backward direction.

Drop me your questions in comments section.

Happy Learning !!

References:

ListIterator Interface Java Docs

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