Iterate through List in Java Example

Iterate through List Java example shows how to iterate over a List using for loop, enhanced for loop, Iterator, ListIterator, while loop and Java 8 forEach.

How to iterate through List in Java?

Let’s first create a List object and add some elements to it.

//create a new List

List<Employee> employeeList = new ArrayList<Employee>();

//add employee objects to the list

employeeList.add( new Employee("E01", "Raj", "IT") );

employeeList.add( new Employee("E02", "Jason", "Marketing") );

employeeList.add( new Employee("E03", "Robert", "Supply Chain") );

employeeList.add( new Employee("E04", "Vicky", "Logistics") );

employeeList.add( new Employee("E05", "Rita", "IT") );

We have added several Employee objects to our ArrayList.

There are several ways you can iterate over a List or List implementations like the LinkedList or an ArrayList as given below.

1) Iterate through List using an Iterator

You can get the Iterator object from the list using the iterator method to iterate over a list as given below.

//get Iterator using iterator method of the List

Iterator<Employee> itrEmployees = employeeList.iterator();

while( itrEmployees.hasNext() )

System.out.println( itrEmployees.next() );

2) Using the ListIterator

You can get the ListIterator object from the List object using the listIterator method of List to iterate as given below.

//get ListIterator using listIterator method of the List

ListIterator<Employee> listItrEmployees = employeeList.listIterator();

while( listItrEmployees.hasNext() )

System.out.println( listItrEmployees.next() );

3) Using a for loop

This is the simplest approach of all. You can use a for loop and loop from index 0 to the size of the list – 1 and access the list elements as given below.

for(int i = 0; i < employeeList.size(); i++){

System.out.println( employeeList.get(i) );

}

4) Using enhanced for loop

For Java 1.5 version and above, you can use enhanced for loop as well.

for(Employee emp : employeeList){

System.out.println( emp );

}

5) Using while loop

You can even use a while loop to access the list elements. Maintain the list index in a separate variable and increment it each time you access the list as given below.

int listIndex = 0;

while( listIndex < employeeList.size() ){

System.out.println( employeeList.get(listIndex) );

//increment list index by 1

listIndex++;

}

6) Using Java 8 forEach

If you are using Java 8 or a later version, you can use the forEach construct to iterate.

1	employeeList.forEach( employee -> System.out.println(employee) );

See Also:

This example is a part of the Java ArrayList tutorial.

Please let me know your views in the comments section below.

Author
Recent Posts

Rahim

I have a master's degree in computer science and over 18 years of experience designing and developing Java applications. I have worked with many fortune 500 companies as an eCommerce Architect. Follow me on LinkedIn and Facebook.