structure
Class ArrayIterator<ELTTYPE>

java.lang.Object
  structure.AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>
      structure.ArrayIterator<ELTTYPE>

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.util.Enumeration<ELTTYPE>, java.util.Iterator<ELTTYPE>

public class ArrayIterator<ELTTYPE>
extends AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>

A conveniece class that provies a mechanism to iterate over arrays that is analogous to the iteration techniques employed by the structures in this package.

Example Usage:

To prove that loops are faster than iteration we could use the following:

 public static void main(String[] argv){
        //a randomly generated test string
        String testString = "For loops are much faster than iterators";

        //an array over which to iterate
        String[] test = new String[10000000];
        
        //longs to calculate lenght of computation
        long start, finish, iteration, looping;

        //populate test array with our test string
        for(int i=0; i<test.length; i++) test[i] = testString;
        
        //compute test for iteration
        start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for(Iterator i = new ArrayIterator(test); i.hasNext();i.next()){}
        finish = System.currentTimeMillis();
        iteration = finish - start;
        System.out.println("Iteration over array took " + iteration + 
                           " milliseconds to perform.");

        //compute test for looping
        start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for(int i=0; i<test.length; i++){}
        finish = System.currentTimeMillis();
        looping = finish - start;
        System.out.println("Looping over array took " + (finish-start) + 
                           " milliseconds to perform.");
        
        System.out.println("Iterators are " + (iteration/(double)looping) + " times " +
                           "slower than loops.");
 }
 

Constructor Summary

ArrayIterator(ELTTYPE[] source)
Construct an iterator that iterates over the entire contents of an array.

ArrayIterator(ELTTYPE[] source, int first, int size)
Constructs an iterator that will iterate over a specified portion of the source array.

Method Summary

ELTTYPE	get() Return the object currently specified by the iteration without advancing the iterator to the next object.
boolean	hasNext() Returns true iff there are elements specified by our iterator that have not been visited by the current iteration.
static void	main(java.lang.String[] argv) test code to prove that iterators are slower than for loops
ELTTYPE	next() Return the next object in our iteration and advance the iterator to the next object in the iteration.
void	reset() Return the iteration to the original state specified by the constructor.

Methods inherited from class structure.AbstractIterator

hasMoreElements, nextElement, remove, value

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

ArrayIterator

public ArrayIterator(ELTTYPE[] source)

Construct an iterator that iterates over the entire contents of an array.

Parameters:

source - The array over which to iterate.

ArrayIterator

public ArrayIterator(ELTTYPE[] source,
                     int first,
                     int size)

Constructs an iterator that will iterate over a specified portion of the source array.

Parameters:

source - The array over which to iterate.

first - The index at which we will start our iteration.

size - The number of elements following that start index that are to be iterated over.

Method Detail

reset

public void reset()

Return the iteration to the original state specified by the constructor.

Specified by:

reset in class AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>

Post:

The iteration is returned to its original state.

hasNext

public boolean hasNext()

Returns true iff there are elements specified by our iterator that have not been visited by the current iteration.

Specified by:

hasNext in interface java.util.Iterator<ELTTYPE>

Specified by:

hasNext in class AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>

Returns:

True iff there are elements specified by our iterator that have not been visited by the current iteration.

See Also:

AbstractIterator.hasMoreElements()

next

public ELTTYPE next()

Return the next object in our iteration and advance the iterator to the next object in the iteration.

Specified by:

next in interface java.util.Iterator<ELTTYPE>

Specified by:

next in class AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>

Returns:

The next object in our iteration.

See Also:

AbstractIterator.hasMoreElements(), AbstractIterator.value()

get

public ELTTYPE get()

Return the object currently specified by the iteration without advancing the iterator to the next object.

Specified by:

get in class AbstractIterator<ELTTYPE>

Returns:

The next object in our iteration.

main

public static void main(java.lang.String[] argv)

test code to prove that iterators are slower than for loops