org.apache.commons.collections.iterators

Class ObjectGraphIterator

java.lang.Object

org.apache.commons.collections.iterators.ObjectGraphIterator

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.util.Iterator

public class ObjectGraphIterator
extends java.lang.Object
implements java.util.Iterator

An Iterator that can traverse multiple iterators down an object graph.

This iterator can extract multiple objects from a complex tree-like object graph. The iteration starts from a single root object. It uses a Transformer to extract the iterators and elements. Its main benefit is that no intermediate List is created.

For example, consider an object graph:

                 |- Branch -- Leaf
                 |         \- Leaf
         |- Tree |         /- Leaf
         |       |- Branch -- Leaf
  Forest |                 \- Leaf
         |       |- Branch -- Leaf
         |       |         \- Leaf
         |- Tree |         /- Leaf
                 |- Branch -- Leaf
                 |- Branch -- Leaf

The following Transformer, used in this class, will extract all the Leaf objects without creating a combined intermediate list:

 public Object transform(Object input) {
   if (input instanceof Forest) {
     return ((Forest) input).treeIterator();
   }
   if (input instanceof Tree) {
     return ((Tree) input).branchIterator();
   }
   if (input instanceof Branch) {
     return ((Branch) input).leafIterator();
   }
   if (input instanceof Leaf) {
     return input;
   }
   throw new ClassCastException();
 }

Internally, iteration starts from the root object. When next is called, the transformer is called to examine the object. The transformer will return either an iterator or an object. If the object is an Iterator, the next element from that iterator is obtained and the process repeats. If the element is an object it is returned.

Under many circumstances, linking Iterators together in this manner is more efficient (and convenient) than using nested for loops to extract a list.

Since:

Commons Collections 3.1

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
ObjectGraphIterator(java.util.Iterator rootIterator) Constructs a ObjectGraphIterator that will handle an iterator of iterators.
ObjectGraphIterator(java.lang.Object root, Transformer transformer) Constructs an ObjectGraphIterator using a root object and transformer.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
boolean	hasNext() Checks whether there are any more elements in the iteration to obtain.
java.lang.Object	next() Gets the next element of the iteration.
void	remove() Removes from the underlying collection the last element returned.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

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

Methods inherited from interface java.util.Iterator

forEachRemaining

Constructor Detail

ObjectGraphIterator

public ObjectGraphIterator(java.lang.Object root,
                           Transformer transformer)

Constructs an ObjectGraphIterator using a root object and transformer.

The root object can be an iterator, in which case it will be immediately looped around.

Parameters:

root - the root object, null will result in an empty iterator

transformer - the transformer to use, null will use a no effect transformer

ObjectGraphIterator

public ObjectGraphIterator(java.util.Iterator rootIterator)

Constructs a ObjectGraphIterator that will handle an iterator of iterators.

This constructor exists for convenience to emphasise that this class can be used to iterate over nested iterators. That is to say that the iterator passed in here contains other iterators, which may in turn contain further iterators.

Parameters:

rootIterator - the root iterator, null will result in an empty iterator

Method Detail

hasNext

public boolean hasNext()

Checks whether there are any more elements in the iteration to obtain.

Specified by:

hasNext in interface java.util.Iterator

Returns:

true if elements remain in the iteration

next

public java.lang.Object next()

Gets the next element of the iteration.

Specified by:

next in interface java.util.Iterator

Returns:

the next element from the iteration

Throws:

java.util.NoSuchElementException - if all the Iterators are exhausted

remove

public void remove()

Removes from the underlying collection the last element returned.

This method calls remove() on the underlying Iterator and it may throw an UnsupportedOperationException if the underlying Iterator does not support this method.

Specified by:

remove in interface java.util.Iterator

Throws:

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException - if the remove operator is not supported by the underlying Iterator

java.lang.IllegalStateException - if the next method has not yet been called, or the remove method has already been called after the last call to the next method.