The For-Loop: The For-Each Version of the For-Loop
For loop is the one of the basic control flow statement which is used to iterate and execute the same code again and again till the condition is matched. We already know the basic format of a for loop:
for (initialization; test; update){
/ to execute
}.
Introduction to “foreach” loop
In JDK5 this version was enhanced to produce a second form of for loop, i.e., the for-each loop. This loop is designed to run through a collection of objects, e.g. array, list, set etc in a sequential manner from the start to the end. Many languages such as c# implement the for-each style of the loop using the keyword ‘foreach‘ but in Java, the for-each loop can be implemented without the use of any new keyword. The syntax of the for-each loop is given below:
for(type itr_var : collection) {
Statement block
}We see that no new keyword is used in the for-each block and it looks very simple when compared to the traditional for loop. This is the reason why the for-each loop is also known as the enhanced for loop. In the syntax, the type refers to the type of the collection objects, e.g. the type of the elements of the array. Itr_var refers to the iteration variable which is very much like the iteration variable used in the traditional for loop for running through the entire data. It extracts and stores one element at a time from the beginning to the end. The collection refers to the collection of objects or data which is being used, e.g. an array. Any other type of collection can be used with the for-each loop. And the statement block iterates through the entire collection from the beginning to the end until all the elements are exhausted. Here is a program which shows the use of the for-each loop:
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Output:-
The average of the numbers in the array is : 5
Use of ‘break/continue’ in the for-each loop
Now, we see that for-each loop runs from the start to the end but the question that arises here is that can we end the loop before we reach the end of the collection??
The answer is yes. We can simply use the break statement to exit the loop any moment as desired. The following program shows how to exit the loop before the end of the collection.
We can also use continue keyword in case we want to skip some values during the iteration. For detail understanding let’s understand through an example –
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Output:-
The sum of the numbers(till 7) in the array is : 30
The sum of the numbers(except 7) in the array is : 50
For-Each iteration variable is ‘read-only’
Another important thing to be noted about the for-each loop is that the iteration variable is ‘read-only’, i.e. any changes made to the iteration variable in the loop does not affect the value of the elements of the collection. Or we cannot change the value of the array elements by changing the value of the iteration variable. For example:
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Output:-
The original array elements are :
3 6 1 4 9 7 4 6 2 8
Array elements after changes being made to n :
3 6 1 4 9 7 4 6 2 8
We see that the output remains the same. Hence, we can conclude that the changes made to the iteration variable have no effect on the collection elements.
Note: If the data contained is of Object type and some parameter value of the object is updated then it will reflect in the object whenever accessed again. It is because foreach loop does not clone the object and you have updated the value in the Object itself.
Using the For-Each Loop in Multi-dimensional Arrays
The for-each loop also works for multidimensional arrays. In this case, we have to work with the basic principle that a multidimensional array is actually an array of arrays; example a 2D array is just an array of multiple 1D arrays. The outer loop obtains an array for every iteration and the inner loop access the elements of the array. The following example shows this concept:
/**
* Program to print the elements in a 2D array
*/
public class ForEachMultiDim {
public static void main(String args[]) {
int num[][] = { { 3, 6, 1 }, { 4, 9, 7 }, { 4, 6, 2 } };
//the for-each loop: integer type data with n[] as the iteration variable used to access the array num[][]
for (int n[] : num) {
//The inner loop with iteration variable x used to access the multiple 1D arrays accessed by n[]
for (int x : n) {
System.out.print(x + " ");
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}
Output:-
3 6 1
4 9 7
4 6 2
Applications of the For-Each Loop
An important advantage of the for-each loop over the traditional for loop is that in the latter we need to manually index the array with the iteration variable and assign the end of the loop condition and also update the iteration variable. All these three lines are combined to form a single line in the for-each loop and automate the process.
Due to its simplicity and efficiency, the for-each loop is found useful in many cases. A large number of algorithms follow the loop’s principle of sequential iteration from start to the end. Eg: calculating the sum or average, minimum and maximum, linear search, redundancy check, etc.
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