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javaiterator

How to randomly access data from a Java Iterator

I get an Iterator back from a class and I would like to get the xth element of that iterator. I know I could load it into an ArrayList in a loop or check a counter, but that seems inefficient/ugly. What is the best way to do this?

I thought something like, 

List al = new ArrayList(myIterator);
  myval = al.get(6);

But that constructor is undefined. thanks.

Solution

  • Nope, you've named the only approaches. You're going to end up needing a for loop to iterate to the appropriate position.

    A few utility libraries have shortcuts to load an Iterator's contents into an ArrayList, or to get the nth element of an Iterator, but there's nothing built into the JDK.