JAVA - Removing non iterator element from iterating list

Question

I have a problem while going through this iterator loop, in which i go through each element of this.env, but within this list, wanting to remove a different element of said list. When I try to remove any item of said iterating list, I receive this error: java.util.ConcurrentModificationException, and as far as I understand this is caused due to modifying the iterating list without using iterator.remove().

Code:

public void envActions(IOHandler ioHandler, PlayerClass player){
    Iterator<WorldElement> worldElementIterator = this.env.iterator();
    while(worldElementIterator.hasNext()){
        WorldElement worldElement = worldElementIterator.next();
    //for(WorldElement worldElement:this.env){
        if(worldElement instanceof EntityClass){
            EntityClass entity=(EntityClass) worldElement;
            if(entity.nature.contains("hostile")){
                MonsterClass mEntity=(MonsterClass) entity;
                if(!(mEntity.attacks.size()*(Math.random()+0.25)>=mEntity.attacks.size())){
                    Double followerNum = (Math.random()*player.followers.size());
                    Integer followerNumInt=followerNum.intValue();
                    if(followerNumInt<2){
                        PlayerClass target=player;
                        Double attacknumD=mEntity.attacks.size()*Math.random();
                        Integer attacknum= attacknumD.intValue();
                        Integer playerarmor=player.getArmorValue();
                        int enemydamage=mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getDamage()*(1-(playerarmor/1000));
                        target.health=target.health-enemydamage;
                        ioHandler.printToConsole("\nThe "+mEntity.name+" attacked you with "+mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getAttack()+" and did "+mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getDamage()+" damage! you have "+player.health+" health left!");
                    } else {
                        FriendlyCreatureClass target=player.followers.get(followerNumInt);
                        Double attacknumD=mEntity.attacks.size()*Math.random();
                        Integer attacknum= attacknumD.intValue();
                        int enemydamage=mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getDamage();
                        target.health=target.health-enemydamage;
                        if(!target.isAlive()){
                            ioHandler.printToConsole("\nThe " + mEntity.name + " attacked " + target.name + " with " + mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getAttack() + " and did " + mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getDamage() + " damage! " + target.name+" died! Farewell "+target.name+".");
                            target.died(ioHandler, this, player, true);
                            //>>>> THIS IS WHERE I WOUlD LIKE TO REMOVE 'target' FROM THE env LIST <<<<
                        } else {
                            ioHandler.printToConsole("\nThe "+mEntity.name+" attacked "+target.name+" with "+mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getAttack()+" and did "+mEntity.attacks.get(attacknum).getDamage()+" damage! "+target.name+" has "+target.health+" health left!");
                        }
                    }
                }

Please have mercy with my coding skills, since I am only a beginner in java / Android, though any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If you are NOT using Iterator for whatever reason, you can collect the elements to be deleted in a Set when you are iterating over the collection, and after the loop you iterate over the Set and delete the elements from the original collection.

Note that this is only workable for small-sized collections.

HashSet toDelete = new HashSet();

for (...) {
    if (...)
       toDelete.add(item);
}
// end for

foreach (item in toDelete) {
    // delete from original collection
}

Otherwise, you can just call remove() on the iterator.