java - iterating a linked list

tomermes picture tomermes · Jan 22, 2011 · Viewed 117.9k times · Source

if I use a for-each loop on a linked list in java, is it guaranteed that I will iterate on the elements in the order in which they appear in the list?

Answer

Gherbi Hicham picture Gherbi Hicham · Jun 25, 2016

I found 5 main ways to iterate over a Linked List in Java (including the Java 8 way):

  1. For Loop
  2. Enhanced For Loop
  3. While Loop
  4. Iterator
  5. Collections’s stream() util (Java8)

For loop

LinkedList<String> linkedList = new LinkedList<>();
System.out.println("==> For Loop Example.");
for (int i = 0; i < linkedList.size(); i++) {
    System.out.println(linkedList.get(i));
}

Enhanced for loop

for (String temp : linkedList) {
    System.out.println(temp);
}

While loop

int i = 0;
while (i < linkedList.size()) {
    System.out.println(linkedList.get(i));
    i++;
}

Iterator

Iterator<String> iterator = linkedList.iterator();
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
    System.out.println(iterator.next()); 
}

collection stream() util (Java 8)

linkedList.forEach((temp) -> {
    System.out.println(temp);
});

One thing should be pointed out is that the running time of For Loop or While Loop is O(n square) because get(i) operation takes O(n) time(see this for details). The other 3 ways take linear time and performs better.