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For-each statement in Java

For-each statement in Java

// array of numbers int[] numbers = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; // for-each loop that prints each number in numbers // int num is the handle while numbers is the source array for (int num : numbers) { System.out.println(num); }

In Java, the for-each statement allows you to directly loop through each item in an array or ArrayList and perform some action with each item.

When creating a for-each statement, you must include the for keyword and two expressions inside of parentheses, separated by a colon. These include:

  1. The handle for an element we’re currently iterating over.

  2. The source array or ArrayList we’re iterating over.

Learn Java: Loops
Lesson 1 of 1
  1. 1
    In the programming world, we hate repeating ourselves. There are two reasons for this: - Writing the same code over and over is time-consuming. - Having less code means having less to debug. But w…
  2. 2
    A while loop looks a bit like an if statement: while (silliness > 10) { // code to run } Like an if statement, the code inside a while loop will only run if the condition is true. However, a…
  3. 3
    When looping through code, it’s common to use a counter variable. A counter (also known as an iterator) is a variable used in the conditional logic of the loop and (usually) incremented in valu…
  4. 4
    Incrementing with loops is actually so common in programming that Java (like many other programming languages) includes syntax specifically to address this pattern: for loops. A for loop brings t…
  5. 5
    for loops aren’t just a nicer syntax; they also help us remember to increment our counter — something that is easy to forget when we increment with a while loop. Leaving out that line of code would…
  6. 6
    One common pattern you’ll encounter as a programmer is looping through a list of data and doing something with each item. In Java, that list would be an array or ArrayList and the loop could be a f…
  7. 7
    Sometimes we need access to the elements’ indices or we only want to iterate through a portion of a list. If that’s the case, a regular for loop is a great choice. But sometimes we couldn’t care le…
  8. 8
    Nice work! Let’s iterate over what you’ve just learned about loops: - while loops: These are useful to repeat a code block an unknown number of times until some condition is met. For example: int…

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