The basic for loop was extended in Java 5 to make iteration over arrays and other collections more convenient.
Tutorial Details:
The basic for loop was extended in Java 5 to make iteration over arrays and other collections more convenient. This newer for statement is called the enhanced for or for-each (because it is called this in other programming languages). I've also heard it called the for-in loop.
Use it in preference to the standard for loop if applicable (see last section below) because it's much more readable.
Series of values. The for-each loop is used to access each successive value in a collection of values.
Arrays and Collections. It's commonly used to iterate over an array or a Collections class (eg, ArrayList).
Iterable. It can also iterate over anything that implements the Iterable interface (must define iterator() method). Many of the Collections classes (eg, ArrayList) implement Iterable, which makes the for-each loop very useful. You can also implement Iterable for your own data structures.
Enhance looping in Java 5.0 with for/in
The for/in loop -- often called either enhanced for or foreach is largely a convenience feature in Java 5.0. It doesn\\'t really offer any new functionality, but certainly makes several routine coding tasks simpler.