ITERATOR(3)								 1							       ITERATOR(3)

The Iterator interface

INTRODUCTION
Interface for external iterators or objects that can be iterated themselves internally. INTERFACE SYNOPSIS
Iterator Iteratorextends Traversable Methods o abstractpublic mixed Iterator::current (void ) o abstractpublic scalar Iterator::key (void ) o abstractpublic void Iterator::next (void ) o abstractpublic void Iterator::rewind (void ) o abstractpublic boolean Iterator::valid (void ) PREDEFINED ITERATORS
PHP already provides a number of iterators for many day to day tasks. See SPL iterators for a list. EXAMPLES
Example #1 Basic usage This example demonstrates in which order methods are called when using foreach with an iterator. <?php class myIterator implements Iterator { private $position = 0; private $array = array( "firstelement", "secondelement", "lastelement", ); public function __construct() { $this->position = 0; } function rewind() { var_dump(__METHOD__); $this->position = 0; } function current() { var_dump(__METHOD__); return $this->array[$this->position]; } function key() { var_dump(__METHOD__); return $this->position; } function next() { var_dump(__METHOD__); ++$this->position; } function valid() { var_dump(__METHOD__); return isset($this->array[$this->position]); } } $it = new myIterator; foreach($it as $key => $value) { var_dump($key, $value); echo " "; } ?> The above example will output something similar to: string(18) "myIterator::rewind" string(17) "myIterator::valid" string(19) "myIterator::current" string(15) "myIterator::key" int(0) string(12) "firstelement" string(16) "myIterator::next" string(17) "myIterator::valid" string(19) "myIterator::current" string(15) "myIterator::key" int(1) string(13) "secondelement" string(16) "myIterator::next" string(17) "myIterator::valid" string(19) "myIterator::current" string(15) "myIterator::key" int(2) string(11) "lastelement" string(16) "myIterator::next" string(17) "myIterator::valid" PHP Documentation Group ITERATOR(3)