The Iterator interface

(PHP 5, PHP 7)

Introduction

Interface for external iterators or objects that can be iterated themselves internally.

Interface synopsis

Iterator extends Traversable {
/* Methods */
abstract public current ( void ) : mixed
abstract public key ( void ) : scalar
abstract public next ( void ) : void
abstract public rewind ( void ) : void
abstract public valid ( void ) : bool
}

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;
    }

    public function rewind() {
        var_dump(__METHOD__);
        $this->position = 0;
    }

    public function current() {
        var_dump(__METHOD__);
        return $this->array[$this->position];
    }

    public function key() {
        var_dump(__METHOD__);
        return $this->position;
    }

    public function next() {
        var_dump(__METHOD__);
        ++$this->position;
    }

    public function valid() {
        var_dump(__METHOD__);
        return isset($this->array[$this->position]);
    }
}

$it = new myIterator;

foreach($it as $key => $value) {
    var_dump($key, $value);
    echo "\n";
}
?>

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"

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