.spliterator()

AntrikshDangi's avatar
Published Dec 28, 2023
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In Java, a Spliterator is an interface introduced in Java 8 as part of the Stream API(Application Programming Interface). It provides a way to perform parallel traversal over the elements of a source, such as an array, a generator function, etc.

The ArrayList class in Java also implements the Spliterator interface using the .spliterator() method. This method returns a Spliterator over the elements in ArrayList. It is considered a better way to iterate over elements as it gives more control over them.

The .spliterator() method can be combined with a number of other methods:

  • .tryAdvance(): This method is used to iterate elements separately in several threads to enable parallel processing.
  • .forEachRemaining(): This method is used to iterate elements consecutively in a single thread.
  • .trySplit(): This method splits the obtained Spliterator into separate parts to facilitate parallel processing.

Syntax

public Spliterator<T> split = list.spliterator()

Here, T represents the type of elements in the list collection. For example, if the collection is of type List<String>, i.e., it contains String elements, then T would be String.

Examples

Example 1

In this example, the .spliterator() method is called on the ArrayList instance named arrayList to obtain a Spliterator for its elements:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Spliterator;
public class ArrayListSpliteratorExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Creating an ArrayList
ArrayList<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();
arrayList.add("Java");
arrayList.add("Python");
arrayList.add("C++");
arrayList.add("JavaScript");
// Obtaining a Spliterator from ArrayList
Spliterator<String> spliterator = arrayList.spliterator();
// // Iterating elements using the .forEachRemaining() method
spliterator.forEachRemaining(System.out::println);
}
}

The output of the mentioned code is as follows:

Java
Python
C++
JavaScript

Example 2

In this example, the .trySplit() method is used to split the Spliterator into two parts. Then, the .forEachRemaining() method is used to traverse over the elements on each part one-by-one:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Spliterator;
public class ArrayListSpliteratorExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Creating an ArrayList
ArrayList<String> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();
arrayList.add("Ruby");
arrayList.add("Rust");
arrayList.add("PHP");
arrayList.add("Go");
// Obtaining a Spliterator from ArrayList
Spliterator<String> spliterator = arrayList.spliterator();
// Splitting the Spliterator
Spliterator<String> secondHalf = spliterator.trySplit();
System.out.println("First Half:");
// Iterating elements using the .forEachRemaining() method
spliterator.forEachRemaining(System.out::println);
System.out.println("Second Half:");
secondHalf.forEachRemaining(System.out::println);
}
}

The output of the mentioned code is as follows:

First Half:
PHP
Go
Second Half:
Ruby
Rust

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