/*
 * @(#)Iterator.java	1.21 06/10/10
 *
 * Copyright  1990-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER  
 *   
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or  
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version  
 * 2 only, as published by the Free Software Foundation.   
 *   
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but  
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of  
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU  
 * General Public License version 2 for more details (a copy is  
 * included at /legal/license.txt).   
 *   
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License  
 * version 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software  
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  
 * 02110-1301 USA   
 *   
 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa  
 * Clara, CA 95054 or visit www.sun.com if you need additional  
 * information or have any questions. 
 *
 */

package java.util;

/**
 * An iterator over a collection.  Iterator takes the place of Enumeration in
 * the Java collections framework.  Iterators differ from enumerations in two
 * ways: <ul>
 *	<li> Iterators allow the caller to remove elements from the
 *	     underlying collection during the iteration with well-defined
 * 	     semantics.
 *	<li> Method names have been improved.
 * </ul><p>
 *
 * This interface is a member of the 
 * <a href="{@docRoot}/../guide/collections/index.html">
 * Java Collections Framework</a>.
 *
 * @author  Josh Bloch
 * @version 1.14, 02/02/00
 * @see Collection
 * @see ListIterator
 * @see Enumeration
 * @since 1.2
 */
public interface Iterator {
    /**
     * Returns <tt>true</tt> if the iteration has more elements. (In other
     * words, returns <tt>true</tt> if <tt>next</tt> would return an element
     * rather than throwing an exception.)
     *
     * @return <tt>true</tt> if the iterator has more elements.
     */
    boolean hasNext();

    /**
     * Returns the next element in the iteration.
     *
     * @return the next element in the iteration.
     * @exception NoSuchElementException iteration has no more elements.
     */
    Object next();

    /**
     * 
     * Removes from the underlying collection the last element returned by the
     * iterator (optional operation).  This method can be called only once per
     * call to <tt>next</tt>.  The behavior of an iterator is unspecified if
     * the underlying collection is modified while the iteration is in
     * progress in any way other than by calling this method.
     *
     * @exception UnsupportedOperationException if the <tt>remove</tt>
     *		  operation is not supported by this Iterator.
     
     * @exception IllegalStateException if the <tt>next</tt> method has not
     *		  yet been called, or the <tt>remove</tt> method has already
     *		  been called after the last call to the <tt>next</tt>
     *		  method.
     */
    void remove();
}