Difference Between Iterator and Enumeration Interface in Java

In this post, we will understand the difference between iterator and enumeration interfaces in Java.

Iterator

• It is a universal cursor.

• It can be applied to all collection of classes.

• It contains the ‘remove’ method.

• It is not a legacy interface.

• It can be used to traverse over HashMap, LinkedList, ArrayList, HashSet, TreeMap, and TreeSet .

• It can perform modifications to perform operations on the collection while traversing through it.

Enumeration

• It is not a universal cursor.

• It is applied only to legacy classes.

• It doesn’t contain the ‘remove’ method.

• It is a legacy interface.

• This interface acts like a read-only interface.

• Hence, no modifications can be performed on a collection while traversing over the elements in a Collection.

• It can be used to traverse over Vectors, and Hashtable.