IEnumerator Interface
Definition
Important
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Supports a simple iteration over a non-generic collection.
public interface class IEnumeratorpublic interface IEnumerator[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("496B0ABF-CDEE-11d3-88E8-00902754C43A")]
public interface IEnumerator[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("496B0ABF-CDEE-11d3-88E8-00902754C43A")]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)]
public interface IEnumeratortype IEnumerator = interface[<System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("496B0ABF-CDEE-11d3-88E8-00902754C43A")>]
type IEnumerator = interface[<System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("496B0ABF-CDEE-11d3-88E8-00902754C43A")>]
[<System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)>]
type IEnumerator = interfacePublic Interface IEnumerator- Derived
- Attributes
Examples
The following code example demonstrates the implementation of the IEnumerable and IEnumerator interfaces for a custom collection. In this example, members of these interfaces are not explicitly called, but they are implemented to support the use of foreach (for each in Visual Basic) to iterate through the collection.
using System;
using System.Collections;
// Simple business object.
public class Person
{
public Person(string fName, string lName)
{
this.firstName = fName;
this.lastName = lName;
}
public string firstName;
public string lastName;
}
// Collection of Person objects. This class
// implements IEnumerable so that it can be used
// with ForEach syntax.
public class People : IEnumerable
{
private Person[] _people;
public People(Person[] pArray)
{
_people = new Person[pArray.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < pArray.Length; i++)
{
_people[i] = pArray[i];
}
}
// Implementation for the GetEnumerator method.
IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
{
return (IEnumerator) GetEnumerator();
}
public PeopleEnum GetEnumerator()
{
return new PeopleEnum(_people);
}
}
// When you implement IEnumerable, you must also implement IEnumerator.
public class PeopleEnum : IEnumerator
{
public Person[] _people;
// Enumerators are positioned before the first element
// until the first MoveNext() call.
int position = -1;
public PeopleEnum(Person[] list)
{
_people = list;
}
public bool MoveNext()
{
position++;
return (position < _people.Length);
}
public void Reset()
{
position = -1;
}
object IEnumerator.Current
{
get
{
return Current;
}
}
public Person Current
{
get
{
try
{
return _people[position];
}
catch (IndexOutOfRangeException)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException();
}
}
}
}
class App
{
static void Main()
{
Person[] peopleArray = new Person[3]
{
new Person("John", "Smith"),
new Person("Jim", "Johnson"),
new Person("Sue", "Rabon"),
};
People peopleList = new People(peopleArray);
foreach (Person p in peopleList)
Console.WriteLine(p.firstName + " " + p.lastName);
}
}
/* This code produces output similar to the following:
*
* John Smith
* Jim Johnson
* Sue Rabon
*
*/
Imports System.Collections
' Simple business object.
Public Class Person
Public Sub New(ByVal fName As String, ByVal lName As String)
Me.firstName = fName
Me.lastName = lName
End Sub
Public firstName As String
Public lastName As String
End Class
' Collection of Person objects, which implements IEnumerable so that
' it can be used with ForEach syntax.
Public Class People
Implements IEnumerable
Private _people() As Person
Public Sub New(ByVal pArray() As Person)
_people = New Person(pArray.Length - 1) {}
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To pArray.Length - 1
_people(i) = pArray(i)
Next i
End Sub
' Implementation of GetEnumerator.
Public Function GetEnumerator() As IEnumerator _
Implements IEnumerable.GetEnumerator
Return New PeopleEnum(_people)
End Function
End Class
' When you implement IEnumerable, you must also implement IEnumerator.
Public Class PeopleEnum
Implements IEnumerator
Public _people() As Person
' Enumerators are positioned before the first element
' until the first MoveNext() call.
Dim position As Integer = -1
Public Sub New(ByVal list() As Person)
_people = list
End Sub
Public Function MoveNext() As Boolean Implements IEnumerator.MoveNext
position = position + 1
Return (position < _people.Length)
End Function
Public Sub Reset() Implements IEnumerator.Reset
position = -1
End Sub
Public ReadOnly Property Current() As Object Implements IEnumerator.Current
Get
Try
Return _people(position)
Catch ex As IndexOutOfRangeException
Throw New InvalidOperationException()
End Try
End Get
End Property
End Class
Class App
Shared Sub Main()
Dim peopleArray() As Person = { _
New Person("John", "Smith"), _
New Person("Jim", "Johnson"), _
New Person("Sue", "Rabon")}
Dim peopleList As New People(peopleArray)
Dim p As Person
For Each p In peopleList
Console.WriteLine(p.firstName + " " + p.lastName)
Next
End Sub
End Class
' This code produces output similar to the following:
'
' John Smith
' Jim Johnson
' Sue Rabon
Remarks
IEnumerator is the base interface for all non-generic enumerators. Its generic equivalent is the System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator<T> interface.
The foreach statement of the C# language (for each in Visual Basic) hides the complexity of the enumerators. Therefore, using foreach is recommended instead of directly manipulating the enumerator.
Enumerators can be used to read the data in the collection, but they cannot be used to modify the underlying collection.
The Reset method is provided for COM interoperability and does not need to be fully implemented; instead, the implementer can throw a NotSupportedException.
Initially, the enumerator is positioned before the first element in the collection. You must call the MoveNext method to advance the enumerator to the first element of the collection before reading the value of Current; otherwise, Current is undefined.
Current returns the same object until either MoveNext or Reset is called. MoveNext sets Current to the next element.
If MoveNext passes the end of the collection, the enumerator is positioned after the last element in the collection and MoveNext returns false. When the enumerator is at this position, subsequent calls to MoveNext also return false. If the last call to MoveNext returned false, Current is undefined.
To set Current to the first element of the collection again, you can call Reset, if it's implemented, followed by MoveNext. If Reset is not implemented, you must create a new enumerator instance to return to the first element of the collection.
If changes are made to the collection, such as adding, modifying, or deleting elements, the behavior of the enumerator is undefined.
The enumerator does not have exclusive access to the collection; therefore, enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a thread-safe procedure. Even when a collection is synchronized, other threads can still modify the collection, which causes the enumerator to throw an exception. To guarantee thread safety during enumeration, you can either lock the collection during the entire enumeration or catch the exceptions resulting from changes made by other threads.
Properties
| Current |
Gets the element in the collection at the current position of the enumerator. |
Methods
| MoveNext() |
Advances the enumerator to the next element of the collection. |
| Reset() |
Sets the enumerator to its initial position, which is before the first element in the collection. |
