Answer by nsayer for In detail, how does the 'for each' loop work in Java?

for (Iterator<String> i = someIterable.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {    String item = i.next();    System.out.println(item);}

Note that if you need to use i.remove(); in your loop, or access the actual iterator in some way, you cannot use the for ( : ) idiom, since the actual iterator is merely inferred.

As was noted by Denis Bueno, this code works for any object that implements the Iterable interface.

Also, if the right-hand side of the for (:) idiom is an array rather than an Iterable object, the internal code uses an int index counter and checks against array.length instead. See the Java Language Specification.