What is cursor in java and its type ? What is difference among Enumeration, Iterator, ListIterator?

Cursor: 

cursor is used to iterate over collection items. means if we want to get objects one by one from the collection then we should go for cursor.it will retrieve object one by one.Let's have a look of the types of cursors.

There are 3 types of cursors available in java. They are:

1. Enumeration 
2. Iterator
3. ListIterator

Enumeration:

1. By using Enumeration cursor we can access object one by one ,but the limitation with the Enumeration is that it works only for legacy collection like Vector.
2. we can get an Enumeration object, we can use elements() method of any legacy collection class.

Vector v=new Vector();

for(int i=0;i<=10;i++)

{

          v.addElement(i);

}

System.out.println(v);//[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10]

Enumeration e=v.elements();

while(e.hasMoreElements())

{

          Integer i=(Integer)e.nextElement();

          if(i%2!=0)

                   System.out.println(i);//1 3 5 7 9

}

Iterator:

1. By using Iterator we can access object one by one from any collection object.we can say that it is universal cursor.
2. we can iterate through collection items only in Forward direction.

ArrayList a=new ArrayList();

for(int i=0;i<=10;i++)

{

a.add(i);

}

System.out.println(a);//[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10]

Iterator itr=a.iterator();

while(itr.hasNext())

{

          Integer i=(Integer)itr.next();

          System.out.println(i+", ");//0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10

}

ListIterator:

1. ListIterator is the child interface of Iterator.
2. By using listIterator() we can move either to the forward direction (or) to the backward direction that is it is a bi-directional cursor.
3. While iterating by listIterator() we can perform replacement and addition of new objects in addition to read and remove operations.

LinkedList l=new LinkedList();

l.add("CodeHungry");

l.add("code");

l.add("Hungry");

ListIterator itr=l.listIterator();

while(itr.hasNext())

{

String s=(String)itr.next();

System.out.println(s +" "); //CodeHungry code Hungry

}

Now we will the differences among them.here i have given differences in form of tabular data.

Property	Enumeration	Iterator	ListIterator
Applicable For	Works with Only Legacy Classes	Works with Any Collection Objects	Works with Only List Objects
Movement	Single Direction (Only Forward).	Single Direction (Only Forward).	Its movement is Bi-Direction.
How To Get	By using elements()	By using iterator()	By using listIterator() of List(I)
Accessibility	Using Enumeration interface, we can only enumerate to read or get element/object from legacy collection.	Using Iterator interface, we can read as well as removecollection items, while iterating	Addition or replacement of new objects is possible alongside read and remove operation in ListIterator interface
Methods	public boolean hasMoreElements(); public Object nextElement();	public boolean hasNext(); public object next(); public void remove();	public boolean hasNext(); public Object next(); public int nextIndex(); public boolean hasPrevious(); public Object previous(); public int previousIndex(); public void remove(); public void set(Object new); public void add(Object new);
Is it legacy?	Yes (1.0 Version)	No (1.2 Version)	No, (1.2 Version)