Is there a Java equivalent of Python's 'enumerate' function?

For collections that implement the List interface, you can call the listIterator() method to get a ListIterator. The iterator has (amongst others) two methods - nextIndex(), to get the index; and next(), to get the value (like other iterators).

So a Java equivalent of the Python above might be:

List<String> numbers = Arrays.asList("zero", "one", "two");
ListIterator<String> it = numbers.listIterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
    System.out.println(it.nextIndex() + " " + it.next());
}

which, like the Python, outputs:

0 zero
1 one
2 two

I find this to be the most similar to the python approach.

Usage

public static void main(String [] args) {
    List<String> strings = Arrays.asList("zero", "one", "two");
    for(EnumeratedItem<String> stringItem : ListUtils.enumerate(strings)) {
        System.out.println(stringItem.index + " " + stringItem.item);
    }
    System.out.println();
    for(EnumeratedItem<String> stringItem : ListUtils.enumerate(strings, 3)) {
        System.out.println(stringItem.index + " " + stringItem.item);
    }
}

Output

0 zero
1 one
2 two

3 zero
4 one
5 two

Features

• Works on any iterable
• Does not create an in-memory list copy (suitable for large lists)
• Supports native for each syntax
• Accepts a start parameter which can be added to the index

Implementation

import java.util.Iterator;

public class ListUtils {

    public static class EnumeratedItem<T> {
        public T item;
        public int index;

        private EnumeratedItem(T item, int index) {
            this.item = item;
            this.index = index;
        }
    }

    private static class ListEnumerator<T> implements Iterable<EnumeratedItem<T>> {

        private Iterable<T> target;
        private int start;

        public ListEnumerator(Iterable<T> target, int start) {
            this.target = target;
            this.start = start;
        }

        @Override
        public Iterator<EnumeratedItem<T>> iterator() {
            final Iterator<T> targetIterator = target.iterator();
            return new Iterator<EnumeratedItem<T>>() {

                int index = start;

                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return targetIterator.hasNext();
                }

                @Override
                public EnumeratedItem<T> next() {
                    EnumeratedItem<T> nextIndexedItem = new EnumeratedItem<T>(targetIterator.next(), index);
                    index++;
                    return nextIndexedItem;
                }

            };
        }

    }

    public static <T> Iterable<EnumeratedItem<T>> enumerate(Iterable<T> iterable, int start) {
        return new ListEnumerator<T>(iterable, start);
    }

    public static <T> Iterable<EnumeratedItem<T>> enumerate(Iterable<T> iterable) {
        return enumerate(iterable, 0);
    }

}

Strictly speaking, no, as the enumerate() function in Python returns a list of tuples, and tuples do not exist in Java.

If however, all you're interested in is printing out an index and a value, then you can follow the suggestion from Richard Fearn & use nextIndex() and next() on an iterator.

Note as well that enumerate() can be defined using the more general zip() function (using Python syntax):

mylist = list("abcd")
zip(range(len(mylist)), mylist)

gives [(0, 'a'), (1, 'b'), (2, 'c'), (3, 'd')]

If you define your own Tuple class (see Using Pairs or 2-tuples in Java as a starting point), then you could certainly easily write your own zip() function in Java to make use of it (using the Tuple class defined in the link):

public static <X,Y> List<Tuple<X,Y>> zip(List<X> list_a, List<Y> list_b) {
    Iterator<X> xiter = list_a.iterator();
    Iterator<Y> yiter = list_b.iterator();

    List<Tuple<X,Y>> result = new LinkedList<Tuple<X,Y>>();

    while (xiter.hasNext() && yiter.hasNext()) {
        result.add(new Tuple<X,Y>(xiter.next(), yiter.next()));
    }

    return result;
}

And once you have zip(), implementing enumerate() is trivial.

Edit: slow day at work, so to finish it off:

public static <X> List<Tuple<Integer,X>> enumerate (List<X> list_in) {
    List<Integer> nums = new ArrayList<Integer>(list_in.size());
    for (int x = 0; x < list_in.size(); x++) { 
        nums.add(Integer.valueOf(x));
    }

    return zip (nums, list_in);
}

Edit 2: as pointed out in the comments to this question, this is not entirely equivalent. While it produces the same values as Python's enumerate, it doesn't do so in the same generative fashion that Python's enumerate does. Thus for large collections this approach could be quite prohibitive.