Is Java foreach iteration order over primitives precisely defined?
According to the JLS, The enhanced for
statement, your for-loop is equivalent to
int[] array = a;
for (int index = 0; index < a.length; index++) {
int i = array[index];
result += i;
}
"where array
and index
are compiler-generated identifiers that are distinct from any other identifiers (compiler-generated or otherwise) that are in scope at the point where the enhanced for
statement occurs." (slightly paraphrasing the variable names here).
So yes: the order is absolutely guaranteed.
It states in the JLS that:
for ( VariableModifiersopt Type Identifier: Expression) Statement
is equivalent to
T[] a = Expression;
L1: L2: ... Lm:
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
VariableModifiersopt Type Identifier = a[i];
Statement
}
See section 14.14.2 of the Java Language Specification, 3rd edition.
If the type of Expression is a subtype of Iterable, then let I be the type of the expression Expression.iterator(). The enhanced for statement is equivalent to a basic for statement of the form:
for (I #i = Expression.iterator(); #i.hasNext(); ) { VariableModifiersopt Type Identifier = #i.next(); Statement }
Where #i is a compiler-generated identifier that is distinct from any other identifiers (compiler-generated or otherwise) that are in scope (§6.3) at the point where the enhanced for statement occurs.
I did not find anything in the page you've referenced that would imply out-of-order iteration. Can you post the specific quote?
In any case, I find that this code:
public static void main( String args[] ) {
double a[] = new double[] { 0, 1, 2, 3 };
int result = 0;
for ( double i : a ) {
result += i;
}
decompiles to old-style looping:
public static void main(String args[])
{
double a[] = {
0.0D, 1.0D, 2D, 3D
};
int result = 0;
double ad[];
int k = (ad = a).length;
for(int j = 0; j < k; j++)
{
double i = ad[j];
result = (int)((double)result + i);
}
}
Of course, that's not the same as a guarantee, but at the very least out-of-order iteration over an array would be very weird and would seem to go against obvious common-sense implementation.