CollectionIterable

CollectionIterable is a programming abstraction that represents a collection of elements which can be traversed sequentially. It provides a uniform interface for accessing elements regardless of the underlying data structure, such as arrays, lists, or sets, enabling algorithms to operate on any compatible collection without concern for its concrete type.

In typical designs, a CollectionIterable exposes a method to obtain an iterator and may offer utilities to convert the collection to other forms (for example, toList or toArray). Some implementations also support functional-style operations, such as map, filter, and reduce, either through a fluent API or by returning new CollectionIterable wrappers. The abstraction is often designed to be lazy and chainable, allowing sequences to be built and transformed without materializing intermediate results.

Relationship to related concepts and usage is central to its purpose. CollectionIterable overlaps with or serves as a bridge between concrete data structures and generic algorithms, complementing concepts like Iterable, Iterator, and Stream. It aims to improve code reuse, interoperability, and testability by decoupling traversal logic from storage details. Potential drawbacks include added abstraction overhead and the responsibility to preserve iteration order and mutability semantics of the underlying collection. The concept aligns with functional programming influences that favor composable, type-agnostic interfaces for data traversal and transformation. See also: Iterable, Iterator, Stream, and Collection.