ArrayIterator is used to iterate over the elements of an array. In SPL, ArrayObject has a built-in Iterator, which you can access using getIterator function. You can use this object to iterate over any collection. Let's take a look at the example here:
<?php
$fruits = array(
"apple" => "yummy",
"orange" => "ah ya, nice",
"grape" => "wow, I love it!",
"plum" => "nah, not me"
);
$obj = new ArrayObject( $fruits );
$it = $obj->getIterator();
// How many items are we iterating over?
echo "Iterating over: " . $obj->count() . " values\n";
// Iterate over the values in the ArrayObject:
while( $it->valid() )
{
echo $it->key() . "=" . $it->current() . "\n";
$it->next();
}
?> This will output the following:
Iterating over: 4 values apple=yummy orange=ah ya, nice grape=wow, I love it! plum=nah, not me
However, an Iterator also implements the IteratorAggregator interface so you can even use them in the foreach() loop....