Animal[] animals = new Animal[numberOfAnimals];
    ⋮
 for (int i = 0; i < numberOfAnimals; ++i)
    System.out.println (animals[i].name() + " " + animals[i].eats());

 class ListNode {
    Animal data;
    ListNode next;
 }
 ListNode head; // start of list
    ⋮
 for (ListNode current = head; current != null; current = current.next)
    System.out.println (current.name() + " " + current.eats());

Again, notice the complete lack of * or -> operators that, as C++ programmers, we are used to seeing as our cues that we are dealing with pointers.

 ArrayList<Animal> animals = new ArrayList<Animal>();
    ⋮
 for (Animal a: animals) {
    System.out.println (a.name() + " " + a.eats());
 }

Take note of the special syntax of this for loop. For most Java container types, we can iterate through all elements in the container by simply declaring the loop variable (Animal a) and then, after a ":", naming the container (animals).

Look also at the rather template-like declaration of the animals container. This is a fairly recent addition to Java. Older Java code would leave out the part within the angle brackets, in which case we would have to treat animals as a container of Objects, not Animals.

 ArrayList animals = new ArrayList();
    ⋮
 for (Object obja: animals) {
    Animal a = (Animal)obja;
    System.out.println (a.name() + " " + a.eats());
 }

The downcast in the highlighted statement is required because the loop variable, obja, is of type Object and therefore does not support the name() and eats() functions.