Iterator Name Generator

Iterator names in code follow strong conventions, and breaking them costs readability. The single letters i, j and k for nested loop counters date back to Fortran, where variables starting with I through N were integers by default; they are still the expected names for a plain index in almost every language. Once the loop body grows or the variable escapes the loop, a descriptive noun is better: row and col for grids, node for trees, cursor for database rows, tok for tokens, and elem or item for a generic element.

Iterator types and classes have their own vocabulary. C++ distinguishes InputIterator, ForwardIterator, BidirectionalIterator and RandomAccessIterator by capability. Rust's standard library names adapters after the operation they perform: Zip, Chain, Peekable, StepBy, Chunks, Windows, Rev, Fuse, IntoIter and IterMut. Java uses Iterator, ListIterator and Spliterator, while Python leans on generators and itertools names such as chain, cycle, groupby, islice and pairwise. JavaScript adds AsyncIterator and AsyncGenerator for streams.

A good iterator name says what it walks over and how. Prefer the noun of the element for the loop variable (user, order, line), name the collection in the plural (users, orders, lines), and reserve i, j, k for short numeric loops. Class names should end in Iterator, Iter, Cursor or Walker and lead with the transformation or data structure they cover.