Created by a RuleBasedCollator to iterate through a string. The result of each iteration is a 32-bit collation element that defines the ordering priority of the next character or sequence of characters in the source string.

For illustration, consider the following in Spanish:

"ca": the first collation element is collation_element('c') and second collation element is collation_element('a').

Since "ch" in Spanish sorts as one entity, the example below returns one collation element for the two characters 'c' and 'h':

"cha": the first collation element is collation_element('ch') and the second one is collation_element('a').

In German, since the character '\u0086' is a composed character of 'a' and 'e', the iterator returns two collation elements for the single character '\u0086':

"\u0086b": the first collation element is collation_element('a'), the second one is collation_element('e'), and the third collation element is collation_element('b').

Note that calls to next and previous can not be mixed. To change iteration direction, reset, setOffset or setText must be called to reset the iterator. If a change of direction is done without one of these calls, the result is undefined.

[Android Documentation]