Can you explain what an iterator object is and how it is used in programming?

An iterator object is a design pattern that provides a way to access elements of a collection sequentially without exposing its internal structure.

An iterator typically implements methods for:

• obtaining the next element,
• checking if there are more elements,
• sometimes resetting or removing elements.

Example usage in pseudocode:

iterator = collection.get_iterator()
while iterator.has_next():
    item = iterator.next()
    process(item)

This allows abstraction from the specific data structure (list, tree, hash table) and to work with elements sequentially and conveniently.