Difference between ArrayIterator, ArrayObject and Array in PHP

Question

Can somebody explain clearly the fundamental differences between ArrayIterator, ArrayObject and Array in PHP in terms of functionality and

Answer 1

An Iterator is an object that enables a programmer to traverse a container, particularly lists. Various types of iterators are often provided via a container's interface.

There is no much difference between ArrayObject and Array as they represent the same things albeit using different object types.

ArrayIterator is an Iterator that iterates over Array-like objects, this includes all objects that implement ArrayAcess and the native Array type. In fact, when you foreach over an array, PHP internally creates ArrayIterator to do the traversing and transform your code to look as if typed this,

for( $arrayIterator->rewind(); $arrayIterator->valid(); $arrayIterator-
>next())
{    $key = $arrayIteartor->key();
     $value = $arrayIterator->current();
}

So you can see, every collection object has an Iterator except for your defined collections which you need to define your own Iterators for.