Sure. Say you have an array list of strings (ArrayList list), and you wanted to print out each of the elements in the list. You could do it one of two ways: for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) { System.out.println(list.get(i)); } or method 2: for (String s : list) { System.out.println(s); } This second function is the enhanced for loop. So basically if you're iterating over a list or set, you don't have to write out the full old for loop syntax, you can just write the much more readable enhanced for-loop syntax. Its much more readable because the bounds of the for-loop are very clear (you're iterating over each element of the for loop from start to end) and you immediately have access to each element without calling .get(index). The downsides of the enhanced for-loop is that you don't have access to the index you're at without explicitly keeping track of it, and that it only works on objects that extend the Collections interface, so really only lists and sets. So no enhanced for loops on hashmaps or iterators. More on reddit.com

It makes the code easier to read, allows the use of lambdas (in the case of stream()) and eliminates the need for an index variable and a get() operation required by the classic for loop. If, say, you wanted to print the contents of an ArrayList list using a classic for loop, it would look like this: for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) { System.out.println(list.get(i)); } Using an enhanced for loop, it would look like this: for(String s: list) { System.out.println(s); } There is now no need to use an index variable or a get() operation. More on reddit.com