j = i says use the same iterator. You have to call iterator() twice.

Hi,
first of all, remember that objects are manipulated through references in Java. So after the statement Iterator j = i;, j is not a deep copy of i, rather i and j reference the same Iterator object.

Instead, you can have more than one Iterator objects of one List:

for(Iterator i = l.iterator(); ...) {
   for(Iterator j =
      l.iterator();...) {
   }
}

Secondly, I don't think it is possible to solve your problem with the Iterator interface. I advice you to use integer indices instead.

If you insist on using iterators you should use the ListIterator interface (List.listIterator() and List.listIterator(index)). This is a subinterface of Iterator and has extra support for indices.