<p>If I have an object implementing the <code>Map</code> interface in Java and I wish to iterate over every pair contained within it,  what is the most efficient way of going through the map?</p>

<p>Will the ordering of elements depend on the specific map implementation that I have for the interface?</p>

Yes, the order depends on the specific Map implementation.
@ScArcher2 has the more elegant Java 1.5 syntax
. In 1.4, I would do something like this:
```
```
Iterator entries = myMap.entrySet().iterator();
while (entries.hasNext()) {
  Entry thisEntry = (Entry) entries.next();
  Object key = thisEntry.getKey();
  Object value = thisEntry.getValue();
  // ...
}
```
```