title: What can go in the parentheses of a Java for loop?
body: <p>My question is about the Java <code>for</code> statement, e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>for (int i = 0; i &lt; 10; ++i) {/* stuff */}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What I don't understand is precisely how much code / what kind of code I can put in the parentheses (i.e. where I have <code>int i = 0; i &lt; 10; ++i</code> in my example)- I don't really understand the language used to describe it here: </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/statements.html#24588" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/statements.html#24588</a></p>
  
  <p>Basically my question boils down to asking for a translation of the bits in the spec that look like:</p>
  
  <p>ForInit:
  StatementExpressionList
  LocalVariableDeclaration</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: Wow.  I guess the real answer is "learn to read and understand the notation used in the JLS - it's used for a reason".  Thank you for all the answers.</p>