I’ve seen some repositories return `Iterable<T&...

# spring

[Jilles Soeters]

I’ve seen some repositories return Iterable<T> and others List<T>. I believe repositories return a List of entites so why would anyone specify return type of Iterable? e.g. https://github.com/spring-guides/tut-spring-boot-kotlin/blob/main/src/main/kotlin/com/example/blog/Repositories.kt#L7

[Emmett Miller]

Generally and practically speaking, List and other Collection types require the entire result set to be loaded into memory. An Iterable doesn't necessarily enforce that. Whether you actually get any mileage out of that distinction is up to Spring's implementation. IIRC you can also return Stream as well.