SPL是Standard PHP Library（PHP标准库）的缩写。

SPL的核心概念就是Iterator。这指的是一种Design Pattern，根据《Design Patterns》一书的定义，Iterator的作用是"provide an object which traverses some aggregate structure, abstracting away assumptions about the implementation of that structure."

wikipedia中说，"an iterator is an object which allows a programmer to traverse through all the elements of a collection, regardless of its specific implementation"......."the iterator pattern is a design pattern in which iterators are used to access the elements of an aggregate object sequentially without exposing its underlying representation".

通俗地说，Iterator能够使许多不同的数据结构，都能有统一的操作界面，比如一个数据库的结果集、同一个目录中的文件集、或者一个文本中每一行构成的集合。