[java] Combine multiple Collections into a single logical Collection?

If you're using at least Java 8, see my other answer.

If you're already using Google Guava, see Sean Patrick Floyd's answer.

If you're stuck at Java 7 and don't want to include Google Guava, you can write your own (read-only) Iterables.concat() using no more than Iterable and Iterator:

Constant number

public static <E> Iterable<E> concat(final Iterable<? extends E> iterable1,
                                     final Iterable<? extends E> iterable2) {
    return new Iterable<E>() {
        @Override
        public Iterator<E> iterator() {
            return new Iterator<E>() {
                final Iterator<? extends E> iterator1 = iterable1.iterator();
                final Iterator<? extends E> iterator2 = iterable2.iterator();

                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return iterator1.hasNext() || iterator2.hasNext();
                }

                @Override
                public E next() {
                    return iterator1.hasNext() ? iterator1.next() : iterator2.next();
                }
            };
        }
    };
}

Variable number

@SafeVarargs
public static <E> Iterable<E> concat(final Iterable<? extends E>... iterables) {
    return concat(Arrays.asList(iterables));
}

public static <E> Iterable<E> concat(final Iterable<Iterable<? extends E>> iterables) {
    return new Iterable<E>() {
        final Iterator<Iterable<? extends E>> iterablesIterator = iterables.iterator();

        @Override
        public Iterator<E> iterator() {
            return !iterablesIterator.hasNext() ? Collections.emptyIterator()
                                                : new Iterator<E>() {
                Iterator<? extends E> iterableIterator = nextIterator();

                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return iterableIterator.hasNext();
                }

                @Override
                public E next() {
                    final E next = iterableIterator.next();
                    findNext();
                    return next;
                }

                Iterator<? extends E> nextIterator() {
                    return iterablesIterator.next().iterator();
                }

                Iterator<E> findNext() {
                    while (!iterableIterator.hasNext()) {
                        if (!iterablesIterator.hasNext()) {
                            break;
                        }
                        iterableIterator = nextIterator();
                    }
                    return this;
                }
            }.findNext();
        }
    };
}