Question

Just thought about it. Is there a semantic distinction, or are we free to choose?

EDIT I accepted @roygbivs answer, because most of the answers suggested that it is a matter of taste which one to choose, and that it doesn’t really change the meaning. In that case, since the through and the over don’t carry any information at all (in that particular context), they can be left out.

Answer 1

“through” and “over” are useless adverbs.

Examples:

• While iterating this collection, my code throws an error.

• This code iterates the collection.

• Your assignment is to write code that iterates the collection.

It’s like saying “up north” or “down south”. “up” and “down” are useless. Instead you should say, “I am going north for the summer.” or “In the south, they grow cotton.”