/** Prepares the iterator. */
  public void prepare() throws JspTagException {
    // jsp/1ce6
    if (_items != null && _items.contains("#{")) {
      ELContext elContext = pageContext.getELContext();

      deferredExpression = JspUtil.createValueExpression(elContext, String.class, _items);

      _items = (String) deferredExpression.getValue(elContext);
    }

    _iterator = new TokenIterator(_items, _delims);
  }