A current through any conductor creates a circular magnetic field around the conductor

due to Ampere's law.[3] The advantage of using the coil shape is that it increases the
strength of magnetic field produced by a given current. The magnetic fields generated by
the separate turns of wire all pass through the center of the coil and add (superpose) to
produce a strong field there.[3] The more turns of wire, the stronger the field produced.
Conversely, a changing external magnetic flux induces a voltage in a conductor such as a
wire, due to Faraday's law of induction.[3][4] The induced voltage can be increased by
winding the wire into a coil, because the field lines intersect the circuit multiple times.[3]
The direction of the magnetic field produced by a coil can be determined by the right hand
grip rule. If the fingers of the right hand are wrapped around the magnetic core of a coil in
the direction of conventional current through the wire, the thumb will point in the direction
the magnetic field lines pass through the coil. The end of a magnetic core from which the
field lines emerge is defined to be the North pole.

Magnetic core
Many electromagnetic coils have a magnetic core, a piece of ferromagnetic material like
iron in the center to increase the magnetic field.[11] The current through the coil
magnetizes the iron, and the field of the magnetized material adds to the field produced by
the wire. This is called a ferromagnetic-core or iron-core coil.[12] A ferromagnetic core
can increase the magnetic field of a coil by hundreds or thousands of times over what it
would be without the core. A ferrite core coil is a variety of coil with a core made of ferrite,
a ferrimagnetic ceramic compound.[13] Ferrite coils have lower losses at high frequencies.
A coil without a ferromagnetic core is called an air-core coil.[14] This includes coils wound
on plastic or other nonmagnetic forms, as well as coils which actually have empty air
space inside their windings.

Types of coils
Coils can be classified by the frequency of the current they are designed to operate with:
Direct current or DC coils or electromagnets operate with a steady direct
current in their windings
Audio-frequency or AF coils, inductors or transformers operate with alternating
currents in the audio frequency range, less than 20 kHz
Radio-frequency or RF coils, inductors or transformers operate with alternating
currents in the radio frequency range, above 20 kHz

Coils can be classified by their function:

Field coil electromagnet on the stator of an AC universal motor.

Electromagnets
Main article: Electromagnet
Electromagnets are coils that generate a magnetic field for some external use, often to
exert a mechanical force on something.[15] A few specific types:
Solenoid - an electromagnet in the form of a straight hollow helix of wire
Motor and generator windings - iron core electromagnets on the rotor or stator
of electric motors and generators which act on each other to either turn the
shaft (motor) or generate an electric current (generator)
Field winding - an iron-core coil which generates a steady magnetic
field to act on the armature winding.
Armature winding - an iron-core coil which is acted on by the magnetic
field of the field winding to either create torque (motor) or induce a
voltage to produce power (generator)
Helmholtz coil, Maxwell coil - air-core coils which serve to cancel an external
magnetic field
Degaussing coil - a coil used to demagnetize parts
Voice coil - a coil used in a moving-coil loudspeaker, suspended between the
poles of a magnet. When the audio signal is passed through the coil, it
vibrates, moving the attached speaker cone to create sound waves.

Inductors

Tank inductor in a tuned circuit in a shortwave radio transmitter

Main article: Inductor
Inductors or reactors are coils which generate a magnetic field which interacts with the coil
itself, to induce a back EMF which opposes changes in current through the coil. Inductors
are used as circuit elements in electrical circuits, to temporarily store energy or resist
changes in current. A few types:
Tank coil - an inductor used in a tuned circuit
Choke - an inductor used to block high frequency AC while allowing through
low frequency AC.
Loading coil - an inductor used to add inductance to an antenna, to make it
resonant, or to a cable to prevent distortion of signals.
Variometer - an adjustable inductor consisting of two coils in series, an outer
stationary coil and a second one inside it which can be rotated so their
magnetic axes are in the same direction or opposed.
Flyback transformer - Although called a transformer, this is actually an inductor
which serves to store energy in switching power supplies and horizontal
deflection circuits for CRT televisions and monitors
Saturable reactor - an iron-core inductor used to control AC power by varying
the saturation of the core using a DC control voltage in an auxiliary winding.
Inductive ballast - an inductor used in gas-discharge lamp circuits, such as
fluorescent lamps, to limit the current through the lamp.

Transformers

Transformer
Main article: Transformer
A transformer is a device with two or more magnetically coupled windings (or sections of a
single winding). A time varying current in one coil (called the primary winding) generates a
magnetic field which induces a voltage in the other coil (called the secondary winding). A
few types:
Distribution transformer - A transformer in an electric power grid which
transforms the high voltage from the electric power line to the lower voltage
used by utility customers.
Autotransformer - a transformer with only one winding. Different portions of the
winding, accessed with taps, act as primary and secondary windings of the
transformer.
Toroidal transformer - the core is in the shape of a toroid. This is a commonly
used shape as it decreases the leakage flux, resulting in less electromagnetic
interference.
Induction coil or trembler coil - an early transformer which uses a vibrating
interrupter mechanism to break the primary current so it can operate off of DC
 current.
Ignition coil - an induction coil used in internal combustion engines to
create a pulse of high voltage to fire the spark plug which initiates the
fuel burning.
Balun - a transformer which matches a balanced transmission line to an
unbalanced one.
Bifilar coil - a coil wound with two parallel, closely spaced strands. If AC
currents are passed through it in the same direction, the magnetic fluxes will
add, but if equal currents in opposite directions pass through the windings the
opposite fluxes will cancel, resulting in zero flux in the core. So no voltage will
be induced in a third winding on the core. These are used in instruments and
in devices like Ground Fault Interrupters. They are also used in low inductance
wirewound resistors for use at RF frequencies.
Audio transformer - A transformer used with audio signals. They are used for
impedance matching.
Hybrid coil - a specialized audio transformer with 3 windings used in
telephony circuits to convert between two-wire and four-wire circuits

Transducer coils

The sensor coil of a metal detector.

These are coils used to translate time-varying magnetic fields to electric signals, and vice
versa. A few types:
Sensor or pickup coils - these are used to detect external time-varying
magnetic fields
Inductive sensor - a coil which senses when a magnet or iron object passes
near it
Recording head - a coil which is used to create a magnetic field to write data
to a magnetic storage medium, such as magnetic tape, or a hard disk.
Conversely it is also used to read the data in the form of changing magnetic
fields in the medium.
Induction heating coil - an AC coil used to heat an object by inducing eddy
currents in it, a process called induction heating.
Loop antenna - a coil which serves as a radio antenna, to convert radio waves
to electric currents.
Rogowski coil - a toroidal coil used as an AC measuring device
Musical instrument pickup - a coil used to produce the output audio signal in
 an electric guitar or electric bass.
Flux gate - a sensor coil used in a magnetometer
Magnetic phonograph cartridge - a sensor in a record player that uses a coil to
translate vibration of a needle to an audio signal in playing vinyl phonograph
records.

There are also types of coil which don't fit into these categories.