Capacitor and inductor working principle
It's very fruitful to compare inductors and capacitors. They are dual components. They both store energy. However, you have to remember to swap current and voltage, short circuit and open circuit, series and parallel.

A capacitor 'tries to' keep its terminal voltage constant. If you try to change the voltage suddenly, it will demand a large current. 'Nothing' happens when the capacitor is open circuit, it just stays at the same voltage. You can ramp the charge stored in it by supplying a current.

An inductor 'tries to' keep its current constant. If you try to change the current suddenly, it will generate a large voltage. 'Nothing' happens when the inductor is short-circuited, it just stays at the same current. You can ramp the current through it by supplying a voltage.

The main differences are that people tend to have a better feel for capacitors, voltage sources feel more natural than current sources. 

Capacitors also tend to be more ideal, typical capacitors have losses that are far smaller than those of typical inductors. An open circuit capacitor can store charge for seconds or minutes, there's time to measure the voltage with a DMM. A typical inductor shorted through a current meter will drop the current to zero too fast to be seen with teh naked eye. This difference is not fundamental to inductors and capacitors, but is just the way the properties of copper and plastic happen to turn out. If we had room temperature superconductors, and only damp cardboard to insulate capacitors, then inductors would be the ideal components.