foreach

Iterates over a list and sets variable to be each element of list, performing BLOCK for each element of list.

Format

foreach variable (list) {BLOCK}
foreach unit [arg] variable (list) {BLOCK}

Parameters

Parameter	Definition
unit	controls how list is split into individual elements Valid Values word assumes that the array elements are separated by white space (spaces, tabs, or \n) line assumes that array elements are separated by \n __single (preceded by double underscore) matches each individual occurrence of any separators from the specified list of separators; use with an argument to specify the separators __multi (preceded by double underscore) matches all consecutive occurrences of any separators from the specified list of separators and treats it like a single separator; use with an argument to specify the separators Default line
arg	optional context information for the unit; currently only used with __single and __multi
variable	name of the element that is equated to each element in list
list	list that contains one or more elements that can be equated to variable
BLOCK	one or more statements that are executed when variable has been equated to an element from list

Description

The foreach loop iterates over list and sets variable to be each element of list, performing BLOCK for each element of list in turn.

It should be noted that the following are equivalent:

foreach f ("<some list>") ....
foreach line f ("<some list>") ....
foreach __single "\n" f ("<some list>") ....

Similarly, the following are equivalent:

foreach word f ("<some list>") ....
foreach __multi " \t\n" f ("<some list>") ....

The arguments _multi and _single do not need to be literal strings; they can be variables. For example:

separators = ":|"; foreach __multi separators var ("::data1:data2:data3|data4::||:data5") {printf(">%s<\n", var);}

The following examples highlight the usage of the foreach statement.

Sum the elements in an array:

sum = 0;
foreach elem ("1\n2\n3\n4\n5") {
sum += elem;
}

List the login ID of each account on the system:

foreach user (cat("/etc/passwd")) {
print (ntharg(item, 1, ":"), "\n");
}

Note

cat() and ntharg() are built-in PSL functions.

Count the number of words in a string:

words = 0;
foreach word w ("The cat sat on the mat."){
words++;
}

Example of the __single form of the foreach loop that reformats a list:

dirtyList = "::a:b:c|d::||:e";
cleanList = "";
foreach __single ":|" var (dirtyList) {
if (cleanList) {
cleanList = cleanList . "-";
}
{if (var == "")
{var = "<empty>";}
cleanList = cleanList . var;
}
printf("%s\n", cleanList);

Example of the __multi form of the foreach loop that reformats a list:

dirtyList = "a:b::c|d::||:e";
cleanList = "";
foreach __multi ":|" var (dirtyList) {
if (cleanList) {
cleanList = cleanList . "-";
}
cleanList = cleanList . var;
}
printf("%s\n", cleanList);

Where to go from here

PSL-Statements