• *AVERAGE Function
• *COUNT Function
• *counter Function
• *FOR_EACH Function
• *LINE_INSERT Function
• *LINE_REMOVE Function
• *LINE_REPLACE Function
• *MAX Function
• *MIN Function
• *PATTERN_EXTRACT Function
• *PATTERN_LOOKUP Function
• *PATTERN_LOOKUPI Function
• *REMOVE_DUPLICATES Function
• *REMOVE_DUPLICATESI Function
• *REVERSE_WORDS Function
• *TOTAL Function
• *WORD Function
• *WORD_INSERT Function
• *WORD_REMOVE Function
• *WORD_REPLACE Function
• *WORDI Function
• a5_arguments_dbflist Function
• a5_autocomplete_list Function
• a5_define_parameters Function
• a5_get_parameters Function
• a5_get_writeable_drives Function
• a5_getaddinsinstalled Function
• a5_progresslist Function
• a5_window_list Function
• COMMA_TO_CRLF Function
• COUNTRIESOFWORLD Function
• COUNTRYLOOKUP Function
• CRLF_TO_COMMA Function
• CSTATE Function
• CSTATE_ABREVLOOKUP Function
• CSTATES Function
• EXTRACT_ALL_STRINGS Function
• FILTER_STRING_MULTI Function
• FILTER_STRING_SMATCH Function
• FILTER_STRINGC Function
• INLIST2 Function
• inlistn Function
• IS_ONE_OF Function
• keylist_filtered_build Function
• POS_FROM_WORD_NUMBER Function
• REGION_FROM_AREACODE Function
• REMOVE_BLANK_LINES Function
• SortList_On_ReferenceList Function
• TAGGED_PATTERN Function
• UniqueNameGet Function
• WORD_CHANGE Function
• WORD_DUPLICATES Function
• WORD_EVALUATE Function
• WORD_EXISTS Function
• WORD_EXISTS_C Function
• WORD_i Function
• WORD_MOVE Function
• WORD_NUM Function
• WORD_NUMBER_GET Function
• WORD_REMOVE Function
• WORD_REPLACE Function
• WORD_SUBTRACT Function
• WORD_SUBTRACTC Function
• WORD_TAGGED_PATTERN Function

*FOR_EACH Function

Syntax

Arguments

tagAny Type

An arbitrary named placeholder used in the expression/command specified by Each to refer to each entry in List. Any type

eachAny Type

An expression or command that you want to execute on each entry in List. Any type

listCharacter

A CR-LF delimited list of entries on which you want to operate, or an array. Character

filter_expressionLogical

A filter expression that returns a .t. or .f. value.

Description

Executes the command specified by "each" on every entry in a CR-LF delimited "list". "Tag" refers to each entry in the "list".

Discussion

*FOR_EACH() is a very quick and efficient way of performing a command on every entry in a CR-LF delimited list of values, or in an array. It is an alternative to writing an Xbasic loop.

Result is a CR-LF delimited list of return values generated when the command/expression specified by Each is executed.

The *COUNTER() function can be used inside the *FOR_EACH() function to return the current count of the number of entries processed. See example below.

It is easiest to explain how this function works by example. Assume you have a CR-LF list of names:

Names = <<%str%
Smith,John
Jones,Jenny
Kelly,Kim
%str%

You would like to get a list of first names only by selecting the word after the comma:

First_names = *for_each(fullname, word(fullname, 2, ","),names)

? First_names
= John
Jenny
Kim

In this example, " fullname" is an arbitrary tag that is defined. The Each argument is: word(fullname, 2, ","). This function is performed on each entry in the input list of names. The tag fullname is used in the expression to refer to each entry in the input list.

If the tag had been specified as "foo" for example, then the expression would be:

First_names = *for_each(foo, word(foo, 2, ","),names)

? First_names
= John
Jenny
Kim

In this case, this same result can be achieved using the word_change() function:

First_names = word_change("$(,)+1", names, crlf() )

? First_names
= John
Jenny
Kim

However, the syntax for *FOR_EACH() is easier to understand since it uses standard Alpha Anywhere functions.

In other situations, such as the example below, where the *FOR_EACH() function is executing a command, WORD_CHANGE() cannot be used as an alternative.

Examples

To delete all of the files with a .tmp extension in a folder.

file_list = filefind.get("c:\temp_FILEs\*.tmp", 0, "PN")
*for_each(filename, file.remove(filename), file_list)

Using counter() to create a numbered list.

dim list as c = <<%str%
apples
oranges
pears
%str%

? *for_each(item, *counter() + ") "+item, list)
= 1) apples
2) oranges
3) pears

Using an array as in the input to the function.

dim a[3] as P
a[1].fname = "fred"
a[1].lname = "smith"
a[1].city = "new york"
a[2].fname = "kelly"
a[2].lname = "jones"
a[2].city = "chicago"
a[3].fname = "aaron"
a[3].lname = "brown"
a[3].city = "london"

? *for_each(x,x.fname + " " + x.lname,a)
= fred smith
kelly jones
aaron brown

This example demonstrates using a filter expression. Only the entries where the filter expression returns true are returned:

dim txt as c=<<%str%
Smith,Jenny
Jones,Michelle
Amira,Stone
Krayzelberg,Lawson
%str%

?  *for_each(x,word(x,1,","),txt,x>"K")
= Smith
Krayzelberg

In the following example, we read data from the customer table into a property array, and then use *FOR_EACH() to dump out values from the array into a CR-LF string.

dim PropArray 100 as P  
PropArray.initialize_from_table("customer")

? *for_each(x,x.firstname +" " + x.lastname + " lives in " + x.bill_city + ", " + x.bill_state_region,PropArray) 
= Michael Graham lives in Natick, MA 
Aaron Peabody lives in Brockton, MA 
Janet Rebo lives in Keene, NH 
David Mesner lives in York Beach, ME 
Evan Feld lives in Acra, NY

See Also

• WORD_CHANGE()
• FOR EACH ... NEXT