C Foreach or Similar

Question

Almost all languages have a foreach loop (function) or something similar. I wonder if C has one? Can you post some example code?

Answer 1

No, it doesn't.

Answer 2

There is no foreach in C.

You can use a for loop to loop through the data but the length needs to be know or the data needs to be terminated by a know value (eg. null).

char* nullTerm;
nullTerm = "Loop through my characters";

for(;nullTerm != NULL;nullTerm++)
{
    //nullTerm will now point to the next character.
}

Answer 3

C has 'for' and 'while' keywords. If a foreach statement in a language like C# looks like this ...

foreach (Element element in collection)
{
}

... then the equivalent of this foreach statement in C might be be like:

for (
    Element* element = GetFirstElement(&collection);
    element != 0;
    element = GetNextElement(&collection, element)
    )
{
    //TODO: do something with this element instance ...
}

Answer 4

C doesn't have a foreach, but macros are frequently used to emulate that:

#define for_each_item(item, list) \
    for(T * item = list->head; item != NULL; item = item->next)

And can be used like

for_each_item(i, processes) {
    i->wakeup();
}

Iteration over an array is also possible:

#define foreach(item, array) \
    for(int keep=1, \
            count=0,\
            size=sizeof (array)/sizeof *(array); \
        count != size; \
        keep=1, count++) \
      for(item = (array)+count; keep; keep = !keep)

And can be used like

int values[] = { 1, 2, 3 };
foreach(int *v, values) {
    printf("value: %d\n", *v);
}

Edit: In case you are also interested in C++ solutions, boost has it (but C++ itself doesn't have a native for-each loop yet): Boost.ForEach

Answer 5

Here is a full program example of a for-each macro in C99:

#include <stdio.h>

typedef struct list_node list_node;
struct list_node {
    list_node *next;
    void *data;
};

#define FOR_EACH(item, list) \
    for (list_node *(item) = (list); (item); (item) = (item)->next)

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    list_node list[] = {
        { .next = &list[1], .data = "test 1" },
        { .next = &list[2], .data = "test 2" },
        { .next = NULL,     .data = "test 3" }
    };

    FOR_EACH(item, list)
        puts((char *) item->data);

    return 0;
}

Answer 6

For a C++ class with size() and operator[] defined, try:

#define foreach(A,B) \
    for(unsigned i=0,__a=1;i<B.size();i++,__a=1) \
    for(A=B[i];__a;__a=0)

int main(){
    vector v;
    v.push_back(0);
    v.push_back(0);
    v.push_back(2);

    foreach(int k,v){
     cout<<k<<"\n";
    }
}

This might not be the fastest, though.

Answer 7

This is a fairly old question, but I though I should post this. It is a foreach loop for GNU C99.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

#define FOREACH_COMP(INDEX, ARRAY, ARRAY_TYPE, SIZE) \
  __extension__ \
  ({ \
    bool ret = 0; \
    if (__builtin_types_compatible_p (const char*, ARRAY_TYPE)) \
      ret = INDEX < strlen ((const char*)ARRAY); \
    else \
      ret = INDEX < SIZE; \
    ret; \
  })

#define FOREACH_ELEM(INDEX, ARRAY, TYPE) \
  __extension__ \
  ({ \
    TYPE *tmp_array_ = ARRAY; \
    &tmp_array_[INDEX]; \
  })

#define FOREACH(VAR, ARRAY) \
for (void *array_ = (void*)(ARRAY); array_; array_ = 0) \
for (size_t i_ = 0; i_ && array_ && FOREACH_COMP (i_, array_, \
                                    __typeof__ (ARRAY), \
                                    sizeof (ARRAY) / sizeof ((ARRAY)[0])); \
                                    i_++) \
for (bool b_ = 1; b_; (b_) ? array_ = 0 : 0, b_ = 0) \
for (VAR = FOREACH_ELEM (i_, array_, __typeof__ ((ARRAY)[0])); b_; b_ = 0)

/* example's */
int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
  int array[10];
  /* initialize the array */
  int i = 0;
  FOREACH (int *x, array)
    {
      *x = i;
      ++i;
    }

  char *str = "hello, world!";
  FOREACH (char *c, str)
    printf ("%c\n", *c);

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

This code has been tested to work with gcc, icc and clang on GNU/Linux.