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foreach-keyword.qdoc
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1// Copyright (C) 2020 The Qt Company Ltd.
2// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
3
4/*!
5 \page foreach-keyword.html
6 \title Qt's foreach Keyword
7 \ingroup groups
8 \ingroup qt-basic-concepts
9
10 \brief Qt's foreach keyword.
11
12 \target foreach-keyword
13 \section1 The foreach Keyword
14
15 \note The foreach keyword was introduced before the C++11 range-based loops
16 existed. New code should prefer C++11 range-based loops.
17
18 The \c foreach keyword is a Qt-specific addition to the C++ language,
19 and is implemented using the preprocessor.
20
21 Its syntax is: \c foreach (\e variable, \e container) \e
22 statement. For example, here's how to use \c foreach to iterate
23 over a QList<QString>:
24
25 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 15
26
27 The \c foreach code is significantly shorter than the equivalent
28 code that uses iterators:
29
30 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 16
31
32 Unless the data type contains a comma (e.g., \c{std::pair<int,
33 int>}), the variable used for iteration can be defined within the
34 \c foreach statement:
35
36 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 17
37
38 And like any other C++ loop construct, you can use braces around
39 the body of a \c foreach loop, and you can use \c break to leave
40 the loop:
41
42 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 18
43
44 With QMap and QHash, \c foreach accesses the value component of
45 the (key, value) pairs automatically, so you should not call
46 values() on the container (it would generate an unnecessary copy,
47 see below). If you want to iterate over both the keys and the
48 values, you can use iterators (which are faster), or you can
49 obtain the keys, and use them to get the values too:
50
51 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 19
52
53 For a multi-valued map:
54
55 \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 20
56
57 Qt automatically takes a copy of the container when it enters a
58 \c foreach loop. If you modify the container as you are
59 iterating, that won't affect the loop. (If you do not modify the
60 container, the copy still takes place, but thanks to \l{implicit
61 sharing} copying a container is very fast.)
62
63 Since foreach creates a copy of the container, using a non-const
64 reference for the variable does not allow you to modify the original
65 container. It only affects the copy, which is probably not what you
66 want.
67
68 An alternative to Qt's \c foreach loop is the range-based \c for that is
69 part of C++11 and newer. However, keep in mind that the range-based
70 \c for might force a Qt container to \l{Implicit Sharing}{detach}, whereas
71 \c foreach would not. But using \c foreach always copies the container,
72 which is usually not cheap for STL containers. If in doubt, prefer
73 \c foreach for Qt containers, and range based \c for for STL ones.
74
75 You can remove the availability of the Qt's \c foreach loop by
76 defining the \c{QT_NO_FOREACH} macro.
77*/
78
79/*!
80 \macro QT_NO_FOREACH
81 \since 6.0
82 \relates <QtGlobal>
83
84 Defining this macro removes the availability of Qt's \c foreach
85 loop.
86
87 \sa QT_NO_KEYWORDS
88*/