FlowLang is built on the Rhai embedded scripting language. The language semantics on these pages are Rhai's; FlowLang adds the typed Connect- block surface on top (see the namespace catalogue).

For Loop

Iterating through a numeric range or an array, or any type with a registered type iterator, is provided by the for ... in loop.

There are two alternative syntaxes, one including a counter variable:

for variable in expression { ... }

for ( variable , counter ) in expression { ... }


`for` loops can be disabled via [`Engine::set_allow_looping`][options].

Break or Continue

Like C, continue can be used to skip to the next iteration, by-passing all following statements.

break can be used to break out of the loop unconditionally.

For Expression

Unlike Rust, for statements can also be used as expressions.

The break statement takes an optional expression that provides the return value.

The default return value of a for expression is ().


Loop expressions can be disabled via [`Engine::set_allow_loop_expressions`][options].
let a = [42, 123, 999, 0, true, "hello", "world!", 987.6543];

// 'for' can be used just like an expression
let index = for (item, count) in a {
    // if the 'for' loop breaks here, return a specific value
    switch item.type_of() {
        "i64" if item.is_even => break count,
        "f64" if item.to_int().is_even => break count,
    }

    // ... if the 'for' loop exits here, the return value is ()
};

if index == () {
    print("Magic number not found!");
} else {
    print(`Magic number found at index ${index}!`);
}

Counter Variable

The counter variable, if specified, starts from zero, incrementing upwards.

let a = [42, 123, 999, 0, true, "hello", "world!", 987.6543];

// Loop through the array
for (item, count) in a {
    if x.type_of() == "string" {
        continue;                   // skip to the next iteration
    }

    // 'item' contains a copy of each element during each iteration
    // 'count' increments (starting from zero) for each iteration
    print(`Item #${count + 1} = ${item}`);

    if x == 42 { break; }           // break out of for loop
}