/**************************************************************************** ** ** Copyright (C) 2020 The Qt Company Ltd. ** Contact: https://www.qt.io/licensing/ ** ** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit. ** ** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$ ** Commercial License Usage ** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in ** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the ** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in ** a written agreement between you and The Qt Company. For licensing terms ** and conditions see https://www.qt.io/terms-conditions. For further ** information use the contact form at https://www.qt.io/contact-us. ** ** GNU Free Documentation License Usage ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of ** this file. Please review the following information to ensure ** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements ** will be met: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html. ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \page foreach-keyword.html \title Qt's foreach Keyword \ingroup groups \ingroup qt-basic-concepts \brief Qt's foreach keyword. \tableofcontents \target foreach-keyword \section1 The foreach Keyword \note The foreach keyword was introduced before the C++11 range-based loops existed. New code should prefer C++11 range-based loops. The \c foreach keyword is a Qt-specific addition to the C++ language, and is implemented using the preprocessor. Its syntax is: \c foreach (\e variable, \e container) \e statement. For example, here's how to use \c foreach to iterate over a QList: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 15 The \c foreach code is significantly shorter than the equivalent code that uses iterators: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 16 Unless the data type contains a comma (e.g., \c{QPair}), the variable used for iteration can be defined within the \c foreach statement: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 17 And like any other C++ loop construct, you can use braces around the body of a \c foreach loop, and you can use \c break to leave the loop: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 18 With QMap and QHash, \c foreach accesses the value component of the (key, value) pairs automatically, so you should not call values() on the container (it would generate an unnecessary copy, see below). If you want to iterate over both the keys and the values, you can use iterators (which are faster), or you can obtain the keys, and use them to get the values too: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 19 For a multi-valued map: \snippet code/doc_src_containers.cpp 20 Qt automatically takes a copy of the container when it enters a \c foreach loop. If you modify the container as you are iterating, that won't affect the loop. (If you do not modify the container, the copy still takes place, but thanks to \l{implicit sharing} copying a container is very fast.) Since foreach creates a copy of the container, using a non-const reference for the variable does not allow you to modify the original container. It only affects the copy, which is probably not what you want. An alternative to Qt's \c foreach loop is the range-based \c for that is part of C++11 and newer. However, keep in mind that the range-based \c for might force a Qt container to \l{Implicit Sharing}{detach}, whereas \c foreach would not. But using \c foreach always copies the container, which is usually not cheap for STL containers. If in doubt, prefer \c foreach for Qt containers, and range based \c for for STL ones. */