Groovy For Loop Examples

Apr 20, 2015 Groovy, Tutorial comments

Almost all programs needs some sort of loop construct to execute a block of code several number of times. The "For Loop" is the most common and efficient way to write a loop when you know how many times a task is to be repeated. This will show examples on how to do "For Loop in Groovy". Note that most are also valid Java for loop as Groovy is a superset of Java.

Classic For Loop

Here is the classic for loop statement that is both valid in Groovy and Java:

for (i = 0; i <3; i++) {
   System.out.println("Hello World")
}

This will print 3 lines of "Hello World"

Hello World
Hello World
Hello World

Classic For Loop with Collection

Here is a classic for loop statement that iterates over a collection. This is also both valid in Groovy and Java.

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("A");
list.add("B");
list.add("C");
for (String item : list) {
   System.out.println(item)
}

The output is the items in the list printed on each line:

A
B
C

Groovy For Loop with Upto

Groovy supports the upto default method that helps write similar for loop statements. For example:

def c = {
   println it
}
1.upto(4, c)

The output is

Here is another example of using upto:

1.upto(4, {
   println "Number ${it}"
})

Here is the output:

Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Number 4

Here is another way of writing the statement:

1.upto(4) {
   println "Test ${it}"
}

And this is the output:

Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4

Grovy For Loop WIth Step

Similar to upto, Groovy also supports step default method where we can specify the increment. Here is a simple example with increment 1.

0.step 5, 1, {
   println it
}

The output is this:

Here is the same example with a different increment. This time using the value 2.

0.step 5, 2, {
   println it
}

Notice the difference in the output:

0
2
4

Groovy For Loop with Times

Here is my favorite for loop like in Groovy. It uses times default method:

3.times {
   println "Hello World ${it}"
}

Hello World 0
Hello World 1
Hello World 2

Here is another way of writing it using a variable:

def n = 3
n.times {
   println "Hello World ${it}"
}

Groovy For Loop with List

We can use the Groovy syntax for iterating over a list or collection using the keyword in. Here is a simple example:

def list = ["A", "B", "C"]
for (item in list) {
   println item
}

The output is this:

A
B
C

Here is a shortened example:

for (item in ["A", "B", "C"]) {
   println item
}

Here is another example that iterates over a range of numbers

for (number in 1..3 ) {
    println number
}

The output is this:

1
2
3

Here is a way of iterating over a map using for loop:

def map = [a1:'b1', a2:'b2']
for ( item in map ) {
    println item.key 
}

The output is this:

a1
a2

Same example but using the values of the map

def map = [a1:'b1', a2:'b2']
for ( item in map ) {
    println item.value
}

The output is this:

b1
b2

Grovy For Loop WIth Each

The each default method is another convenient way of performing a loop. Here is an example:

def list = ["A", "B"]
list.each {
	println it
}

The output is this:

A
B

Here is an example of using each with a range of numbers

(1..3).each {
	println it
}

The output is this:

1
2
3

Another example of using each with index:

def list = ["A", "B", "C"]
list.eachWithIndex { val, idx ->
   println "${idx}. ${val}"
}

The output is this:

0. A
1. B
2. C

Beginners Tutorial

Example Applications

If you like my posts, like my Facebook page please :)

Links