FOR statement

The FOR statement can be used to iterate over the values of an array, and to perform certain actions with those values.

Note

A FOR loop currently cannot access items outside its own scope, such as variables declared before the loop.

SurrealQL Syntax
FOR @item IN @iterable {
@block
};

Example usage

The following query shows example usage of this statement.

-- Create a person for everyone in the array
FOR $name IN ['Tobie', 'Jaime'] {
	CREATE type::thing('person', $name) CONTENT {
		name: $name
	};
};

The following query shows the FOR statement being used update a property on every user matching certain criteria.

-- Set can_vote to true for every person over 18 years old.
FOR $person IN (SELECT VALUE id FROM person WHERE age >= 18) {
	UPDATE $person SET can_vote = true;
};

Ranges in FOR loops

Available since: v2.0.0

A FOR loop can also be made out of a range UUID of integers.

FOR $year IN 0..=2024 {
    CREATE historical_events SET
        for_year = $year,
        events = "To be added";
}

Limitations of FOR loops

As parameters declared outside a FOR loop cannot currently be modified inside a loop, an operation like the following is not possible.

LET $init = [];

FOR $num IN 1..=3 {
	$init += $num;
};

RETURN $init;

However, the array::fold and array::reduce functions can often be used in this case.

(<array>1..=3).reduce(|$one, $two| $one + $two);

Output
6