(m4.info)Foreach

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6.5 Iteration by list contents
==============================

Here is an example of a loop macro that implements list iteration.

 -- Composite: foreach (ITERATOR, PAREN-LIST, TEXT)
 -- Composite: foreachq (ITERATOR, QUOTE-LIST, TEXT)
     Takes the name in ITERATOR, which must be a valid macro name, and
     successively assign it each value from PAREN-LIST or QUOTE-LIST.
     In 'foreach', PAREN-LIST is a comma-separated list of elements
     contained in parentheses.  In 'foreachq', QUOTE-LIST is a
     comma-separated list of elements contained in a quoted string.  For
     each assignment to ITERATOR, append TEXT to the overall expansion.
     TEXT may refer to ITERATOR.  Any definition of ITERATOR prior to
     this invocation is restored.

   As an example, this displays each word in a list inside of a
sentence, using an implementation of 'foreach' distributed as
'm4-1.4.18/examples/foreach.m4', and 'foreachq' in
'm4-1.4.18/examples/foreachq.m4'.

     $ m4 -I examples
     include(`foreach.m4')
     =>
     foreach(`x', (foo, bar, foobar), `Word was: x
     ')dnl
     =>Word was: foo
     =>Word was: bar
     =>Word was: foobar
     include(`foreachq.m4')
     =>
     foreachq(`x', `foo, bar, foobar', `Word was: x
     ')dnl
     =>Word was: foo
     =>Word was: bar
     =>Word was: foobar

   It is possible to be more complex; each element of the PAREN-LIST or
QUOTE-LIST can itself be a list, to pass as further arguments to a
helper macro.  This example generates a shell case statement:

     $ m4 -I examples
     include(`foreach.m4')
     =>
     define(`_case', `  $1)
         $2=" $1";;
     ')dnl
     define(`_cat', `$1$2')dnl
     case $`'1 in
     =>case $1 in
     foreach(`x', `(`(`a', `vara')', `(`b', `varb')', `(`c', `varc')')',
             `_cat(`_case', x)')dnl
     =>  a)
     =>    vara=" a";;
     =>  b)
     =>    varb=" b";;
     =>  c)
     =>    varc=" c";;
     esac
     =>esac

   The implementation of the 'foreach' macro is a bit more involved; it
is a wrapper around two helper macros.  First, '_arg1' is needed to grab
the first element of a list.  Second, '_foreach' implements the
recursion, successively walking through the original list.  Here is a
simple implementation of 'foreach':

     $ m4 -I examples
     undivert(`foreach.m4')dnl
     =>divert(`-1')
     =># foreach(x, (item_1, item_2, ..., item_n), stmt)
     =>#   parenthesized list, simple version
     =>define(`foreach', `pushdef(`$1')_foreach($@)popdef(`$1')')
     =>define(`_arg1', `$1')
     =>define(`_foreach', `ifelse(`$2', `()', `',
     =>  `define(`$1', _arg1$2)$3`'$0(`$1', (shift$2), `$3')')')
     =>divert`'dnl

   Unfortunately, that implementation is not robust to macro names as
list elements.  Each iteration of '_foreach' is stripping another layer
of quotes, leading to erratic results if list elements are not already
fully expanded.  The first cut at implementing 'foreachq' takes this
into account.  Also, when using quoted elements in a PAREN-LIST, the
overall list must be quoted.  A QUOTE-LIST has the nice property of
requiring fewer characters to create a list containing the same quoted
elements.  To see the difference between the two macros, we attempt to
pass double-quoted macro names in a list, expecting the macro name on
output after one layer of quotes is removed during list iteration and
the final layer removed during the final rescan:

     $ m4 -I examples
     define(`a', `1')define(`b', `2')define(`c', `3')
     =>
     include(`foreach.m4')
     =>
     include(`foreachq.m4')
     =>
     foreach(`x', `(``a'', ``(b'', ``c)'')', `x
     ')
     =>1
     =>(2)1
     =>
     =>, x
     =>)
     foreachq(`x', ```a'', ``(b'', ``c)''', `x
     ')dnl
     =>a
     =>(b
     =>c)

   Obviously, 'foreachq' did a better job; here is its implementation:

     $ m4 -I examples
     undivert(`foreachq.m4')dnl
     =>include(`quote.m4')dnl
     =>divert(`-1')
     =># foreachq(x, `item_1, item_2, ..., item_n', stmt)
     =>#   quoted list, simple version
     =>define(`foreachq', `pushdef(`$1')_foreachq($@)popdef(`$1')')
     =>define(`_arg1', `$1')
     =>define(`_foreachq', `ifelse(quote($2), `', `',
     =>  `define(`$1', `_arg1($2)')$3`'$0(`$1', `shift($2)', `$3')')')
     =>divert`'dnl

   Notice that '_foreachq' had to use the helper macro 'quote' defined
earlier (Note: Shift), to ensure that the embedded 'ifelse' call does
not go haywire if a list element contains a comma.  Unfortunately, this
implementation of 'foreachq' has its own severe flaw.  Whereas the
'foreach' implementation was linear, this macro is quadratic in the
number of list elements, and is much more likely to trip up the limit
set by the command line option '--nesting-limit' (or '-L', Note:
Invoking m4.).  Additionally, this implementation does
not expand 'defn(`ITERATOR')' very well, when compared with 'foreach'.

     $ m4 -I examples
     include(`foreach.m4')include(`foreachq.m4')
     =>
     foreach(`name', `(`a', `b')', ` defn(`name')')
     => a b
     foreachq(`name', ``a', `b'', ` defn(`name')')
     => _arg1(`a', `b') _arg1(shift(`a', `b'))

   It is possible to have robust iteration with linear behavior and sane
ITERATOR contents for either list style.  See if you can learn from the
best elements of both of these implementations to create robust macros
(or Note: Answers.).