How to use the forEach method to loop over an array

Swift version: 5.10

Paul Hudson    @twostraws    May 28th 2019

In Swift we normally loop over arrays like this:

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

for number in numbers {
    print(number)
}

However, Swift provides us an alternative: a dedicated array method called forEach(), that loops over each item in the array and does something with it. For example, the above loop would be written like this:

numbers.forEach {
    print($0)
}

The difference is that forEach() can’t skip over any items – you can’t exit the loop part way, without processing the rest of the items. This helps people reading your code to figure out your intent: you want to act on all items, and won’t stop in the middle.

SPONSORED Take the pain out of configuring and testing your paywalls. RevenueCat's Paywalls allow you to remotely configure and A/B test your entire paywall UI without any code changes or app updates.

Learn more here

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

Available from iOS 8.0 – learn more in my book Pro Swift

Similar solutions…

• How to create views in a loop using ForEach
• How to loop over non-nil items in an array
• How to create a List or a ForEach from a binding
• How to loop over an AsyncSequence using for await
• Using stride() to loop over a range of numbers

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.