$loop in Laravel and how to use it in foreach Loop in Laravel

Laravel comes with so many useful directives which helps us create application fast by using them. One of the directive is $loop which we using Laravel blade. Its the same thing as foreach in PHP. In Laravel blade, our opinion is, that @foreach directive is more powerful and useful as compared to foreach loop in PHP. The reason why we think so is, @foreach has $loop variable which makes it very helpful.

What is $loop in Laravel?

Definition: The $loop variable is a stdClass object which provides access to useful meta information about your current loop. $loop variable exposes eight useful properties.

$loop->index Returns a 0-based current loop iteration; 0 would mean the first iteration

$loop->iteration Returns a 1-based current loop iteration; 1 would mean the first iteration

$loop->remaining Number of iterations remaining in the loop; if there are a total of 10 iterations and the current iteration is 3, it would return 7

$loop->count Returns the total number of iterations or the total number of items in the array

$loop->first Returns true if it is the first iteration or item in the loop else returns false.

$loop->last Returns true if it is the last iteration or item in the loop else return false.

$loop->depth Returns the depth or nesting level of the current loop; returns 2 if it is a loop within a loop and 3 if it is nested one level more

$loop->parentIf this loop is nested within another @foreach loop, parent returns the parent’s loop

It is very easy to use and understand. So, you can do something like this in our view file:

@foreach($items as $item)
    @if($loop->first)
        <p>Our first element of the array</p>
    @endif
 
    <p>{{ $loop->iteration . '/' . $loop->count }}</p>
 
    @if($loop->last)
        <p>Our last element of the array</p>
    @endif
@endforeach

You get a reference to the parent loop $loop variable when you are in a nested loop. You can use depth to determine the nesting level of the loop. Then, you can use parent to get the $loop variable of the parent. If you are nested further, you can chain the parent property again to get the $loop variable of the parent of the parent. You can see in the code below, we have the depth of 3.

Let’s say we have the following array in the controller that we pass to our view.

$items = [
    '1' => [
        '1.1' => [
            '1.1.1', '1.1.2'
        ],
        '1.2' => [
            '1.2.1', '1.2.2'
        ]
    ],
    '2' => [
        '2.1' => [
            '2.1.1', '2.1.2'
        ],
        '2.2' => [
            '2.2.1', '2.2.2'
        ]
    ]
];

Now, here is our code in the view using parent to recursively go through the full array. This code is only for demonstration to show you that you can go up to any level of depth.

<ul>
    @foreach($items as $item => $value)
        <li>{{ $item }} == {{ $loop->iteration }}
            <ul>
                @foreach($value as $item_second => $value_second)
                    <li>{{ $item_second }} == {{ $loop->parent->iteration }}.{{ $loop->iteration }}
                        <ul>
                            @foreach($value_second as $value_third)
                                <li>{{ $value_third }} == {{ $loop->parent->parent->iteration }}.
                                    {{ $loop->parent->iteration }}.{{ $loop->iteration }}
                                </li>
                            @endforeach
                        </ul>
                    </li>
                @endforeach
            </ul>
        </li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

In above highlighted code section, we are just iterating on the parent to loop through and create a neat pattern. Do not be scared of the number of lines:

We are very sure, with above explanation and Code Examples on how to use $loop in Laravel blade, you will be very confident of using $loop in your Laravel project.