---
alias: user-guide-automation-business-scenarios-building-structure-step-foreach
tags:
- automation
- connect iot
description: "This documentation outlines a step for iterating through a list of items"
---

# Foreach

Perform an action that will determine the next step(s)

| Name        | Description                                            | Mandatory | Type                                                       | Possible Values | Default Value |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ------------- |
| items       | List of items to iterate                               | N         | `Any[]`                                                    |                 |               |
| itemsKey    | Key that points to the list of items to iterate        | N         | `String`                                                   |                 |               |
| itemKeyName | Name of key to use to store the iterated value         | Y         | `String`                                                   |                 |               |
| subSteps    | Optional steps to be executed as children of this step | N         | [[user-guide-automation-business-scenarios-building-structure-step|BusinessScenarioStep]]`[]` |                 | `[]`          |

## Remarks

1. Either `items` or `itemsKey` is to be defined. When both are defined, only `items` will be used.
2. It is expected to have an array of items to iterate. Any other type will result in an error
3. Each iteration will create a new execution using only the `subSteps` defined, starting with the very first one and moving according to the rules defined for the behavior of each step type
4. The iteration will have a clean list of answers, filling only the value being iterated using the `itemKeyName` as key in the answers
5. Currently, there is no access to the scope of the rest of the scenario
    1. As a way to override this limitation, the developer can fill an array with objects with the values that require to be used within the foreach loop and access them with the `itemKeyName` property of the answers.
6. All values of the array will be iterated
7. Each iteration result will be reported in the `resultKey` entry of the scenario that contained the foreach step within an array

## Example snippets

```json
{
    "type": "Foreach",
    "settings": {
        "items": [ "a", "b", "c" ],
        "itemKeyName": "item"
    }
}
```

```json
{
    "type": "Foreach",
    "settings": {
        "itemsKey": "lastCalculatedResults",
        "itemKeyName": "item"
    }
}
```