each

The Each tag, given a string containing values separated by a known separator, splits it up along the separator and returns each value.
For example, assume we have a variable 'msg' -

<cms:set msg='hello|world|how|do|you|do' />

Passing variable 'msg' as parameter to each like this -

<cms:each msg sep='|' >
    <cms:show item /><br>
</cms:each>

will make available each of the '|' separated words as variable named 'item' (which is then being displayed using show tag).

hello
world
how
do
you
do

The above example could have been written without specifying 'sep', because the default separator is '|'.

One real world scenario for using each is while handling submission of forms containing multiple checkboxes. If more than one checkbox is selected, the checkbox variable contains a '|' separated string with values for each selected checkbox.

Parameters

  • var
  • as
  • sep

var

The string to split. If passed as the first parameter, the name 'var' can be omitted and only the value passed. e.g.

<cms:each var=msg >..</cms:each>

<cms:each msg >..</cms:each>

both of the above are same.

as

Name of the variable as which each of the values obtained after splitting the string will be made available.
By default, the variable is named 'item'.
If you wish to use some other name, it can be specified thus -

<cms:each msg as='my_var' >
    <cms:show my_var/><br>
</cms:each>

sep

The separator along which the provided string is split.
By default, the pipe character '|' is assumed as the separator.
If any other character is being used in the string, it can be specified this way -

<cms:each msg sep='@' >..</cms:each>

Variables

  • item

item

This is the default variable that contains the value obtained.
If any other variable is specified using the as parameter, as explained in parameters, then this variable will not be set.
The specified variable will be set instead.