loop
macro
boot.janet on line 539, column 1
(loop head & body)
A general purpose loop macro. This macro is similar to the Common
Lisp loop macro, although intentionally much smaller in scope. The
head of the loop should be a tuple that contains a sequence of
either bindings or conditionals. A binding is a sequence of three
values that define something to loop over. Bindings are written in
the format:
binding :verb object/expression
where `binding` is a binding as passed to def, `:verb` is one of a
set of keywords, and `object` is any expression. Each subsequent
binding creates a nested loop within the loop created by the
previous binding.
The available verbs are:
* `:iterate` -- repeatedly evaluate and bind to the expression
while it is truthy.
* `:range` -- loop over a range. The object should be a two-element
tuple with a start and end value, and an optional positive step.
The range is half open, [start, end).
* `:range-to` -- same as :range, but the range is inclusive [start,
end].
* `:down` -- loop over a range, stepping downwards. The object
should be a two-element tuple with a start and (exclusive) end
value, and an optional (positive!) step size.
* `:down-to` -- same as :down, but the range is inclusive [start,
end].
* `:keys` -- iterate over the keys in a data structure.
* `:pairs` -- iterate over the key-value pairs as tuples in a data
structure.
* `:in` -- iterate over the values in a data structure or fiber.
`loop` also accepts conditionals to refine the looping further.
Conditionals are of the form:
:modifier argument
where `:modifier` is one of a set of keywords, and `argument` is
keyword-dependent. `:modifier` can be one of:
* `:while expression` -- breaks from the current loop if
`expression` is falsey.
* `:until expression` -- breaks from the current loop if
`expression` is truthy.
* `:let bindings` -- defines bindings inside the current loop as
passed to the `let` macro.
* `:before form` -- evaluates a form for a side effect before the
next inner loop.
* `:after form` -- same as `:before`, but the side effect happens
after the next inner loop.
* `:repeat n` -- repeats the next inner loop `n` times.
* `:when condition` -- only evaluates the current loop body when
`condition` is true.
The `loop` macro always evaluates to nil.