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Use for when you need a counter or predictable step, while to repeat as long as a condition is true, and foreach to process each item in a collection. PowerShell’s do/while and do/until loops check their condition after the body, so they always run at least once.

Choose the right PowerShell loop

Loop Best fit When the condition is checked Minimum body runs
for A counter or predictable step pattern Before each pass Zero
while Repeating while a changing condition remains true Before each pass Zero
foreach Applying work to each item in a collection Driven by collection enumeration Zero for an empty collection
do/while Run once, then repeat while a condition is true After each pass One
do/until Run once, then repeat until a condition becomes true After each pass One

These behaviors are described in Microsoft’s documentation for for, while, foreach, and do loops.

How to use a PowerShell for loop

A for loop puts its setup, condition, and repeat action in one line. PowerShell runs the initialization once, checks the condition before each pass, executes the body if it is true, then performs the repeat action.

for ($i = 1; $i -le 5; $i++) {
    Write-Output $i
}
  • $i = 1 initializes the counter.
  • $i -le 5 allows another pass while the counter is 5 or less.
  • $i++ increments the counter after each body pass.

This example outputs 1 through 5. To advance by two instead, use $i += 2 as the repeat action. Because the condition is checked first, the body can run zero times if the condition is false initially. Microsoft notes that foreach is often a better fit when the goal is simply to visit every member of a collection; see about_For.

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How to use a PowerShell while loop

A while loop checks its condition before entering the body. It repeats as long as that condition remains true, so the loop may run zero times. Update the state that the condition depends on, or provide another intentional way to exit.

$value = 0
while ($value -lt 3) {
    $value++
    Write-Output $value
}

The condition is true when $value is 0, 1, and 2. Each pass increments it; when it reaches 3, the condition is false and the loop ends. Without an update or exit path, a condition that stays true can keep the loop running indefinitely. See Microsoft’s while-loop documentation.

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How to use a PowerShell foreach loop

Use the foreach statement when you want to run a block once for each item in a collection. The loop variable receives the next item on each pass.

$names = 'Ada', 'Grace', 'Katherine'
foreach ($name in $names) {
    Write-Output $name
}

This outputs each name in turn. The same pattern can process objects returned by a command, such as Get-ChildItem:

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foreach ($file in Get-ChildItem) {
    Write-Output $file.Name
}

The statement’s behavior is documented in Microsoft’s about_Foreach. These examples cover the foreach statement; they do not establish that it is interchangeable with the foreach pipeline keyword for performance or streaming behavior.

How to use PowerShell do/while and do/until loops

A do loop runs its body before checking the condition. Choose this form when the work must happen at least once, even if the condition would not otherwise allow an initial pass.

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Repeat while a condition is true

$count = 0
do {
    $count++
    Write-Output $count
} while ($count -lt 3)

Here, the body runs, then PowerShell checks $count -lt 3. The loop repeats while that expression is true.

Repeat until a condition is true

$count = 0
do {
    $count++
    Write-Output $count
} until ($count -ge 3)

until reverses the stopping logic: PowerShell repeats while the condition is false and stops when it becomes true. Both forms execute the body once before the first condition check. See Microsoft’s do-loop reference and iteration statements in the PowerShell language specification.

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Control a loop with break and continue

Use break to leave the current loop immediately. Use continue to skip the rest of the current pass and return control to loop processing. In a while loop, that means the condition is checked again.

  • break exits the current loop.
  • continue advances to the next loop check or item.

For example, inside a loop over items, use continue when the current item needs no further work, and break when you have reached a condition that means no more items should be processed.

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