Page History

...

Iterating over a Foundset

Often, as part of some programming operation, it is necessary to iterate over part or all of a foundset. There are several approaches to iterating, each having their appropriate usage. General a Javascript for or while statement is used to control the flow of execution.

Changing the Selected Index

Perhaps the most intuitive approach is to programmatically change the foundset's selected index property. 

Example: The example below iterates over the entire foundset using a for loop.

for(var i = 1; i <= foundset.getSize(); i++){
	foundset.setSelectedIndex(i);
	// operate on the selected record
}

Accessing a Record Object

While setting the selected index of the foundset is sometimes necessary, it also contains some overhead and therefore is not always the most efficient way to iterate over a foundset. However, one can iterate in a similar manner, access a record object without changing the selected index of a foundset by using the getRecord method of the foundset.

Example This example iterates over the foundset, but does not affect the selected index. The performance will be better than the previous example, and will not have any side effects in the UI if the foundset is bound to a form.

for(var i = 1; i <= foundset.getSize(); i++){
	var rec = foundset.getRecord(i);	// does not affect the selected index
}

Accessing Data Provider Values as an Array

Sometimes the purpose of iterating over a foundset is to access all of the values for a particular data provider. The most efficient way to do this is to obtain an array of values for the foundset's data provider using the getFoundSetDataProviderAsArray method of the databaseManager API.

Example This example shows how to access all the values in a foundset for a single data provider. Iterating over a simple array offers better performance over normal foundset iteration.

var ids = databaseManager.getFoundSetDataProviderAsArray(foundset,'order_id');
for(i in ids){
    var id = ids[i];
}

Related Foundsets