How do you get the index of the current iteration of a foreach loop?

Question

Is there some rare language construct I haven't encountered (like the few I've learned recently, some on Stack Overflow) in C# to get a value representing the current iteration of a foreach loop?

For instance, I currently do something like this depending on the circumstances:

int i = 0;
foreach (Object o in collection)
{
    // ...
    i++;
}

Answer 1

Update Dotnet 9 (~November 2024+)

Dotnet 9 added some updates to linq including the Enumerable.Index() Method

So you can now/soon simply call the following:

foreach ((int index, Object o) in collection.Index())
{
    // ...
}

---

If you're not yet on .net 9 and want to borrow the implementation from the source code, you can add an extension method like this (complete with int overflow checking and yielded results):

public static IEnumerable<(int Index, TSource Item)> IndexIterator<TSource>(IEnumerable<TSource> source)
{
    int index = -1;
    foreach (TSource element in source)
    {
        checked
        {
            index++;
        }

        yield return (index, element);
    }
}

Further Reading

• What's new in .NET libraries for .NET 9
• [API Proposal]: Linq method for getting value and index · Issue #95563 · dotnet/runtime

Answer 2

In my case, this is working, inside a foreach loop in the razor page.

@foreach (var item in _modalSubscriberList)                                                                                   
{                                                                           
 (_modalSubscriberList.IndexOf(item) + 1)
}

Answer 3

Finally C# 7.0 has a decent syntax for getting an index inside of a foreach loop (i. e. tuples):

foreach (var (item, index) in collection.WithIndex())
{
    Debug.WriteLine($"{index}: {item}");
}

A little extension method would be needed:

using System.Collections.Generic;

public static class IEnumerableExtensions {
    public static IEnumerable<(T item, int index)> WithIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> self)       
       => self.Select((item, index) => (item, index));
}

Answer 4

It depends on what you are foreach'ing. Do you have IndexOf available? If it is a list you can use collection.IndexOf(item) to get the index. If it is an array, you do not have IndexOf. You will need to introduce an external counter variable or use the classic "c language" for statement.

Answer 5

As a newbie to C# coming from Python, I've come up with a solution that I like that doesn't involve creating helper methods, using libraries, or just using a for loop. I think it's quite elegant:

string[] fruits = new string[] {"apple", "banana", "orange", "kiwi"};
foreach (var (item, index) in fruits.Zip(Enumerable.Range(0, fruits.Length)))
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{index}: {item}");
}
// Output:
// 0: apple
// 1: banana
// 2: orange
// 3: kiwi

Thanks to .Zip and Enumerate.Range being "lazy" (as Python calls it) or using "deferred execution", this approach shouldn't add any unneccessary memory usage, and very little extra time, at least to my understanding. There are probably applications where this approach doesn't work and others would be preferable, but I found this useful.

Answer 6

Just add your own index. Keep it simple.

int i = -1;
foreach (var item in Collection)
{
    ++i;
    item.index = i;
}

Answer 7

This way you can use the index and value using LINQ:

ListValues.Select((x, i) => new { Value = x, Index = i }).ToList().ForEach(element =>
{
    // element.Index
    // element.Value
});

Answer 8

// using foreach loop how to get index number:
    
foreach (var result in results.Select((value, index) => new { index, value }))
{
    // do something
}

Answer 9

Ian Mercer posted a similar solution as this on Phil Haack's blog:

foreach (var item in Model.Select((value, i) => new { i, value }))
{
    var value = item.value;
    var index = item.i;
}

This gets you the item (item.value) and its index (item.i) by using this overload of LINQ's Select:

the second parameter of the function [inside Select] represents the index of the source element.

The new { i, value } is creating a new anonymous object.

Heap allocations can be avoided by using ValueTuple if you're using C# 7.0 or later:

foreach (var item in Model.Select((value, i) => ( value, i )))
{
    var value = item.value;
    var index = item.i;
}

You can also eliminate the item. by using automatic destructuring:

foreach (var (value, i) in Model.Select((value, i) => ( value, i )))
{
    // Access `value` and `i` directly here.
}

Answer 10

The foreach is for iterating over collections that implement IEnumerable. It does this by calling GetEnumerator on the collection, which will return an Enumerator.

This Enumerator has a method and a property:

• MoveNext()
• Current

Current returns the object that Enumerator is currently on, MoveNext updates Current to the next object.

The concept of an index is foreign to the concept of enumeration, and cannot be done.

Because of that, most collections are able to be traversed using an indexer and the for loop construct.

I greatly prefer using a for loop in this situation compared to tracking the index with a local variable.

Answer 11

This answer: lobby the C# language team for direct language support.

The leading answer states:

Obviously, the concept of an index is foreign to the concept of enumeration, and cannot be done.

While this is true of the current C# language version (2020), this is not a conceptual CLR/Language limit, it can be done.

The Microsoft C# language development team could create a new C# language feature, by adding support for a new Interface IIndexedEnumerable

foreach (var item in collection with var index)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Iteration {0} has value {1}", index, item);
}

//or, building on @user1414213562's answer
foreach (var (item, index) in collection)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Iteration {0} has value {1}", index, item);
}

If foreach () is used and with var index is present, then the compiler expects the item collection to declare IIndexedEnumerable interface. If the interface is absent, the compiler can polyfill wrap the source with an IndexedEnumerable object, which adds in the code for tracking the index.

interface IIndexedEnumerable<T> : IEnumerable<T>
{
    //Not index, because sometimes source IEnumerables are transient
    public long IterationNumber { get; }
}

Later, the CLR can be updated to have internal index tracking, that is only used if with keyword is specified and the source doesn't directly implement IIndexedEnumerable

Why:

• Foreach looks nicer, and in business applications, foreach loops are rarely a performance bottleneck
• Foreach can be more efficient on memory. Having a pipeline of functions instead of converting to new collections at each step. Who cares if it uses a few more CPU cycles when there are fewer CPU cache faults and fewer garbage collections?
• Requiring the coder to add index-tracking code, spoils the beauty
• It's quite easy to implement (please Microsoft) and is backward compatible

While most people here are not Microsoft employees, this is a correct answer, you can lobby Microsoft to add such a feature. You could already build your own iterator with an extension function and use tuples, but Microsoft could sprinkle the syntactic sugar to avoid the extension function

Answer 12

Why foreach ?!

The simplest way is using for instead of foreach if you are using List:

for (int i = 0 ; i < myList.Count ; i++)
{
    // Do something...
}

Or if you want use foreach:

foreach (string m in myList)
{
     // Do something...
}

You can use this to know the index of each loop:

myList.indexOf(m)

Answer 13

Using LINQ, C# 7, and the System.ValueTuple NuGet package, you can do this:

foreach (var (value, index) in collection.Select((v, i)=>(v, i))) {
    Console.WriteLine(value + " is at index " + index);
}

You can use the regular foreach construct and be able to access the value and index directly, not as a member of an object, and keeps both fields only in the scope of the loop. For these reasons, I believe this is the best solution if you are able to use C# 7 and System.ValueTuple.

Answer 14

C# 7 finally gives us an elegant way to do this:

static class Extensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<(int, T)> Enumerate<T>(
        this IEnumerable<T> input,
        int start = 0
    )
    {
        int i = start;
        foreach (var t in input)
        {
            yield return (i++, t);
        }
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var s = new string[]
        {
            "Alpha",
            "Bravo",
            "Charlie",
            "Delta"
        };

        foreach (var (i, t) in s.Enumerate())
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"{i}: {t}");
        }
    }
}

Answer 15

You can write your loop like this:

var s = "ABCDEFG";
foreach (var item in s.GetEnumeratorWithIndex())
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("Character: {0}, Position: {1}", item.Value, item.Index);
}

After adding the following struct and extension method.

The struct and extension method encapsulate Enumerable.Select functionality.

public struct ValueWithIndex<T>
{
    public readonly T Value;
    public readonly int Index;

    public ValueWithIndex(T value, int index)
    {
        this.Value = value;
        this.Index = index;
    }

    public static ValueWithIndex<T> Create(T value, int index)
    {
        return new ValueWithIndex<T>(value, index);
    }
}

public static class ExtensionMethods
{
    public static IEnumerable<ValueWithIndex<T>> GetEnumeratorWithIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> enumerable)
    {
        return enumerable.Select(ValueWithIndex<T>.Create);
    }
}

Answer 16

This doesn't answer your specific question, but it DOES provide you with a solution to your problem: use a for loop to run through the object collection. then you will have the current index you are working on.

// Untested
for (int i = 0; i < collection.Count; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine("My index is " + i);
}

Answer 17

If the collection is a list, you can use List.IndexOf, as in:

foreach (Object o in collection)
{
    // ...
    @collection.IndexOf(o)
}

Answer 18

There's nothing wrong with using a counter variable. In fact, whether you use for, foreach while or do, a counter variable must somewhere be declared and incremented.

So use this idiom if you're not sure if you have a suitably-indexed collection:

var i = 0;
foreach (var e in collection) {
   // Do stuff with 'e' and 'i'
   i++;
}

Else use this one if you know that your indexable collection is O(1) for index access (which it will be for Array and probably for List<T> (the documentation doesn't say), but not necessarily for other types (such as LinkedList)):

// Hope the JIT compiler optimises read of the 'Count' property!
for (var i = 0; i < collection.Count; i++) {
   var e = collection[i];
   // Do stuff with 'e' and 'i'
}

It should never be necessary to 'manually' operate the IEnumerator by invoking MoveNext() and interrogating Current - foreach is saving you that particular bother ... if you need to skip items, just use a continue in the body of the loop.

And just for completeness, depending on what you were doing with your index (the above constructs offer plenty of flexibility), you might use Parallel LINQ:

// First, filter 'e' based on 'i',
// then apply an action to remaining 'e'
collection
    .AsParallel()
    .Where((e,i) => /* filter with e,i */)
    .ForAll(e => { /* use e, but don't modify it */ });

// Using 'e' and 'i', produce a new collection,
// where each element incorporates 'i'
collection
    .AsParallel()
    .Select((e, i) => new MyWrapper(e, i));

We use AsParallel() above, because it's 2014 already, and we want to make good use of those multiple cores to speed things up. Further, for 'sequential' LINQ, you only get a ForEach() extension method on List<T> and Array ... and it's not clear that using it is any better than doing a simple foreach, since you are still running single-threaded for uglier syntax.

Answer 19

I built this in LINQPad:

var listOfNames = new List<string>(){"John","Steve","Anna","Chris"};

var listCount = listOfNames.Count;

var NamesWithCommas = string.Empty;

foreach (var element in listOfNames)
{
    NamesWithCommas += element;
    if(listOfNames.IndexOf(element) != listCount -1)
    {
        NamesWithCommas += ", ";
    }
}

NamesWithCommas.Dump();  //LINQPad method to write to console.

You could also just use string.join:

var joinResult = string.Join(",", listOfNames);

Answer 20

I don't think this should be quite efficient, but it works:

@foreach (var banner in Model.MainBanners) {
    @Model.MainBanners.IndexOf(banner)
}

Answer 21

This is how I do it, which is nice for its simplicity/brevity, but if you're doing a lot in the loop body obj.Value, it is going to get old pretty fast.

foreach(var obj in collection.Select((item, index) => new { Index = index, Value = item }) {
    string foo = string.Format("Something[{0}] = {1}", obj.Index, obj.Value);
    ...
}

Answer 22

Literal Answer -- warning, performance may not be as good as just using an int to track the index. At least it is better than using IndexOf.

You just need to use the indexing overload of Select to wrap each item in the collection with an anonymous object that knows the index. This can be done against anything that implements IEnumerable.

System.Collections.IEnumerable collection = Enumerable.Range(100, 10);

foreach (var o in collection.OfType<object>().Select((x, i) => new {x, i}))
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", o.i, o.x);
}

Answer 23

Using @FlySwat's answer, I came up with this solution:

//var list = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }; // Your sample collection

var listEnumerator = list.GetEnumerator(); // Get enumerator

for (var i = 0; listEnumerator.MoveNext() == true; i++)
{
  int currentItem = listEnumerator.Current; // Get current item.
  //Console.WriteLine("At index {0}, item is {1}", i, currentItem); // Do as you wish with i and  currentItem
}

You get the enumerator using GetEnumerator and then you loop using a for loop. However, the trick is to make the loop's condition listEnumerator.MoveNext() == true.

Since the MoveNext method of an enumerator returns true if there is a next element and it can be accessed, making that the loop condition makes the loop stop when we run out of elements to iterate over.

Answer 24

Better to use keyword continue safe construction like this

int i=-1;
foreach (Object o in collection)
{
    ++i;
    //...
    continue; //<--- safe to call, index will be increased
    //...
}

Answer 25

Here is another solution to this problem, with a focus on keeping the syntax as close to a standard foreach as possible.

This sort of construct is useful if you are wanting to make your views look nice and clean in MVC. For example instead of writing this the usual way (which is hard to format nicely):

 <%int i=0;
 foreach (var review in Model.ReviewsList) { %>
    <div id="review_<%=i%>">
        <h3><%:review.Title%></h3>                      
    </div>
    <%i++;
 } %>

You could instead write this:

 <%foreach (var review in Model.ReviewsList.WithIndex()) { %>
    <div id="review_<%=LoopHelper.Index()%>">
        <h3><%:review.Title%></h3>                      
    </div>
 <%} %>

I've written some helper methods to enable this:

public static class LoopHelper {
    public static int Index() {
        return (int)HttpContext.Current.Items["LoopHelper_Index"];
    }       
}

public static class LoopHelperExtensions {
    public static IEnumerable<T> WithIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> that) {
        return new EnumerableWithIndex<T>(that);
    }

    public class EnumerableWithIndex<T> : IEnumerable<T> {
        public IEnumerable<T> Enumerable;

        public EnumerableWithIndex(IEnumerable<T> enumerable) {
            Enumerable = enumerable;
        }

        public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator() {
            for (int i = 0; i < Enumerable.Count(); i++) {
                HttpContext.Current.Items["LoopHelper_Index"] = i;
                yield return Enumerable.ElementAt(i);
            }
        }

        IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() {
            return GetEnumerator();
        }
    }

In a non-web environment you could use a static instead of HttpContext.Current.Items.

This is essentially a global variable, and so you cannot have more than one WithIndex loop nested, but that is not a major problem in this use case.

Answer 26

I disagree with comments that a for loop is a better choice in most cases.

foreach is a useful construct, and not replaceble by a for loop in all circumstances.

For example, if you have a DataReader and loop through all records using a foreach it automatically calls the Dispose method and closes the reader (which can then close the connection automatically). This is therefore safer as it prevents connection leaks even if you forget to close the reader.

(Sure it is good practise to always close readers but the compiler is not going to catch it if you don't - you can't guarantee you have closed all readers but you can make it more likely you won't leak connections by getting in the habit of using foreach.)

There may be other examples of the implicit call of the Dispose method being useful.

Answer 27

I wasn't sure what you were trying to do with the index information based on the question. However, in C#, you can usually adapt the IEnumerable.Select method to get the index out of whatever you want. For instance, I might use something like this for whether a value is odd or even.

string[] names = { "one", "two", "three" };
var oddOrEvenByName = names
    .Select((name, index) => new KeyValuePair<string, int>(name, index % 2))
    .ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key, kvp => kvp.Value);

This would give you a dictionary by name of whether the item was odd (1) or even (0) in the list.

Answer 28

For interest, Phil Haack just wrote an example of this in the context of a Razor Templated Delegate (http://haacked.com/archive/2011/04/14/a-better-razor-foreach-loop.aspx)

Effectively he writes an extension method which wraps the iteration in an "IteratedItem" class (see below) allowing access to the index as well as the element during iteration.

public class IndexedItem<TModel> {
  public IndexedItem(int index, TModel item) {
    Index = index;
    Item = item;
  }

  public int Index { get; private set; }
  public TModel Item { get; private set; }
}

However, while this would be fine in a non-Razor environment if you are doing a single operation (i.e. one that could be provided as a lambda) it's not going to be a solid replacement of the for/foreach syntax in non-Razor contexts.

Answer 29

I just had this problem, but thinking around the problem in my case gave the best solution, unrelated to the expected solution.

It could be quite a common case, basically, I'm reading from one source list and creating objects based on them in a destination list, however, I have to check whether the source items are valid first and want to return the row of any error. At first-glance, I want to get the index into the enumerator of the object at the Current property, however, as I am copying these elements, I implicitly know the current index anyway from the current destination. Obviously it depends on your destination object, but for me it was a List, and most likely it will implement ICollection.

i.e.

var destinationList = new List<someObject>();
foreach (var item in itemList)
{
  var stringArray = item.Split(new char[] { ';', ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

  if (stringArray.Length != 2)
  {
    //use the destinationList Count property to give us the index into the stringArray list
    throw new Exception("Item at row " + (destinationList.Count + 1) + " has a problem.");
  }
  else
  {
    destinationList.Add(new someObject() { Prop1 = stringArray[0], Prop2 = stringArray[1]});
  }
}

Not always applicable, but often enough to be worth mentioning, I think.

Anyway, the point being that sometimes there is a non-obvious solution already in the logic you have...

Answer 30

How about something like this? Note that myDelimitedString may be null if myEnumerable is empty.

IEnumerator enumerator = myEnumerable.GetEnumerator();
string myDelimitedString;
string current = null;

if( enumerator.MoveNext() )
    current = (string)enumerator.Current;

while( null != current)
{
    current = (string)enumerator.Current; }

    myDelimitedString += current;

    if( enumerator.MoveNext() )
        myDelimitedString += DELIMITER;
    else
        break;
}