---
title: "Loop step | Lansweeper Platform"
slug: "loop"
description: "Learn how to loop over arrays and execute steps in Workflows, enhancing file processing and user alerts with efficient looping techniques."
updated: 2026-06-12T14:31:50Z
published: 2026-06-12T14:31:50Z
canonical: "docs.lansweeper.com/loop"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lansweeper.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Loop

For many Workflows, it's useful to be able to loop over an array of items or to loop a certain number of times. If your Workflow processes files on an SFTP server, for example, you might want to loop over an array of files on the server. If your Workflow sends alerts to users, you might want to loop over an array of users.

The [loop](/docs/loop-connector) connector allows you to loop over each item in an array, or you can loop a predetermined number of times. After adding a **loop** step to your Workflow, you can then add steps within the loop that will execute repeatedly.

## Looping over arrays of records

Imagine you have a step that returns an array of records:

```
[
  { "first": "John", "last": "Doe", "country": "US" },
  { "first": "Lisa", "last": "Nguyen", "country": "AUS" },
  { "first": "Sarah", "last": "Smith", "country": "GB" }
]
```

A loop step can then be configured to loop for each record by referencing the `results` of the **List Contacts** step:

![Loop step reference results](https://cdn.document360.io/21d5935c-1b73-44fa-bf5a-a8b0f5c67f25/Images/Documentation/loop-step-reference-results.png)

If you're familiar with JavaScript programming, this is similar to running

```
for (const record of records) {
  doThing(record);
}
```

The loop step provides a few properties to steps within the loop:

- `currentItem` represents the item in the array that is currently being processed
- `index` represents the [zero-indexed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-based_numbering) index of the current value.
- `isFirst` is `true` if the current item is the first item in the array, and `false` otherwise.
- `isLast` is `true` if the current item is the last item in the array, and `false` otherwise.

Using the example above, during the second loop cycle `currentItem` would equal `{ "first": "Lisa", "last": "Nguyen", "country": "AUS" }` and `index` would equal `1`.

If you would like to use values of the current item, you can reference things like `currentItem.country` in the example above as an input for a step.

![Current item reference](https://cdn.document360.io/21d5935c-1b73-44fa-bf5a-a8b0f5c67f25/Images/Documentation/current-item-reference.png)

If you use a [code step](/docs/custom-code) within a loop, you can reference `currentItem` and `index` like this:

```
module.exports = async (
  { logger },
  { loopOverContacts: { currentItem, index } },
) => {
  logger.info(
    `User #${index + 1}: ${currentItem.first} ${currentItem.last} from ${currentItem.country}`,
  );
};
```

## Looping a certain number of times

Sometimes you'll want to loop a set number of times. For those situations, a [Repeat X Times](/docs/loop-connector#loop-n-times) action can help.

Programmatically, the **Repeat X Times** action is similar to a `for` loop like this:

```
for (let index = 0; index < SOME_NUMBER; index++) {
  doThing(index);
}
```

Like [looping over arrays](/docs/loop#looping-over-arrays-of-records), **Repeat X Times** provides a `currentItem` and `index`, which both represent the same thing (a [zero-indexed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-based_numbering) count of the current loop iteration). So, the first loop iteration `index` will be `0`, the second iteration will have an `index` of `1`, etc.

## Return values of loops

A loop will collect the results of the **last** step within the loop and will save those results as an array.

For example, if the last step of a loop returns a string like this:

```
module.exports = async(context, loopOverContacts: { currentItem }) => {
    return {data: `Processed ${currentItem.first} from ${currentItem.country}`}
}
```

Then the `result` of the loop will yield:

```
["Processed John from US", "Processed Lisa from AUS", "Processed Sarah from GB"]
```