What are Laravel blade control structures?

Control structures are code blocks that analyze code and decide which code to run, depending on given parameters.

Conditionals

@if and @endif

@if is used to conditionally render code if the given condition is met. @if is closed by the @endif directive.

Example

Suppose you have a variable $age that has a value of 5.

@if($test < 5)
    Hello World
@endif

@else and @elseif

Other times, when the condition in the @if statement evaluates to false, you will want to render some other code. @else lets you render this other code.

Example

@if($test < 5)
    Hello World
@else
    Hello People
@endif

Sometimes, you have more than just a condition. @elseif lets you add more conditions.

Example

@if($test < 5)
    Hello World
@elseif($test < 90)
    Hello 100s
@elseif($test < 500)
    Hello 500s
@else
    Hello People
@endif

@unless and @endunless

@unless works as the opposite of @if and only renders code when the condition in it is not met. @unless is closed by @endunless.

Writing @unless($age) works exactly like @if(!$age).

Example

@unless($test = 5)
    Hello World
@endunless

Loops

@for and @endfor

The @for blade directive is used just like the for loop in PHP. It is closed by the @endfor directive.

Example

@for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++)
    {{ $i }}
@endfor

@foreach and @endforeach

@foreach is used with arrays and ends with endforeach. It gives access to each array item to be used in the view.

Example

@foreach($posts as $post)
    <h2>{{ $post->title }}</h2>
@endforeach

$loop

When using the @foreach directive, Laravel gives you access to a $loop variable that has details about the current iteration.

The $loop object has the properties first, last, count, remaining, iteration, and index.

Example

@forelse($posts as $post)
    <h2>{{ $post->title }}</h2>
    <p>Loop iteration: {{ $loop->iteration }}</p>
    <p>Loop index: {{ $loop->index }}</p>
    <p>Remaining items: {{ $loop->remaining }}</p>
    <p>Total items count: {{ $loop->count }}</p>
    <p>Is the first item? {{ $loop->first }}</p>
    <p>Is the last item? {{ $loop->last }}</p>
@empty
    No posts yet.
@endforelse

If the loop is in another loop, the $loop object has other properties like depth and parent to tell you how many loops deep you are and reference the parent loop, respectively.

@forelse, @empty, and @endforelse

When using the @foreach loop, sometimes you loop over empty arrays and run into errors. To avoid this, use the @forelse loop. This checks for data in the array first, then loops over the array. If the array is empty, the @empty directive contains code to render. The @forelse loop is closed by the @endforelse directive.

Example

@forelse($posts as $post)
    <h2>{{ $post->title }}</h2>
@empty
    No posts yet.
@endforelse

@while and @endwhile

The @while directive works exactly like the while loop in native PHP and is ended by the @endwhile directive.

Example

@while($item = array_pop($test))
    {{ $item }}
@endwhile

Summary

Now you know how to redirect users in your Laravel apps.

This article was originally published on The Educative Team and can be read here.

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