How to Loop a List in Your Workflow
Automate tasks with Loop List. Iterate through lists, perform actions, and optimize workflows effortlessly.
Last updated
Automate tasks with Loop List. Iterate through lists, perform actions, and optimize workflows effortlessly.
Last updated
The Loop List feature allows you to iterate over each item in a list of elements.
Iterating with Loop List: Automate Repetitive Tasks Do you have a list of contacts to whom you need to send personalized emails? Or perhaps you need to update the status of multiple sales opportunities? Loop List is the perfect node for this task.
Think of a shopping list: a Loop List works by iterating through that list, item by item, to perform a specific action for each product. In Pro Automator, this allows you to repeat an action for every element in a list, automating tasks that would otherwise be tedious and repetitive.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:
Create a list of elements
Configure a Loop List
Customize actions for each item
Use accumulators to collect results
Get ready to take your automation to the next level!
A Loop List is a tool that allows you to process each item in a list, one by one. Think of it as iterating through a shopping list and performing an action for each product. In programming, it enables repeating a task for every item in a list.
Create a List: Ensure you have a list of elements you want to process.
Add a Loop List Node: Drag and drop the Loop List block into your workflow.
Connect the List: Link the output of your list to the input of the Loop List.
Define the Actions: Inside the Loop List, place the blocks that will execute for each item.
Imagine you have a list of names: ["Anna", "John", "Peter"]. You can use a Loop List to greet each person with the following steps:
Iterate through each name.
Display a message: "Hello, {{item}}!"
Output:
"Hello, Anna!"
"Hello, John!"
"Hello, Peter!"
Define a List: Create a list of elements to process. This could be done directly in your trigger or in a previous node. For example, a contact list from HubSpot or a CRM.
Prepare the Input Tab: Go to the input tab and set up your list. Ensure it’s properly formatted and ready to use.
Add a Loop List Node: Drag and drop a Loop List node into the workflow scene.
Connect the List: Link or reference your list to the Loop List node.
Add an Action: Inside the Loop List node, define the action to perform for each element. For example, display a greeting like "Hello, {{item}}!".
Test Your Workflow: Run the workflow to ensure it iterates through each element and performs the defined actions correctly.
Observe the Output: Verify that the action has been executed for each item in the list. For instance, a greeting message should appear for every contact.
Variables
Variables in Loop List allow you to access and manipulate the value of each element in a list during execution. Here are a few ways to use them:
Personalization: Create customized messages, calculate unique values, or make decisions based on the current element.
Context: Add context to each iteration. For example, when processing a list of orders, use a variable to fetch the customer’s name and personalize a thank-you message.
Dynamic Flows: Make your workflows more adaptable to various scenarios.
Example Using Variables:
In this example:
loop_name is the name assigned to your Loop List.
item represents the current value being processed.
customer and quantity are properties of the item being accessed.
Accumulators
Accumulators are powerful tools for transforming and summarizing data as you iterate through a list.
Operations: Perform operations like summing, averaging, concatenating, or adding elements to a new list.
Aggregated Results: Use accumulators to calculate totals, count elements meeting specific conditions, or build a string concatenating values from all items.
Data Analysis: Perform basic data analysis, such as descriptive statistics or pattern recognition.
Suppose you have a list of student grades and want to calculate the average. Use an accumulator to perform the following steps:
Let’s take a look at the following list.
To extract our data, we’ll use an intermediate node called get_grades and use its output variable grade, which will be accumulated during each pass of the Loop List.
We click the Run Flow button, and this is the result.
With Loop List, repetitive tasks become effortless, enabling you to process large datasets efficiently. From personalizing products to generating complex reports or sending bulk notifications, the possibilities are endless.
