for

Syntax

UPPERCASE words are placeholders to replace. Brackets in the syntax line describe optional arguments; do not type those brackets literally.

for NAME in WORDS; do COMMANDS; done

Example

for city in Munich Bucharest; do printf "%s\n" "$city"; done

Expected result

Munich and Bucharest on separate lines.

Notes and traps

Quote variable expansions; for file in $(ls) breaks on ordinary filenames.

Related commands

• PowerShell: ForEach-Object
• CMD: for

Related tasks may need different flags and have different semantics. Check the entry before translating a command between shells.

Updated 13 September 2026. Examples describe the expected behavior; not every platform is available for execution testing.