REPEAT (Snowflake Scripting)

A REPEAT loop iterates until a specified condition is true. A REPEAT loop tests the condition at the end of the loop. This means that the body of a REPEAT loop always executes at least once.

For more information on loops, see Working with loops.

Note

This Snowflake Scripting construct is valid only within a Snowflake Scripting block.

See also:

BREAK, CONTINUE

Syntax

REPEAT
    <statement>;
    [ <statement>; ... ]
UNTIL ( <condition> )
END REPEAT [ <label> ] ;

Where:

statement

A statement can be any of the following:

  • A single SQL statement (including CALL).

  • A control-flow statement (for example, a looping or branching statement).

  • A nested block.

condition

An expression that evaluates to a BOOLEAN.

label

An optional label. Such a label can be a jump target for a BREAK or CONTINUE statement. A label must follow the naming rules for Object identifiers.

Usage notes

  • Put parentheses around the condition in the REPEAT. For example: REPEAT ( <condition> ).

  • If the condition never evaluates to TRUE, and the loop does not contain a BREAK command (or equivalent), then the loop will run and consume credits indefinitely.

  • If the condition is NULL, then it is treated as FALSE.

  • A loop can contain multiple statements. You can use, but are not required to use, a BEGIN … END block to contain those statements.

Examples

This example uses a loop to calculate a power of 2. (This is an inefficient solution, but it does demonstrate looping.)

CREATE PROCEDURE power_of_2()
RETURNS NUMBER(8, 0)
LANGUAGE SQL
AS
$$
DECLARE
    counter NUMBER(8, 0);      -- Loop counter.
    power_of_2 NUMBER(8, 0);   -- Stores the most recent power of 2 that we calculated.
BEGIN
    counter := 1;
    power_of_2 := 1;
    REPEAT
        power_of_2 := power_of_2 * 2;
        counter := counter + 1;
    UNTIL (counter > 8)
    END REPEAT;
    RETURN power_of_2;
END;
$$;

Here is the output of executing the stored procedure:

CALL power_of_2();
+------------+
| POWER_OF_2 |
|------------|
|        256 |
+------------+