Laravel Blade Foreach Loop: Complete Guide with the $loop Variable and @forelse

Iterating through collections and arrays in Laravel Blade templates is more powerful than native PHP foreach. Blade provides syntactic shortcuts, empty collection fallbacks, and the automatic $loop variable.

Here is the complete guide to mastering loops in Blade.

1. Basic @foreach Syntax

The standard Blade loop:

<ul>
    @foreach ($users as $user)
        <li>{{ $user->name }} ({{ $user->email }})</li>
    @endforeach
</ul>

2. Handling Empty Collections with @forelse

Avoid wrapping @foreach inside an @if(count($items)) check. Blade provides @forelse to display an empty state cleanly:

<div class="user-list">
    @forelse ($users as $user)
        <div class="user-card">
            <h3>{{ $user->name }}</h3>
            <p>{{ $user->role }}</p>
        </div>
    @empty
        <div class="empty-state">
            <p>No active users found.</p>
        </div>
    @endforelse
</div>

3. The Magic $loop Variable

Inside every @foreach and @forelse block, Laravel automatically injects a $loop object. You do not need to initialize a manual $i = 0 counter:

Practical Example: Table Zebra Striping and Badges

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>#</th>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Status</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        @forelse ($orders as $order)
            <tr class="{{ $loop->even ? 'bg-gray-50' : 'bg-white' }}">
                <td>{{ $loop->iteration }}</td>
                <td>{{ $order->customer_name }}</td>
                <td>
                    @if($loop->first)
                        <span class="badge badge-primary">Latest Order</span>
                    @endif
                    {{ $order->status }}
                </td>
            </tr>
        @empty
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">No orders found.</td>
            </tr>
        @endforelse
    </tbody>
</table>

4. Nested Loops and $loop->parent

When looping through categories and their products, use $loop->parent to check the outer iteration:

@foreach ($categories as $category)
    <h2>{{ $loop->iteration }}. {{ $category->name }}</h2>

    <ul>
        @foreach ($category->products as $product)
            <li>
                Category {{ $loop->parent->iteration }}, Product {{ $loop->iteration }}:
                {{ $product->name }}
            </li>
        @endforeach
    </ul>
@endforeach

5. Performance: Avoid N+1 Queries in Blade Loops

The most common bug in Blade loops is querying relations inside the iteration:

{{-- BAD: Triggers a query for every single post (N+1 Problem) --}}
@foreach ($posts as $post)
    <p>{{ $post->author->name }}</p>
@endforeach

Always eager load relationships in your controller before passing data to Blade:

// In Controller:
$posts = Post::with('author')->get();
return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));