QFQ

for i in range(0,10):
    ...

{
   head=<ul>
   tail=</ul>
   lql=SELECT index, value FROM Range(0,10,2)
   {
      lql=SELECT '{{index:R}}: Random item {{value:R}} is {{random:V}}' | '_+li'
   }
}

• lql stands for "local query language" that is evaluated locally by PHP - this is only an ad hoc name for this example and the actual token name to be used is left for a discussion.
• The data source Range(start,end,step) represents a source of rows with two columns:
  • value runs from start (inclusive) to end (exclusive) and increased by step at each iteration (default: 1)
  • index starts from 0 (or 1?) and is increased by one at each iteration.

• a collection of records selected in the last sql query (say we want to iterate twice over the records, but fetch them only once). This requires a syntax to temporarily save all fetched rows (or at least some columns from them), so that they can be reused
• messages received on a JavaScript Websocket (once implemented) - in this case the loop is evaluated by JavaScript and not PHP
• ???

while-loops can be done the same way with a data source that returns rows while some condition is satisfied.

• As parser we could use a local SQLite: https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.sqlite3.php
• This should be fast as possible and we do not have to implement an awfull slow parser in php!
• If we allow `dbIndex` (https://docs.qfq.io/en/master/Concept.html#qfq-keywords-bodytext) on a per level base ( 10.dbIndex=..., 10.20.dbIndex=... ), we can switch easily between e.g. MariaDB and Sqlite.
• This approach would eliminate the need of a `lql` keyword.
• Never the less: People will ask for `if/then/else` ...

I am not sure if SQLite will help - lql does not select data from actual tables.
In order to avoid the "slow php parser", the source code of a report can be transpiled into a more optimized code with all those statements already parsed. Maybe some template engines can do this already?

For the if-then-else, one approach would be to implement a switch pattern with nested blocks.

{
  # Get a value to be tested. If more than one columns is returned,
  # the first will be used in shortcut notation
  sql=SELECT dayOfWeek FROM meetings

  {
     case={{dayOfWeek}} IS 'Mon'    # full syntax
     case=Mon                       # shortcut
     sql=SELECT "I hate Mondays" 
  }
  {
     case={{dayOfWeek}} IN ('Sat', 'Sun')    # full syntax
     case=Sat,Sun                            # shortcut
     sql=SELECT "Today I'm not gonna do aaaanything" 
  }
  {
     case=default        # Runs only if none of other case-blocks is a match
     sql=SELECT "OK, I'll check the emails" 
  }
  {
     sql=SELECT "This runs everytime as usual" 
  }
}

1. Use case="default" for a block to be run only if the tested value is the string default
2. Use case=true and case=false for true/false tests