Perform an operation on each element in an array
Problem
You want to perform an operation on every element in an array. For example, given an array of numbers, you want to round each value to the nearest integer.
Solution
The Split node can be used to send a message for every
element in the array. It can be followed by the nodes needed to operate on the
individual elements, followed by a Join node to recombine
them back into a single array.
Example
[{"id":"3149f240.c0e25e","type":"inject","z":"ac14500e.2c57d","name":"Array of decimals","topic":"","payload":"[1.67,2.98,3.12,4.99,5.50]","payloadType":"json","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"x":120,"y":960,"wires":[["bd57baa6.00f998"]]},{"id":"bd57baa6.00f998","type":"split","z":"ac14500e.2c57d","name":"Split array","splt":"\\n","spltType":"str","arraySplt":"1","arraySpltType":"len","stream":false,"addname":"","x":200,"y":1020,"wires":[["7ab9e9ed.d514b8"]]},{"id":"7ab9e9ed.d514b8","type":"range","z":"ac14500e.2c57d","minin":"0","maxin":"10","minout":"0","maxout":"10","action":"scale","round":true,"property":"payload","name":"Round value","x":350,"y":1020,"wires":[["f26660ab.007b3"]]},{"id":"f26660ab.007b3","type":"join","z":"ac14500e.2c57d","name":"","mode":"auto","build":"string","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","key":"topic","joiner":"\\n","joinerType":"str","accumulate":"false","timeout":"","count":"","reduceRight":false,"x":490,"y":1020,"wires":[["f9b5abac.f13828"]]},{"id":"f9b5abac.f13828","type":"debug","z":"ac14500e.2c57d","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","x":550,"y":1080,"wires":[]}]
Discussion
In other programming environments, this task would be accomplished by creating a loop over the elements of the array.
In Node-RED, the way to achieve the same thing is to turn the single message containing the array into a stream of messages that can be processed individually and finally recombine them back into one message.
The Split/Join node pair are
commonly used together to achieve this. The Split node
adds the msg.parts property to each message in the stream which allows the
Join node to properly reassemble the original message.
