Angular 2: How to write a for loop, not a foreach loop

Question

Using Angular 2, I want to duplicate a line in a template multiple times. Iterating over an object is easy, *ngFor="let object of objects". However, I want to run a simple for loop, not a foreach loop. Something like (pseudo-code):

{for i = 0; i < 5; i++}
  <li>Something</li>
{endfor}

How would I do this?

Answer 1

You could dynamically generate an array of however time you wanted to render <li>Something</li>, and then do ngFor over that collection. Also you could take use of index of current element too.

Markup

<ul>
   <li *ngFor="let item of createRange(5); let currentElementIndex=index+1">
      {{currentElementIndex}} Something
   </li>
</ul>

Code

createRange(number){
  var items: number[] = [];
  for(var i = 1; i <= number; i++){
     items.push(i);
  }
  return items;
}

Demo Here

Under the hood angular de-sugared this *ngFor syntax to ng-template version.

<ul>
    <ng-template ngFor let-item [ngForOf]="createRange(5)" let-currentElementIndex="(index + 1)" [ngForTrackBy]="trackByFn">
      {{currentElementIndex}} Something
    </ng-template>
</ul>