Looping properties that are varying types of objects

[joelmforsyth]

I struggled to find a way to do this in ARM so I'm wondering if it can be accomplished in Bicep.

Lets say I have an array of names of datasets:

var datasets = [ 'foo' 'bar' 'boo' 'far' ]

And I want to make a Data Factory pipeline that performs two activities per dataset: Copy and Delete. So the pipeline would look something like this:

Copy foo => Delete foo
Copy bar => Delete bar
Copy boo => Delete boo
Copy far => Delete far

I can easily loop to create the Dataset resources, that's no problem. In the Data Factory pipeline, the activities are an array within properties so I figured I would be able to loop and create the activities.

The issue is that the activities all have to be the same. So I could do this:

But then my activities would only be Copy.

I can't do this:

Because the properties have the same name.

Is there a way I can just use an indexer within the properties? Maybe even somewhere outside of the resource?

[majastrz]

Once we have variable loops in Bicep (#1814), would you be able to construct two array variables with [for...] called copyActivities and deleteActivities? Then in the pipeline, could you do the following:

activities: [
  copyActivities[i]
  deleteActivities[i]
]

[joelmforsyth]

@majastrz if I had access to i there, all my problems would be solved and I wouldn't even need the functions per my last example.

[alex-frankel]

access to the index has been checked-in to the main branch and will be released either this week or early next week.

If you'd like to try it sooner, you can install the nightly build

[brwilkinson]

@joelmforsyth were you able to get this implemented now ?

just to link to the index https://github.com/Azure/bicep/blob/main/docs/spec/loops.md#use-the-loop-index which should be available on the resource or properties for loop.

[joelmforsyth]

Hey @brwilkinson, we actually decided to go a different route so this isn't an issue for me at least anymore. You can close.

[brwilkinson]

Thanks @joelmforsyth you can mark one of the answers as "Answered" on your side if you like, since this is a discussion.