inputting all items of a list into an environment - latex

Question

I have a list of names which I would like to input into a given surrounding, e.g. a box. Put in a different way: I'd like LaTex to create a surrounding for every item in a given list.
Here's my list:
Frank, Fred, Fran
Here's my surrounding:
\fbox{\name}
\name does the following: it inputs the first item from the list and creates another \fbox for each successive item in the list until the end of the list, as a result outputting the same as (but saving the typing of)
\fbox{Frank}
\fbox{Fred}
\fbox{Fran}
I am thinking of the list of names as a "count" (redefining 1 as Frank, 2 as Fred...) and this might be the wrong approach.
I realise that a command can probably not do those two things at once.
If there's a simple solution to this: what is it called and where can I find it? searching for 'variables' or 'foreach' didn't help.

Answer 1

Depending on your application, you can either specify the list explicitly, or in a file:
As an explicit list (see How to iterate over a comma separated list?):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcommand{\printlist}[1]{%
\begin{enumerate}
\renewcommand*{\do}[1]{\item \fbox{##1}}%
\docsvlist{#1}%
\end{enumerate}%
}
\begin{document}
\printlist{Frank, Fred, Fran}
\end{document}
As a file in (say) names.csv:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{names.csv}
Frank
Fred
Fran
\end{filecontents*}
\usepackage{datatool}
\newcommand{\printlist}[1]{%
\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys=name]{namesdb}{#1}% Load names database file
\begin{enumerate}
\DTLforeach{namesdb}{\name=name}{\item \fbox{\name}}
\end{enumerate}
}
\begin{document}
\printlist{names.csv}
\end{document}
In both instances, the output resembles: