How can you dynamically display the last 5 years in Appian including current year?

Example : If current year is 2025 , need generate list starting from the current year

Output : {2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021}

In Appian, we can achieve this is multiple ways. I am showing two approaches , first approach is the most commonly used by the appian developer. Second approach is more efficient than the firs approach

Approach 1: Using a!forEach()

Appian Code

Explanation :

1. now() returns the current date and time.
2. year(now()) extracts the current year, for example 2026.
3. enumerate(5) generates the list {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}.
4. a!forEach() loops through those numbers, with fv!item holding the current one. Each pass subtracts it from the current year. For iteration it will run local!currentYear - fv!item => {( 2026 - 0), ( 2026 - 1), ( 2026 - 2), ( 2026 - 3), ( 2026 - 4)}

Output:

Approach 2: Using enumerate() on its own

You can get the same list without a!forEach():

Appian Code

Why it works?

enumerate() already returns a list starting at 0, and Appian lets you do arithmetic on a whole list at once. The expression above works out to:

which gives:

The second approach is shorter and needs neither a!forEach() nor a!localVariables().

Making it dynamic

Replace the hardcoded 5 with a rule input, ri!numberOfYears, to control how many years you get:

1. If ri!numberOfYears = 3, the result is {2026, 2025, 2024}.
2. If ri!numberOfYears = 5, the result is {2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022}.
3. If ri!numberOfYears = 10, the result is the current year and the previous nine.
4. Before you reach for a!forEach() to loop over a list, check whether a built-in function or a list operation already does the job in one expression.

Output: