Question on defining variables

support
1

I see dict, slice or ""used in defining variables. When or where should each be used?

{{ $data := dict }}
{{ range foo }}
  {{ $data = bar }}
{{ end }}
2

The short answer is: In most cases it doesn’t matter, just pick a falsy value (e.g. “”). Then you can do:

{{ $data := "" }}
{{ range $foo }}
  {{ $data = . }}
{{ end }}
{{ with $data }}
   {{ . }}
{{ end }}

But in some cases it matters, e.g:

{{ $data := slice }}
{{ range $foo }}
  {{ $data = $data | append . }}
{{ end }}
{{ range $data }}
   {{ . }}
{{ end }}
1 Like
3

Alright. I asked mostly because with dict or "", data is still returned here

{{ $data := dict }}
{{ $p := "data/books.json" }}
{{ with resources.Get $p }}
  {{ $data = . | transform.Unmarshal }}
{{ else }}
  {{ errorf "Unable to get resource %q" $p }}
{{ end }}
4

In the above example, $data will either end up as a string or a map, depending on if the resource is found or not, which in your case does not matter.

1 Like
5

Sometimes I favor to initialize with nil:

{{ $data := index dict "" }}

Not very readable, but it’s an option.

6

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