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arrayify helper

Tom Santiago
Updated

The arrayify helper casts any value into an array. Use it to normalize fields that may contain either a single value or an array so that downstream helpers like #each can process them consistently.

  • If the input is already an array, it's returned unchanged.
  • If the input is a single value, it's wrapped in a single-element array.
  • If the input is null, undefined, or a missing field, it returns an empty array [].

Syntax

{{arrayify value}}

value -- The value to cast into an array. Required. Accepts any type: string, number, array, null, or undefined.

Examples

Wrap a single value and pass through an existing array

{{arrayify record.name}}
{{arrayify record.tags}}

Input:

{
  "record": {
    "name": "foo",
    "tags": ["promo", "sale"]
  }
}

Output:

["foo"]
["promo", "sale"]

record.name is a string, so it's wrapped in an array. record.tags is already an array, so it passes through unchanged.

Return an empty array for a missing field

{{arrayify record.missingField}}

Input:

{ "record": {} }

Output: []

record.missingField is undefined, so the helper returns an empty array rather than null or an error.

Wrap a comma-separated string as a single element

{{arrayify record.test}}

Input:

{ "record": { "test": "a,b" } }

Output: ["a,b"]

arrayify wraps the entire string as one element -- it does not split on commas or other delimiters. To split a delimited string into multiple array elements, use the split helper first.

Usage notes

  • Use arrayify before #each when a field may contain either a single value or an array -- this prevents the loop from failing or iterating over individual characters of a string.
  • arrayify does not split delimited strings. "a,b" becomes ["a,b"], not ["a", "b"].
  • A missing or undefined field returns [], not an error, making it safe to use on optional fields.