Node value copied into a sequence cannot be deleted

[jandubois]

macOS 15.2

$ yq --version
yq (https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/) version v4.45.1

When a node value is copied into a sequence, it cannot be deleted:

$ echo 'foo: bar' | yq '.a = [.foo, "baz"] | .b = ["bar", "baz"] | del(.a[0], .b[0])'
foo: bar
a:
  - bar
  - baz
b:
  - baz

The additional literal sequence elements can be deleted normally:

❯ echo 'foo: bar' | yq '.a = [.foo, "baz"] | .b = ["bar", "baz"] | del(.a[1], .b[1])'
foo: bar
a:
  - bar
b:
  - bar

[jandubois]

Workaround: concatenate with the empty string (note: the order matters!)

❯ echo 'foo: bar' | yq '.a = ["" + .foo, "baz"] | .b = ["bar", "baz"] | del(.a[0], .b[0])'
foo: bar
a:
  - baz
b:
  - baz

Just showing that the concatenation produces the correct string value:

❯ echo 'foo: bar' | yq '.a = ["" + .foo, "baz"] | .b = ["bar", "baz"] | del(.a[1], .b[1])'
foo: bar
a:
  - bar
b:
  - bar