Syntax error on two and more array items in macros

[MOZGIII]

Describe the bug

Works:

!$myarray=["a"]

Broken:

!$myarray=["a","b"]

To Reproduce

Create a file with the contents above, and render it.

Expected behavior

No error, array is defined and available for use (i.e. looping over).

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS
• Browser: -
• Version: versions from 2022 till 2023 (including latest release)

Smartphone (please complete the following information):

No

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[The-Lum]

Hello @MOZGIII, and all,

According your constat:

Works:

!$myarray=["a"]

Broken:

!$myarray=["a","b"]

@MOZGIII:

1. How to the first works?
2. Could you give an example?

Because currently only 3 kinds of type are available on PlantUML:

There are three types of data:

• Integer number(int);
• String(str) - these must be surrounded by single quote or double quote;
• JSON(JSON) - these must be surrounded by curly brackets.

See also doc. here:

• https://plantuml.com/en/preprocessing#788fa5fb2276ed17

---

Then here is a workaround, in order to manage array items, using JSON type, as:

@startuml
!$myarray={"key": ["a","b"]}
legend
test of JSON array:
myarray.key[0] = $myarray.key[0]
myarray.key[1] = $myarray.key[1]
endlegend
@enduml

Enjoy,
Regards,
Th.

[MOZGIII]

I see! The workaround is unexpected, because all these are valid JSON values: "qwe", 123, [], {}, meaning only JSON objects (the { ... } kinds of values) are supported. This could be documented better.

I have no idea how come that ["a"] works if the JSON arrays are not supported. I just thought they were supported but the support was bugged.

Anyhow, thanks for the workaround. It is ugly to write, but if I can put it inside of a macro call (i.e. do something like array([ .. ]) to produce the { "dummy": [...] } under the hood that would be good enough). It would be better to support JSON arrays though.