`yq` does not parse property path correctly ... ?

[JoshMcCullough]

Describe the bug
I must be doing something wrong here as this seems very basic. It appears that nested properties are not parsed correctly? See below.

Version of yq: 4.45.1
Operating system: RHEL8
Installed via: binary

Input Yaml
test.yml:

test:
  blah: x
  some.data: z

Command

# This works correctly:
> yq -r '.test.blah' test.yml
x

# This does not (expected "z"):
> yq -r '.test.some.data' test.yml
null

# Quoting the compound path part works:
> yq -r '.test."some.data"' test.yml
z

Actual behavior
Querying a compound path part (test.some.data) does not traverse the path.

Expected behavior
Querying a compound path part (test.some.data) should traverse the path without the need for quoting.

Additional context
The test.yml file above includes two ways to write nested paths. A given YAML file could look either way:

test:
  some.data: x

-- or --

test:
  some:
    data: x

Both are valid YAML, the end user wouldn't know which format is in place within a given YAML file (without looking), so querying test.some.data should work for both cases.

[jandubois]

The test.yml file above includes two ways to write nested paths. A given YAML file could look either way:

test:
  some.data: x

-- or --

test:
  some:
    data: x

This is not correct; the 2 YAML files are not equivalent. Rewriting them in JSON makes it obvious:

{ "test": { "some.data": "x" } }

-- vs --

{ "test": { "some": { "data": "x" } } }

The dot is simply part of the key name; it does not split into a sub-object at the dot. I don't see any incorrect behaviour in this issue.

[JoshMcCullough]

I don't think rewriting in JSON is a valid way to prove that this is correct behavior. YML is not JSON.

In YML, my examples are equivalent. . is a path separator in YML. Or perhaps I've been spoiled by Spring Boot which correctly traverses the path in either case.

[jandubois]

In YML, my examples are equivalent. . is a path separator in YML.

The . has not special meaning in key names in YAML. Please check the YAML spec!

Or perhaps I've been spoiled by Spring Boot which correctly traverses the path in either case.

Yes, this happens after YAML processing. Spring converts the YAML config into properties format before parsing it again. So both files end up as:

test.some.data=x

But that is unrelated to YAML parsing.

[jandubois]

Spring converts the YAML config into properties format before parsing it again.

Since yq has support for properties as well, you could do the same thing like this:

❯ cat test.yaml
test:
  some.data: x
❯ yq -o=props test.yaml
test.some.data = x
❯ yq -o=props test.yaml | yq -p=props .test.some.data
x

It turns test.yaml into properties format, then reads the properties format and queries it.

[JoshMcCullough]

Okay, I'll close this, then. Thanks.