$boolean(arg) when arg is no-match

Just a query. I wanted something that returns “true” if a arg path evaluates to truthy, and “false” if falsey or not found (no match).

data:

{
  "_formValues": {
    "test": true
  }
}

Jsonata expressiosn:

$not(_formValues.test) returns false $not(_formValues.test2) returns true

But:

$boolean(_formValues.test) returns true $boolean(_formValues.test2) returns *no match*

I found it a bit inconsistent that a $boolean(arg) can return *no match*. Should it be returning false instead when hit against a no match? Or perhaps someone can explain why this is perfectly good and logical 😃

Using: Jsonata 1.8.2 (as in the exerciser)

[andrew-coleman]

Sorry this is breaking your expression, but I consider the previous inconsistent behaviour of the $not function with undefined inputs to be a bug, and so was fixed in a patch release.
In general I try to keep the language as stable as possible, but there have been a few cases (like this) where I have fixed up behavioural ‘edge cases’ for improved consistency. In your example, you were relying on this behaviour and subsequently have to change your code. Apologies for that!

[andrew-coleman]

Thanks. I’d probably remove the $not from your expression and use this:

$sift(  λ($v,$k) { $k ~> /^lineItem|^packages/ ? false: true }  )