Item separator

Introduction

Some serialization structures split values in list items to fit to their Python structure:

• nested

• flat

• list

These structure can set a variable --splitter to select the way to split value items.

Once enable into a rule, the selected splitter is applied on every rule variables, you can not use different separators in a same rule.

White spaces

Default behavior is to use a simple white space separator such as:

"foo bar ping pong"

Is turned to a Python list:

["foo", "bar", "ping", "pong"]

Since it is default behavior, you don’t need to declare anything to enable this mode, but if you want to explicitely declare it you just have to add variable --splitter with value "white-space":

.styleguide-reference-dummy{
    --structure: "list";
    --splitter: "white-space";
    --items: "foo bar";
}

This is the easiest and more human readable way to define value items.

Object list

The white space separator may not fit to every cases particularly when you have value items that contains spaces.

For such cases you have possibility to declare your item values as an object list and it will be turned to a true Python list. It stands on a simple trick, we put it in a string since Sass does not support JSON syntax but encased in a string it is still valid Sass.

You can enable this mode by using variable --splitter with value "object-list":

--splitter: "object-list";

Note

This splitter was previously called json-list that is still working for now but deprecated, you will have warning about it until you change it to object-list.

Hint

This allows to mix multiple value types like string, integer, float, boolean and null.

Caution

Since we parse content from either JSON or Python, it would allow to nest a list but this won’t work with manifest serializer which only expect a list and any other type will raise error or lead to unexpected results.

This feature is subject to compiler behavior from styleguide-metas-compiler so its usage depends from enabled compiler support.

Libsass behavior

This compiler allows to write basic JSON syntax since it does not enforce string quotes. Your object list will have to be written in a correct JSON syntax.

In a reference source example:

.styleguide-reference-dummy{
    --structure: "list";
    --splitter: "object-list";
    --items: '["foo", "bar", 42, null, true, "ping pong"]';
}

Syntax

You are required to surround your object list with simple quotes so your object list items can use double quotes for strings as required from JSON syntax. Don’t mess with the quotes else you will have JSON syntax error or very unexpected content results.

Reference content will be parsed to a Python list:

{
    "dummy": [
        "foo",
        "bar",
        42,
        None,
        True,
        "ping pong"
    ]
}

Hint

Remember that in JSON the boolean values are true or false and null value is null.

Dart Sass behavior

This compiler does not allow to write valid JSON due to enforcing double quotes on Sass strings that prevent us to write JSON strings.

So instead of JSON, we are using Python syntax that is more versatile, it allows both single or double quotes for a Python string.

In a reference source example:

.styleguide-reference-dummy{
    --structure: "list";
    --splitter: "object-list";
    --items: "['foo', 'bar', 42, None, True, 'ping pong']";
}

Syntax

You are required to surround your object list with double quotes so your object list items can use single quotes for strings. Don’t mess with the quotes else you will have Python syntax error or very unexpected content results.

Reference content will be parsed to a Python list:

{
    "dummy": [
        "foo",
        "bar",
        42,
        None,
        True,
        "ping pong"
    ]
}

Hint

Remember that in Python the boolean values are True or False and null value is None.