Elektra  0.8.25
Arrays

Problem

Currently it is inefficient to detect the length of an array and it is impossible to know if an key (without subkeys) should be an array or not.

For the latter problem different workarounds exist, such as ###empty_array in yajl.

Constraints

Assumptions

Considered Alternatives

Decision

Store length in metadata array of key, or keep empty if empty array. For example (ni syntax, sections used for metadata):

myarray/#0 = value0
myarray/#1 = value1
myarray/#2 = value2
myarray/#3 = value3
myarray/#4 = value4
myarray/#5 = value5
[myarray]
array = #5

Rationale

Implications

Related decisions

Notes

https://github.com/ElektraInitiative/libelektra/issues/182