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Querying array of references in Sanity schema and resolving null values

10 replies
Last updated: Jan 30, 2021
I have an array of references to a 
country
schema type, does this query look like it should work? It always just returns NULL values for me
*[_type == "post" && slug.current == 'hello-world'] | order(_updatedAt desc) {
  title,
  'test': countries[].country->{title, slug}
}
Jan 30, 2021, 6:05 PM
For that to work I would expect your schema to look something like this:

{
  name: "post",
  title: "Posts",
  type: "document",
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'title',
      title: 'Title',
      type: 'string',
    },
    {
      type: 'array',
      name: 'countries',
      title: 'Countries',
      of: [{
        type: 'object',
        fields: [
          {
            name: 'country',
            title: 'Country',
            type: 'reference',
            to: [{ type: 'countries' }],
          },
        ],
      }],
    },
  ],
}
Jan 30, 2021, 6:15 PM
This is what my schema looks like. Would this be the ‘correct’ way to link multiple countries/categories to a blog post
{
  name: 'countries',
  title: 'Countries',
  type: 'array',
  of: [{ type: 'reference', to: { type: 'country' } }],
},
Jan 30, 2021, 6:16 PM
Yes, that should work. But you’re getting null values?
Jan 30, 2021, 6:21 PM
*[_type == "post" && slug.current == 'hello-world'] | order(_updatedAt desc) {
  title,
  'test': countries[]->{title, slug}
}

Jan 30, 2021, 6:22 PM
Aha! That worked. Seems like it should be done differently from what it says in the docs
Jan 30, 2021, 6:23 PM
Could you try that? My example had an array of objects of references. Yours is an array of references.
Jan 30, 2021, 6:23 PM
Great! Glad it worked.
The difference lies in whether the array contains objects or the direct items.
Jan 30, 2021, 6:26 PM
Yea makes sense now. Would you recommend to create an array of objects?
Jan 30, 2021, 6:27 PM
If you’re only linking directly to references, your way should work great. Where you’ll want to use objects is when you need to create arrays of arrays or arrays containing both objects and primitives. Let me find a link here…

https://www.sanity.io/docs/array-type#two-limitations-fNBIr84P
Jan 30, 2021, 6:31 PM
Thanks for sharing that and thanks for helping 🤙
Jan 30, 2021, 6:45 PM

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