How do I access an access array item by index in handlebars?

Question

I am trying to specify the index of an item in an array within a handlebars template:

{   people: [     {"name":"Yehuda Katz"},     {"name":"Luke"},     {"name":"Naomi"}   ] } 

using this:

<ul id="luke_should_be_here"> {{people[1].name}} </ul> 

If the above is not possible, how would I write a helper that could access a spefic item within the array?

Answer 1

Try this:

<ul id="luke_should_be_here"> {{people.1.name}} </ul> 

Answer 2

The following, with an additional dot before the index, works just as expected. Here, the square brackets are optional when the index is followed by another property:

{{people.[1].name}} {{people.1.name}} 

However, the square brackets are required in:

{{#with people.[1]}}   {{name}} {{/with}} 

In the latter, using the index number without the square brackets would get one:

Error: Parse error on line ...: ...     {{#with people.1}}                 -----------------------^ Expecting 'ID', got 'INTEGER' 

As an aside: the brackets are (also) used for segment-literal syntax, to refer to actual identifiers (not index numbers) that would otherwise be invalid. More details in What is a valid identifier?

(Tested with Handlebars in YUI.)

2.xx Update

You can now use the get helper for this:

(get people index) 

although if you get an error about index needing to be a string, do:

(get people (concat index ""))