Storing empty arrays in firebase

Question

I have my firebase app working with React whereby I sign users up and then log there information to the database. I am creating a "dating app" and I would like some way to store empty arrays. e.g, matchers: [] etc

I tried something liket this:

firebase.database().ref('users/' + userId).set({
      id: userId,
      username: name,
      email: email,
      matchers: [],
      likedUsers: [],
      disLikedUsers: []
    });

but then read that firebase doesn't really handle arrays as such and now am not sure how to do this. I want the empty array so then when the user starts using the app they can add to their various arrays.

any ideas?

Answer 1

Firebase has always recommended against using arrays. Instead of re-iterating the reasons, I'll point you to the blog post Best Practices: Arrays in Firebase.

But your bigger problem seems to be having empty arrays: the . If a property doesn't have a value, the Firebase Database doesn't store that property. That means that an empty array is not stored in the database and thus not read back.

You'll have to re-create those properties yourself after you read the data back. If you're having problems with this, update your question to show how you read the data.