Multiple values in YAML front matter

[dbobak]

I have field which sometimes got multiple values in YAML header; sometimes it is also set in the body of the note, as below:

---
stan: 
  - Albersdorf
  - Biśnik
  - Szeleta
  - Vedrovice 5
---

stan:: Szeleta

stan:: Vedrovice 5

stan:: Biśnik

stan:: Szeleta

## Queries

\```
TABLE rows.file.link AS Tytuł
WHERE stan != NULL
GROUP BY stan
\```

\```dataview
TABLE rows.file.link AS Tytuł
WHERE stan != NULL
GROUP BY stan
\```

\```
TABLE stan
WHERE stan != NULL
FLATTEN stan
\```

\```dataview
TABLE stan
WHERE stan != NULL
FLATTEN stan
\```

When querying the field "stan", I've got duplicate results, the values of the field are groupped (marked green on picture below), when the source is YAML header:

Is it intended behaviour? Or bug? I'd expect, that the GROUP BY query would get just unique values from the fields.

Obsidian v. 1.1.9
Dataview v. 0.5.47
OS: Windows 11

[arnoesterhuizen]

In your YAML header, you're setting stan key as a list of values, and in the body you're setting multiple instances of the stan key to a single string value, and that is why you're seeing the data displayed like this.

I'd suggest looking at your data structure and deciding on either one or the other, and then adjusting your formatting according to that.

[dbobak]

Thank you, @arnoesterhuizen! In the meantime, I have understood this and found the way how to split the list into atomic values:

TABLE WITHOUT ID sort(split(join(sort(split(join(sites), ","))), ",")) AS Stan, file.link AS Page
WHERE sites
FLATTEN sites
FLATTEN sites
SORT sites

And the result:

Now the only problem I have left is to remove the duplicate values. Is there a function similar to DISTINCT or UNIQUE in SQL?

BTW, Obsidian knows how to deal with that different ways of data specification, I can specify tags the same way: as the list in front matter or as single value in the body of the note.