Is it possible to get a subset of an array in GROQ using `_key` of the initial and final element?

Hey folks, does anybody know if it’s possible to get via GROQ a subset of an array by having the

_key

of the initial and the final element?
I know I can do something like
to get a single element, but does GROQ provide with a way to do something similar for a subset only?

Does it need to be based on a

_key

? You can use element access traversals (

[0]

and

[-1]

) to get the first and last items of the array.

thanks for the quick response, pal! I want to be able to extract a subset of portable text blocks for certain cases, so I think

_key

is the only way to identify those, right?

This might not be possible with GROQ, in which case I would defer to just filter it in my code. Should be fine, was just looking to avoid the overhead on client side.

Your snippet is great (I could even use

_key

there to identify proper first and last), but is there any way to get the in between body blocks?

Right, but imagine that my subset goes from the second element of the array to the second-last element. With that query, I would get the first and the last in

others

too, right?

I’m kinda looking for something that works as a magical within those two keys, but I recognize that I might be asking for too much 😅

I’m kinda looking for something that works as a magical within those two keys, but I recognize that I might be asking for too much 😅

Actually, the method above isn’t needed. You would just do

body[1..-2]

.

Ohh, so you mean you have two keys and want to know what’s between them?

yup

Okay, thanks. I follow you now. I’ll have to think about that.

I might hack it by storing position rather than key and using what you proposed.

but I thought

_key

might be a bit more convenient in case I change the content later 🙂

I think there might be a limitation due to the fact that slices need to take integers (they can’t use params, etc.).

is there any way I can get the position based on

_key

before doing

body[1..-2]

?

Yeah, I think you’re on to something. And yes, you’re also correct that it may be a bit inconvenient when content changes.

As I said at the beginning of the thread, I recognize that I might be asking for GROQ to be too smart, and that might mean too expensive queries.

Might be cheaper to just bring the entire body and filter it on JS, don’t you think? It’s just a JSON object after all.

Might be cheaper to just bring the entire body and filter it on JS, don’t you think? It’s just a JSON object after all.

I just made a test and added a block of text above the one I was referencing to, and now the old

_key

is referencing that new element. So I don’t think storing

_key

s would be any different than just storing positions.

I just made a test and added a block of text above the one I was referencing to, and it changed the

_key

to that first element. So I don’t think storing

_key

would be any different than just storing positions.

Ahh, so the first array item got its content replaced?

I added a paragraph on top of the paragraph I was pointing to. New paragraph

_key

has the value of the old one. So

_key

is not stable enough for me to trust in that way.

I added a paragraph on top of the paragraph I was pointing to. New paragraph

_key

has the value of the old one. So

_key

is not stable enough for me to trust in that way.

I’m thinking about adding a special block type that could act as a marker while doing the JSON to content transformation.

still, figuring out how to get the in between content with GROQ remains as an unsolved challenge. 😅

Don’t worry – I’ll be lying in bed thinking about it. 😆

hahaha sorry for doing that to you, thanks so much for helping out, you rock.

Don’t be! I love questions like this.

The point of the entire thing is that I want to be able to dynamically get subsets of a post from other posts.

And since Sanity is the only headless CMS that provides a sort of ID for each block (the

_key

), I figured it was a good experiment to try out!

As an alternative, and since I’m using Next.js, I think I’m gonna fetch linked posts at build time and build those subsets there.