Empty query message when using template

General
1

Silverbullet 2.4.1 - I have the following query which displays any tasks for today using the taskitem template. When there are no tasks for today I would like to display "No tasks today".

${template.each(
query[[
from index.tag "task"
where not done
and page:match("%d%d%d%d%-%d%d%-%d%d$")
and string.split(page, '/')[2] == os.date("%Y-%m-%d")
order by page
]], templates.taskItem) or "No tasks today"}

No message appears.

if I run the query

${query[[
from index.tag "task"
where not done
and page:match("%d%d%d%d%-%d%d%-%d%d$")
and string.split(page, '/')[2] == os.date("%Y-%m-%d")
order by page
]] or "No Tasks today"}

still get no message

Any help appreciated

2

Try to escape the - as %- in the match pattern... You can test. We cannot know what exact structure you mean...

${
  string.split(
    ('/foo/bar/baz/2026-03-19'): match('/%d%d%d%d%-%d%d%-%d%d$'),
    '/'
  )[2] == os.date('%Y-%m-%d')
}

true
3

the page name is area/date eg 'golf/2026-02-12'. I use the match pattern succesfully in many queries. The hyphen is already escaped. Maybe an empty query result is not nil and therefore the 'or' fails

4

What about something like the following?

${
  template.each(
    query [[

      from
        index.tag 'task'
      where
        not done and
        string.match(page, os.date('/%Y-%m-%d$'):gsub('-', '%%-'))

    ]],
    templates.taskItem
  )
  or 'No tasks today'
}

Note: The or 'No tasks today' can't work as of now because the template.each returns string and in Lua empty string is truthy. @zef Is this intended behaviour for template.each?

5

Put this somewhere...

```space-lua
-- priority: 40
template = template or {}

function template.each(tbl, fn)
  local result = {}
  for _, item in ipairs(tbl) do
    table.insert(result, fn(item))
  end
  return #result > 0 and table.concat(result) or nil
end
```

Now the or 'No tasks today' should work. @zef Can I PR this? Or do you think it may be breaking change for some users?

6

I'm ok with this change, it can become a nice idiom.

7

PR 1899