Encoder reorders arrays in structs

[egonelbre]

The toml.Encoder reorders arrays in structs. I can understand why the main values need to be above, but not why the arrays need to be reordered?

type Conf struct {
    V string
    A Alpha
    B []Beta
}

type Alpha struct{ V string }
type Beta struct{ V string }

func main() {
    conf := &Conf{
        V: "main",
        A: Alpha{"Alpha"},
        B: []Beta{{"1"}},
    }

    var buf bytes.Buffer
    toml.NewEncoder(&buf).Encode(conf)
    fmt.Println(buf.String())
}

This prints:

V = "main"

[[B]]
  V = "1"

[A]
  V = "Alpha"

Instead of the expected:

V = "main"

[A]
  V = "Alpha"

[[B]]
  V = "1"

(Also, as a side note, I tried to use an empty table name, should it work? e.g. [servers.], to get an entry of servers: { "": { ... }})

[BurntSushi]

It turns out this was fixed in commit 44d4af0, which in turn fixed #43. Killed two birds with one stone!

I've added your code as a regression test. Thanks!

[BurntSushi]

(Also, as a side note, I tried to use an empty table name, should it work? e.g. [servers.], to get an entry of servers: { "": { ... }})

As of now, no, it shouldn't work. And frankly, I hope it never works.

It's not specifically clarified in the TOML specification as far as I can tell, but I seem to have declared it invalid with tests in the toml-test test suite. I am really not inclined to change it.

(If you want to discuss it further in case I'm missing something, I suggest opening a new issue.)

[BurntSushi]

Oh. Did you mean, should the encoder work with empty table names? Indeed it shouldn't, but it does.

Now it doesn't. Fixed in commit 05d026b.

[egonelbre]

Thanks.

I was trying to use the empty table name as a special name, but after thinking about it found a better solution. I just wasn't sure whether it was allowed with TOML. I can see either behavior acceptable: i.e. empty string is just another value, so it shouldn't be treated differently; vs. you shouldn't use empty table names in configuration, it causes confusion.