A similar thing shows up in the result validation section of this page: https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Z11070?uselang=en&oldid=52133 where it says Enter String even though all fields are filled out once you open the dropdown.

The original bug is calling to a function that doesn't exist (https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z10601). The function call is also not properly formed: function field contains a function call that supposedly returned a string, instead of containing a function:

However, the issue in the comment:

https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Z11070?uselang=en&oldid=52133 where it says Enter String even though all fields are filled out once you open the dropdown.

Is a valid issue and a good point. Whenever we initialize a string object, we set it to empty string, so in this component we decided to interpret an empty string as an unset one and offer the call to action "Enter string" instead.
Because empty strings are perfectly valid, I would suggest removing the "Enter string" call to action to simply put "empty string" or "".

@AAlhazwani-WMF @Jdforrester-WMF any thoughts?

In T346006#9566996, @gengh wrote:

Is a valid issue and a good point. Whenever we initialize a string object, we set it to empty string, so in this component we decided to interpret an empty string as an unset one and offer the call to action "Enter string" instead.
Because empty strings are perfectly valid, I would suggest removing the "Enter string" call to action to simply put "empty string" or "".

@AAlhazwani-WMF @Jdforrester-WMF any thoughts?

for now, i would opt for "". similarly to how we do for key labels, or the evaluator result

would be interesting to explore visual-only ways to convey the same meaning, but i'll file this in the digital garden for now

In T346006#9567453, @AAlhazwani-WMF wrote:

In T346006#9566996, @gengh wrote:

Is a valid issue and a good point. Whenever we initialize a string object, we set it to empty string, so in this component we decided to interpret an empty string as an unset one and offer the call to action "Enter string" instead.
Because empty strings are perfectly valid, I would suggest removing the "Enter string" call to action to simply put "empty string" or "".

@AAlhazwani-WMF @Jdforrester-WMF any thoughts?

for now, i would opt for "". similarly to how we do for key labels, or the evaluator result

Agreed.

Hello, the link mentioned a couple times here, shttps://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z10601 just send/redirects me to https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Wikifunctions:Main_Page 🤔?

To clarify following the discussion thread, we want to:

• show an empty string, "" if none has already been selected (instead of "Select function")
• but if said function has already been selected, we want to show that (instead of "Select function")

Actually, it would be helpful if someone provided a valid link to smth like https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z10601 so that I have a clearer idea of what we should see 🙏

In T346006#9612406, @ecarg wrote:

Hello, the link mentioned a couple times here, shttps://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z10601 just send/redirects me to https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Wikifunctions:Main_Page 🤔?

Yes, it was deleted back in October.

No, the bug should be rewritten to reflect the comments.

In T346006#9566996, @gengh wrote:

The original bug is calling to a function that doesn't exist (https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z10601). The function call is also not properly formed: function field contains a function call that supposedly returned a string, instead of containing a function:

This is not an issue, so no need to put attention to it.
The following, however, needs to be addressed:

However, the issue in the comment:

https://www.wikifunctions.org/wiki/Z11070?uselang=en&oldid=52133 where it says Enter String even though all fields are filled out once you open the dropdown.

Is a valid issue and a good point. Whenever we initialize a string object, we set it to empty string, so in this component we decided to interpret an empty string as an unset one and offer the call to action "Enter string" instead.
Because empty strings are perfectly valid, I would suggest removing the "Enter string" call to action to simply put "empty string" or "".

We are considering "" as a non-set field, instead of being a valid string (empty, but valid).
This should be addressed, so in the ZObjectToString.vue component, whenever we find an empty string, instead of showing "Enter String", we need to show ""

The problem here has a deeper origin. The getZObjectTerminalValue getter from the zobject store module, returns the following (line 1054):

if ( row.isTerminal() ) {
	return row.value ?
		row.value :
		undefined;
}

Which means that is converting both a ZString empty string and a ZReference empty string into "undefined".
This is okay for ZReference, but for ZString it should return row.value instead, because "" is not undefined but a valid terminal string.

I would do this instead:

if ( terminalKey === Constants.Z_STRING_VALUE ) {
  return row.value;
}
return row.value ? row.value : undefined;

This way, the behavior of terminal empty reference would not be altered (returns undefined if it's not set) but the empty string would not be considered undefined but simply an empty string.

What we want is this:

When an argument is an empty string:

When an argument is an empty reference:

Change 1010354 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ecarg; author: Ecarg):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiLambda@master] Allow empty strings when string value in select function

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1010354

Change 1010354 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiLambda@master] Allow empty strings when string value in select function

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1010354