Accessing YAML with DataviewJS

[kyleyoungblom]

Hi all, wondering if I could get some help with a DataviewJS query.

What I’m trying to do

I keep a database of words I’m trying to learn, with frontmatter formatted like

word: theWord
definition: "what the word means"

I’d like to pull one random word as well as its definition into my dashboard and link back to the word’s source, so I’d get:

[[Muqarnas]]: A form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture.

Things I have tried

This code gets me partway there: it shows a random word whenever the page is reloaded, but I’m not sure how to access the YAML frontmatter to pull in the definition or how to link to the page source.

```dataviewjs
const words = dv.pages('#resources/words').map(word => word.file.link);
const random = Math.floor(Math.random() * (words.length - 1));
const randomWord = words[random];
dv.paragraph('!' + randomWord + '</span>');

[cheezopath]

```dataviewjs
const links = dv.pages('#resources/words').map(x => x.file.link)
const definitions = dv.pages('#resources/words').map(x => x.definition)
const random = Math.floor(Math.random() * (links.length - 1));
dv.paragraph(links[random]+": "+definitions[random]);
```

Try this! You can also access the word with .word the same as accessing .definition, but it seems like you were naming the file the same as the word so I simplified it to match the desired output

[cheezopath]

oh this is a bit cleaner:

```dataviewjs
const data = dv.pages('#resources/words')
const random = Math.floor(Math.random() * (data.length - 1));
dv.paragraph(data[random].file.link+": "+data[random].definition);
```

[holroy]

Do be aware that all of these solutions will provide a new word/defintion each time the query is executed. This means new words on each switch into live preview or reading mode, each the file is opened, or the view is refreshed/rebuilt.

It could be what is wanted, in that case everything is fine, but in the other case or could try looking into slightly different random generators which would only generate a new number each day (or hour) or something like that.

[cheezopath]

true! I have turned off my dataview re-evaluation and have a shortcut that inserts this templater code:
<%*app.workspace.activeLeaf.rebuildView()%>
which makes life with random (and general interaction speed) overall faster, so long as I don’t mind manually refreshing

[kyleyoungblom]

that’s perfect, thank you so much for your help! It’s working great; I really appreciate it