Find files that do not have YAML headers?

[Guapa]

I would like to find all the files in my vault that do not start with YAML headers: ---

I could not find a plugin that does what I need.

I read but could not understand various threads about using regex for vault-wide searches, and I could not adapt the regex examples to work as I need them to.

Is it possible with a plugin, core query, regex, or anything else to search all the files in the vault and find those that do not have YAML headers?

TIA

Is it possible to find all files in vault with bad YAML?

This kind of intrigued me a little bit, so after looking through what’s available in the app.metadataCache it seems that the frontmatter* entries are missing when the yaml is bad, but there is still an entry in sections for the yaml section. This we can then utilise to detect where our YAML is bad. I also found in some cases that the frontmatter could contain a notvalid setting, without anything else. ```dataviewjs const result = [] for (let [fname, fcache] of Object.entries(dv.app.metadataCa…

Fix wrong YAML in multiple files

Before we start Please take a backup You’re about to search-and-replace to an entire vault, so I can’t stress enough to make a backup of your folder before you start, in case something really should go wrong. I’ve tested the regex on my own vault, so I’m pretty sure there aren’t any large errors, but please do take a backup. During the testing of these regex’s I found that VS Code hung up on me in some occasions, so I had to restart it a few times. This was when I was typing the regex one by o…

Batch add front matter

You can do it in VS Code. I wouldn’t say it’s simple, but doable. Please, test this before using it on actual notes, and don’t forget to backup. Find (in regex mode): ^(?<![\s\S\r]) Replace: ---\nkey1: value1\nkey2: value2\n---\n\n Edit keys and values according to your needs, separating each line with \n.

[DiCaver]

This small Dataview query gives you a list of files where frontmatter is equal to 0 (no values):

```dataview
TABLE file.frontmatter AS "Files without Frontmatter"
FROM ""
WHERE length(file.frontmatter) = 0
```

I tested it in my vault, and it works fine. There is still a place for improvement, but it’s a good starting point.

Cheers, Marko

[Guapa]

THANK YOU so much. And better than having to use VS Code and switching between apps. Genius.

[holroy]

You’ve also got an option of using dataviewjs and scanning the metadataCache to see if there is a frontmatter section at the start of the cache.

Just wanted to mention it, although that would require a little more coding compared to just checking the size of file.frontmatter. There might also be a difference with regards to who illegal frontmatter is reported in the two alternatives.

Which leads to the most expensive version of actually scanning the first line of every file in the vault.

[Guapa]

Many thanks. DataviewJS is way beyond what I can understand, but I appreciate the extra info. The solution provided works perfectly for my needs, so I will use that.