mikefarah/yq · error

any only supports arrays, was %v

Error message

any only supports arrays, was %v

What it means

The any operator, like all, requires each matched node to be a SequenceNode so it can test its predicate over the elements. This guard fires on the first matched node whose tag is not !!seq (the actual tag replaces %v), e.g. running any directly against a map value or a scalar.

Source

Thrown at pkg/yqlib/operator_booleans.go:109

			return Context{}, fmt.Errorf("all only supports arrays, was %v", candidate.Tag)
		}
		booleanResult, err := findBoolean(false, d, context, expressionNode.RHS, candidate)
		if err != nil {
			return Context{}, err
		}
		result := createBooleanCandidate(candidate, !booleanResult)
		results.PushBack(result)
	}
	return context.ChildContext(results), nil
}

func anyOperator(d *dataTreeNavigator, context Context, expressionNode *ExpressionNode) (Context, error) {
	var results = list.New()

	for el := context.MatchingNodes.Front(); el != nil; el = el.Next() {
		candidate := el.Value.(*CandidateNode)
		if candidate.Kind != SequenceNode {
			return Context{}, fmt.Errorf("any only supports arrays, was %v", candidate.Tag)
		}
		booleanResult, err := findBoolean(true, d, context, expressionNode.RHS, candidate)
		if err != nil {
			return Context{}, err
		}
		result := createBooleanCandidate(candidate, booleanResult)
		results.PushBack(result)
	}
	return context.ChildContext(results), nil
}

func orOperator(d *dataTreeNavigator, context Context, expressionNode *ExpressionNode) (Context, error) {
	prefs := crossFunctionPreferences{
		CalcWhenEmpty:  true,
		Calculation:    returnRhsTruthy,
		LhsResultValue: returnLHSWhen(true),
	}
	return crossFunctionWithPrefs(d, context.ReadOnlyClone(), expressionNode, prefs)

View on GitHub (pinned to 8b5af0694b)

Solutions

1. Apply any only to arrays: .tags | any(. == "x")
2. Convert to an array first with [...] or [.[] | ... ]
3. Verify upstream that the field exists and is a list, not a scalar/map

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/yqlib/operator_booleans.go:109 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of mikefarah/yq@8b5af0694b (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef32e7d520f8af86. Report an issue: GitHub.