String coercion creates empty string from "null" value

[h4l]

The -s string coercion flag results in an empty string when the value is null:

jo -- -s foo=null
{"foo":""}

$ jo -v
jo 1.9

I would expect the result to be {"foo":"null"}.

[jpmens]

I don't see why you would expect that to happen; I wouldn't.

[h4l]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the intention of the -s flag, I assumed it would force the value to be treated as a string. Is there a way to produce the string "null" with jo?

[gromgit]

Yes, escape the first letter with a backslash:

$ jo -- -s foo=\\null
{"foo":"null"}

Note that the null-to-"" coercion is explicitly documented in the man page.

[h4l]

OK, thank you.