# Spaces in query.jl
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527
**Category:** Data
**Created:** [January 22, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527 "2018-01-22T17:18:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/21 "2018-11-02T16:04:53Z")
@davidanthoff How will this work for a situation like this:
```julia
@from i in df begin
@where i.Parking_Tax == true
@select i
@collect DataFrame
end
```
where the name of the column is “Parking Tax”. Previous version of DataFrames converted the name in “Parking\_Tax” but not the latest version. So now I’m getting: `type NamedTuple has no field Parking_Tax`
I mean this does work but it’s part of a tutorial for beginners and it really makes things ugly and complicated:
```julia
@from i in df begin
@where getproperty(i, Symbol("Parking Tax")) == true
@select i
@collect DataFrame
end
```
* * *
### Update 1
This is acceptable, but if there’s a better way, I’d be grateful to learn about it:
```julia
@from i in df begin
@where i[Symbol("Parking Tax")] == true
@select i
@collect DataFrame
end
```
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@yurivish](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yurivish)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/22 "2018-11-02T16:37:41Z")
Not sure it applies here, but `foo.”bar”` is valid Julia syntax and calls getproperty with a string.
---
### Author:  [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/23 "2018-11-02T16:48:35Z")
Thanks, yes, I tried that but it errors out because there is no `getproperty` defined which accepts a string as its second argument.
I ended up renaming the columns
```julia
rename!(df, [n => replace(string(n), " "=>"_") |> Symbol for n in names(df)])
```
---
### Author:  [@Liso](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Liso)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/24 "2018-11-02T19:13:47Z")
If you create macro S\_str then you could use `@where i[S"Parking Tax"]==true` . Is that unacceptable for you too?
I was played with MWE maybe it could be useful for somebody:
```julia
julia> using DataFrames, Query, CSV
julia> macro S_str(a) :(Symbol($a)) end
julia> io = IOBuffer("""Parking Tax,col2
true,2
false,6""");
julia> df = CSV.File(io) |> DataFrame
2×2 DataFrame
│ Row │ Parking Tax │ col2 │
│ │ Bool⍰ │ Int64⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼────────┤
│ 1 │ true │ 2 │
│ 2 │ false │ 6 │
julia> @from i in df begin
@where i[S"Parking Tax"]==true
@select i
@collect DataFrame
end
1×2 DataFrame
│ Row │ Parking Tax │ col2 │
│ │ Bool⍰ │ Int64⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼────────┤
│ 1 │ true │ 2 │
```
---
### Author:  [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/25 "2018-11-02T19:45:24Z")
I think that this looks quite nice - but I’d rather stay away from it in a beginners tutorial.
---
### Author:  [@Liso](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Liso)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/26 "2018-11-02T20:04:45Z")
Oh sorry! I missed that it is for beginners. But do you plan to put there this line?
> [@essenciary](#):
>
> rename!(df, [n =\> replace(string(n), " “=\>”\_") |\> Symbol for n in names(df)])
---
### Author:  [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/27 "2018-11-02T20:17:38Z")
Comprehensions have been previously introduced - but maybe you’re right and should be done with an iteration. 🤔
Edit 1:
Yes, definitely, good point! At least I can show the iteration and add that it can be done with a comprehension. Having the two versions side by side should clarify the comprehension syntax too.
---
### Author:  [@piever](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/piever)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/28 "2018-11-02T20:44:33Z")
`rename!` can also take a function if you want to apply the same transformation to all names:
```julia
julia> rename!(df) do n
s = replace(string(n), ' ' => '_')
Symbol(s)
end
```
which is not a one liner but is probably a bit easier to parse visually.
Overall it feels like renaming columns is the best solution as it also offers this nice extra exercise.
---
### Author:  [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/29 "2018-11-02T21:37:57Z")
I don’t have a better idea than what was posted here already… At the end of the day this boils down to how one can interact with named tuples in julia.
I do think a macro a la `s"foo bar"` that is equivalent to `Symbol("foo bar")` would be nice, but that should probably be done (if at all) in base…
---
### Author:  [@nalimilan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nalimilan)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/30 "2018-11-02T21:55:43Z")
FWIW, you can also do `CSV.File(..., normalizenames=true)` on import to avoid such names.
---
### Author:  [@essenciary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/essenciary)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/31 "2018-11-08T14:46:56Z")
What about adding a `getproperty` method for strings, so that foo.“bar baz” Just Works?
---
### Author:  [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/32 "2018-11-11T20:28:12Z")
> [@essenciary](#):
>
> What about adding a `getproperty` method for strings, so that foo.“bar baz” Just Works?
I like that idea, but it would have to be implemented in base for `NamedTuple`, otherwise it would be a bad case of type piracy.
---
### Author:  [@gajomi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gajomi)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/33 "2019-04-18T19:14:44Z")
I just wanted to give a shout out to my fellow `S_str` macro implementors. Working with data in the wild with lots of spaces in the column names I ended up independently stumbling upon this as well as a way to save lots of typing while not having to worry about normalization. If a critical mass of practitioners end up doing this maybe it should get a home of its own… somewhere.
---
### Author:  [@mantzaris](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mantzaris)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/34 "2020-07-21T04:37:15Z")
I just tried this out now with my data having spaces in the column names, and it worked `Symbol("hello world")`
---
### Author:  [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2020, 6:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/35 "2020-07-21T06:53:25Z")
With the latest DataFrames version, this works:
```julia
julia> using DataFrames
julia> df = DataFrame("My column name" => rand(5))
5×1 DataFrame
│ Row │ My column name │
│ │ Float64 │
├─────┼────────────────┤
│ 1 │ 0.532892 │
│ 2 │ 0.572881 │
│ 3 │ 0.0794647 │
│ 4 │ 0.189205 │
│ 5 │ 0.19475 │
julia> df."My column name"
5-element Array{Float64,1}:
0.5328924031274789
0.5728810432735243
0.07946465108113787
0.18920465409371334
0.19475031867591586
```
---
### Author:  [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/spaces-in-query-jl/8527/36 "2020-07-21T18:57:50Z")
The Query.jl story just depends on what is supported for standard named tuples. If base added support for `x."field name"` for named tuples, then one could use that syntax in Query.jl as well.
But I think base might think that `x.var"field name"` is good enough? That should work now already.
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