ERROR #95313 - Can't get the length property of a string in child.

[calag4n]

Description

Build fails if I try to get the length property of a string passed from parent through props.
Same error occurs localy and on netlify deploy.

TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined

Steps to reproduce

Install a starter

$ gatsby new gatsby-starter-default https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-default

Create a string variable in index page

// index.js

const IndexPage = () => {
  const foo = 'Hello World'

 return (
    <Layout
    foo={foo}
    >
       <h1>Hi people</h1>
  </Layout>
)
}

Get its length in a child component

// layout.js

const Layout = ({ children, foo }) => {
  const bar =  foo.length
{...}
}

Build

$ yarn build

Expected result

Build complete

Actual result

failed Building static HTML for pages - 0.906s

 ERROR #95313 

Building static HTML failed for path "/404/"

See our docs page for more info on this error: https://gatsby.dev/debug-html


  15 | const Layout = ({ children, foo }) => {
  16 | 
> 17 |   const bar =  foo.length
     |                    ^
  18 |   console.log(foo, bar)
  19 | 
  20 | 


  WebpackError: TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined
  
  - layout.js:17 Layout
    src/components/layout.js:17:20
  

error Command failed with exit code 1.

Environment

System:
   OS: Linux 4.15 Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (Bionic Beaver)
   CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz
   Shell: 5.4.2 - /usr/bin/zsh
 Binaries:
   Node: 12.13.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.13.0/bin/node
   Yarn: 1.19.2 - /usr/bin/yarn
   npm: 6.13.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v12.13.0/bin/npm
 Languages:
   Python: 2.7.15+ - /usr/bin/python
 Browsers:
   Chrome: 78.0.3904.108
   Firefox: 70.0.1
 npmPackages:
   gatsby: ^2.18.4 => 2.18.4
   gatsby-image: ^2.2.34 => 2.2.34
   gatsby-plugin-manifest: ^2.2.30 => 2.2.30
   gatsby-plugin-offline: ^3.0.24 => 3.0.24
   gatsby-plugin-react-helmet: ^3.1.16 => 3.1.16
   gatsby-plugin-sharp: ^2.3.4 => 2.3.4
   gatsby-source-filesystem: ^2.1.39 => 2.1.39
   gatsby-transformer-sharp: ^2.3.6 => 2.3.6
 npmGlobalPackages:
   gatsby-cli: 2.8.14

[anuraghazra]

Hi @calag4n, I don't know the exact reason why this is happening but seems like this issue is similar to the issue where window is not available during server side rendering (when gatsby build is run)

here's a work around :-

// layout.js

const Layout = ({ children, foo }) => {
  const bar = foo && foo.length; // if foo exists then access foo.length;
}

#309 (comment)

[calag4n]

Hi...

Wow !
I stucked on this the entire last night, over-thinking some weird ways to fix it.
Then, barely two hours after I report that issue you come with the simpliest way to solve this ^^' .
I found out that is some others prototype methods wich end up the same error (like Array.slice()).

Thank you very much @anuraghazra !

I love the open source community . And I love Gatsbyjs btw :)

[anuraghazra]

You are welcome @calag4n ❤️

[Aju100]

Great anuraghazra