How to reference a composite variable label?

[adrfantini]

I'm trying to reference a label that is constructed from a variable. Setting the label is easy, but I'm having issues referencing it

The following code fails:

#let lbl = "Typst"

= #lbl is cool #label("title." + lbl)

//This is #ref("title." + lbl) // NOPE
This is #ref(label("title." + lbl)) // NOPE as well

How should I do this?

[laurmaedje]

The problem here is that the label is not attached the heading, but to the text within the heading. The label syntax has special handling for this, but the label call can't. You can fix it by moving the #label("title." + lbl) to the next line.

[laurmaedje]

Due to the let binding, the label is now not attached to the heading again, but rather just stored in my-label.

Try this:

#set heading(numbering: "(1)")
#let lbl = "Typst"

= #lbl is cool
#label("title." + lbl)

This is #ref(label("title." + lbl))

[adrfantini]

That works! Thank you!

May I suggest that maybe that's not super intuitive? The error messages as well were not very clear in this specific case

[laurmaedje]

Yeah, it's a bit of an unfortunate situation.

[adrfantini]

Is there something I can do? Open an issue?

[laurmaedje]

You can leave your input on #3512. Maybe we can reopen it.