# Passing an image as an element in an array
**URL:** https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 12, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827 "2021-03-12T19:21:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ken](https://zola.discourse.group/u/ken)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827/1 "2021-03-12T19:21:30Z")
I’m new to Zola and I’ve done a lot of reading and it seems like there is no way to create a custom variable for something like an image or author. This is my work around, but I need someones help. I’ve almost got it, but not quit there yet.
In the YAML section I have description, and within that description I can put author, picture.jpg, description, or whatever I want. It’s just a string. So I do this…
+++
title = “My cool page”
description =“picture.jpg~Author Name~My super cool description goes here”
+++
Now on my html page where I want this to display I do this:{{ “picture.jpg~John Doe~This is my description” | split(pat="~") }}
This outputs an array with 3 elements
[picture.jpg, John Doe, This is my description]
So far so good! But this is where I’m stuck! How do I reference each element? Like this…
[0] picture.jpg
[1] John Doe
[2] This is my description
The array must have a name and I assume I reference the elements within the array like this: array\_name[1]. But I dont know how to do that. Like everything in life, it’s probably super simple, once you know how. I just dont know how.
Eventually I would like to do this:
(that didn’t work, I cant post code)
Thanks in advance!!
---
### Author:  [@keats](https://zola.discourse.group/u/keats)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827/2 "2021-03-12T21:01:14Z")
1. Why not put that info in `[extra]`? That’s what it’s for.
2. You need to assign it to a variable
{% set data = “picture.jpg~John Doe~This is my description” | split(pat="~") %}
---
### Author:  [@ken](https://zola.discourse.group/u/ken)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827/3 "2021-03-13T18:44:05Z")
Thanks so much keats! This works like a champ! Exactly what I was looking for.
> [@keats](#):
>
> {% set data = “picture.jpg~John Doe~This is my description” | split(pat=“~”) %}
However, this does not work:
{% set data = page.description | split(pat=“~”) %}
{{ data[0] }} should return picture.jpg
I get the error:
Variable `data[0]` not found in context while rendering ‘page.html’: the evaluated version was `data.0`. Maybe the index is out of bounds?
I’m still missing something?
You mentioned using [extra], I dont see how that would work? For example within each page (content/news/somefile.md) I have a single and unique image as well as an author (that is not unique). I assume I might be able to use [extra] to define a set or an array of authors since they are fixed. But defining a unique image file, I just dont see how that would work? This is why I choose to put everything as a string in page.description, and just split the string on some unique and pre-defined unique character.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@TangoWhiskeyman](https://zola.discourse.group/u/TangoWhiskeyman)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://zola.discourse.group/t/passing-an-image-as-an-element-in-an-array/827/4 "2021-03-25T14:36:12Z")
Under [extra] you can add your own fields to the page, and they’ll function just like any other.
So, instead of
```
+++
title = “My cool page”
description =“picture.jpg~Author Name~My super cool description goes here”
+++
```
you can go for
```
+++
title = “My cool page”
description =“My super cool description goes here”
author = "Stephen King"
[extra]
image = "foo.jpg"
+++
```
and skip the hacky tilde split.