---
url: "https://vueda.dev/v3/reference/api/js/utils/formValuePath/functions/toFlatValuePath.md"
title: "toFlatValuePath"
---

# toFlatValuePath

## Overview

The path to store a field's value under in `useForm`'s `state.values` (and its sibling maps:
`initialValues`, `errors`, `touched`, ...), given its dotted public identity.

`useForm` reads and writes `values` and `initialValues` with lodash `get`/`set`/`unset`, which
treat a bare `.` in a path as structural nesting — correct for a genuine array or fieldset path,
where the dots mirror real nested submit JSON. A related filter or an expand-flattened display
field is not that: it is one flat value under one dotted public name, and letting its dots nest
would silently split it into an object no server request shape expects.

Wrapping a dotted name in lodash's own bracket-quoted path syntax (`['employee.name']`) is what
tells `get`/`set`/`unset` to address it as a single literal key, dots and all, instead of
splitting on them. A name with no dot has nothing to protect from nesting, so it passes through
unchanged: `errors`, `messages`, and `touched` key a field by its raw name (not by this path), and
only agree with `values`/`initialValues` when an undotted name round-trips as itself here.

Call this wherever a dotted public identity is handed to `useForm` outside a real
`fieldSetContext` — `useFieldRenderer`'s `fieldValuePath` does.

## Signature

`toFlatValuePath(name)`

### Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span id="param-name">name</span> | `string` | yes | A field or filter's dotted public identity (e.g. `"employee.name"`). |

### Returns

`string`

The literal lodash path to store its value under.

## Source

`client/lib/utils/formValuePath.js:28`