# Issues with dots in variable names of data object

**URL:** <https://community.labelstud.io/t/issues-with-dots-in-variable-names-of-data-object/522>\
**Category:** Label Studio Support\
**Created:** [March 21, 2025, 9:12am UTC](https://community.labelstud.io/t/issues-with-dots-in-variable-names-of-data-object/522 "2025-03-21T09:12:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmaallttee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mmaallttee](https://community.labelstud.io/u/mmaallttee)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 9:12am UTC](https://community.labelstud.io/t/issues-with-dots-in-variable-names-of-data-object/522/1 "2025-03-21T09:12:49Z")

</div>

We register tasks in LabelStudio as json files via the python SDK. When registering the task we make use of the data object within the task description, to add kind of meta data to the task that is relevant, see here:

```auto
{
  "id": 25132,
  "data": {
    "csv": "/tasks/25132/presign/?fileuri=YXp1cmUtYmxvYjovLY2Vzc2VkLmNzdg==",
    "m_process_end": "2025-03-19 23:18:35.065000+00:00",
    "BMMC.ACT.O1.QCMS_Frequency": 5960674
  },
  "annotations": [],
  "predictions": []
}

```

As you can see above, the data field _BMMC.ACT.O1.QCMS\_Frequncy_ has dots in its variable name. We think, this causes two issues:

1. Even its value is populated, it is not displayed in the task overview, see here:  

2. When referring to this value in the labelling interface XML, for example via:  
`<Text name="meta1" value="Frequency: $BMMC.ACT.O1.QCMS_Frequncy"/>` we receive an error during task registration (that we don’t get if we comment out this line in the labelling interface)

Is this a known issue? Is our assumption correct? Should we generally avoid dots in the variable names in the data field? Is there a workaround like escaping dots in the xml?