Is it possible to use a dictionary as a typst element's properties?

Questions
1

This question is so simple that I am embarrassed for not having the answer myself. I’d like to know what would be the correct way to use a dictionary in a variable as the property dictionary that typst elements usually expect. For example (assuming that we are already in code mode):

let boxprops = (
  inset: 1mm,
)

box(
  boxprops
)[
Content
]

This does not work because the box element does not have a property with name props.

So what would be the correct way?

I am not interested in solutions like the following:

let boxprops = (
  inset: 1mm,
)

box(
  inset: boxprops.inset,
)[
Content
]

The reason is that the boxprops variable -depending on the situation- can contain an arbitrary number of dictionary entries, from 0 entries up to the full set of entries that are valid for a box element.

Of course, there are complicated and ugly ways to construct a box element from a dictionary in a variable. But I’d like know if there is an easy and elegant one that I have missed.

Thank you very much in advance!

P.S. This is a general question that applies to all typst elements. The box element was just an example.

2

Hi! This trick is to ..spread:

let boxprops = (
  inset: 1mm,
)

box(..boxprops)[
  Content
]

An alternative solution is function.with:

let your-box = box.with(
  inset: 1mm,
)

your-box[
  Content
]

By the way, AI services like https://deepwiki.com/typst/typst and Typst (websites/typst_app) | Context7 have full access to the Typst Documentation. For simple questions like this one, you can use these services to get the answer more quickly.

3

Another option is to use the argument type. From what I can see the only(?) benefit compared to a dictionary is you can include positional arguments too.

From the documentation:

#let args = arguments(stroke: red, inset: 1em, [Body])
#box(..args)
4

@Y.D.X

I see. Thank you very much. I had totally forgotten about argument spreading. Shame on me … had used it before, but had to focus on other tasks during the last weeks.

Regarding research, I had googled for the solution before posting of course. But obviously I had used the wrong keywords.

@gezepi

Thank you very much, too. I had not come across the argument type yet. It looks promising. But I still have to check whether it works if I pass a variable which already contains a dictionary to the arguments() function. Like this: #let args = arguments(boxprops,[body]). Otherwise, I couldn’t use it in my specific case.