Oddity with dates and property key naming

[joeapearson]

Using the gremlin console I issue these two queries:

// `created_at`
g.addV("test").property("created_at", new Date())

// `createdAt`
g.addV("test").property("createdAt", new Date())

Both vertices get created successfully, however the one using created_at with a property key always returns its created_at value as a string. The one specified with createdAt returns it as a date, as expected. I've recreated the same behaviour using both the gremlin console and gremlin javascript drivers. I've verified that the serialisation / deserialisation process is operating as expected in both cases (or at least to my eye, it appears to be).

Does anyone know the reason for this behaviour? What am I doing wrongly?

[joeapearson]

I managed to solve it myself, as expected was my mistake.

It turns out that I had previously created some vertex properties using created_at with a string, which had the side effect of creating a schema. Any subsequent calls cast the date into a string.

It seems like the best way of avoiding this would have been to set up my schema in advance as recommended in the docs (the only reason I didn't do this is because I'm playing around at this point)