I am writing a custom template for converting markdown into R-markdown so I can reorder the metadata as per the template. But certain YAML header variables contain more information and I would like to split it into individual values to place it in different locations.

For example in a markdown file:

here I would like to break the individual address YAML value accessible in my template as $address$ into more atomic information bits like $address.name$,$address.university$ and $address.postal-address$ 

Is there any way I can break the template variables in the above manner programatically..