YAML: Quick Introduction

YAML /’ya-mel/ YAML Ain’t Markup Language

Simple data

YAML is “data serialization” language that matches your expectations about data. Say, what do you expect the following to be?

Quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Odds are you will say it is a string. Let’s find out what YAML thinks about it:

>>> yaml.load('Quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.')
'Quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.'

Well, what about this one?

3.1415926536

YAML agrees, it is a floating point number:

>>> yaml.load('3.1415926536')
3.1415926536

But that was trivial, right? What do you think of that:

2011-11-18

That looks like a date to me and to YAML:

>>> yaml.load('2011-11-18')
datetime.date(2011, 11, 18)

Time also can be incorporated:

>>> yaml.load('2011-11-18 19:00:59')
datetime.datetime(2011, 11, 18, 19, 00, 59)

Data structures

What do you think is this:

- eggs
- ham
- spam
- French basil salmon terrine

For me it is a list of food. For YAML it is a list of strings:

>>> yaml.load('''
    - eggs
    - ham
    - spam
    - French basil salmon terrine
    ''')
['eggs', 'ham', 'spam', 'French basil salmon terrine']

Unfortunately, YAML does not know concept of food, but it did well with list of strings, I think.

Also, if you want a list to be in-line, add brackets around:

>>> yaml.load('[eggs, ham, spam]')
['eggs', 'ham', 'spam']

Another one:

registry: USS Enterprise (XCV 330)
service: circa 2130s
captain: unknown

Let’s try it out:

>>> yaml.load('''
    registry: USS Enterprise (XCV 330)
    service: circa 2130s
    captain: unknown
    ''')
{'captain': 'unknown', 'registry': 'USS Enterprise (XCV 330)',
'service': 'circa 2130s'}

There’s a different terminology about this one, but I bet you’ll agree that this is associative array or hash table or dictionary. YAML calls it a mapping.

More complex data structures

In dynamic languages like Perl, Ruby, JavaScript, and Python, where objects are implemented as hash tables, you can convert easily YAML mappings to objects:

>>> class SpaceShip(object):
        pass

>>> ship = SpaceShip()

>>> ship.__dict__ = yaml.load('''
    registry: USS Enterprise (XCV 330)
    service: circa 2130s
    captain: unknown
    ''')

>>> ship.registry
'USS Enterprise (XCV 330)'

Also, you can have lists of lists, lists of mappings, mappings of mappings, and so on:

# file exmpl1.yaml
foods:
  - eggs
  - pizza
drinks:
  - water
  - vodka

>>> yaml.load(open('exmpl1.yaml'))
{'foods': ['eggs', 'pizza'], 'drinks': ['water', 'vodka']}

# file exmpl2.yaml
status:
  engine: on
  translocator: off
misc:
  airbag installed: yes
  maintenance passed: no

>>> yaml.load(open('exmpl2.yaml'))
{'status': {'engine': True, 'translocator': False},
'misc': {'maintenance passed': False, 'airbag installed': True}}

YAML uses indentation to distinguish data hierarchy, and uses it very flexibly: you can have as little as 1 space to depict indent.

The above examples remind me to tell you about comments syntax (hash sign # in YAML) and about boolean data in YAML:

>>> yaml.load('[yes, Yes, YES, on, On, ON, true, True, TRUE]')
[True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True, True]

>>> yaml.load('[no, No, NO, off, Off, OFF, false, False, FALSE]')
[False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False]

As you can see YAML has a very broad understanding of truthness and falseness.

Finally

I think, I only scratched the surface of YAML awesomness, so if you have a usecase which was not covered here, you are very likely to find one on the official site yaml.org, which you should check out anyway!

What’s with XML?

You can continue using it. ■