Learn Yaml via Yaml
· 4 min read
I recovered this incredibly helpful YAML document from my over-a-decade old stash. This document is a YAML that teaches you YAML.
Disclaimer: I am not the original author of the YAML document below. Just putting it here so that it is easily accessible to me and others. If someone were to claim that they were their original author and like me to take this down, I will happily oblige.
# Comments in YAML look like this.
################
# SCALAR TYPES #
################
# Our root object (which continues for the entire document) will be a map,
# which is equivalent to a dictionary, hash or object in other languages.
key: value
another_key: Another value goes here.
a_number_value: 100
scientific_notation: 1e+12
# The number 1 will be interpreted as a number, not a boolean. if you want
# it to be intepreted as a boolean, use true
boolean: true
null_value: null
key with spaces: value
# Notice that strings don't need to be quoted. However, they can be.
however: "A string, enclosed in quotes."
"Keys can be quoted too.": "Useful if you want to put a ':' in your key."
# Multiple-line strings can be written either as a 'literal block' (using |),
# or a 'folded block' (using '>').
literal_block: |
This entire block of text will be the value of the 'literal_block' key,
with line breaks being preserved.
The literal continues until de-dented, and the leading indentation is
stripped.
Any lines that are 'more-indented' keep the rest of their indentation -
these lines will be indented by 4 spaces.
folded_style: >
This entire block of text will be the value of 'folded_style', but this
time, all newlines will be replaced with a single space.
Blank lines, like above, are converted to a newline character.
'More-indented' lines keep their newlines, too -
this text will appear over two lines.
####################
# COLLECTION TYPES #
####################
# Nesting is achieved by indentation.
a_nested_map:
key: value
another_key: Another Value
another_nested_map:
hello: hello
# Maps don't have to have string keys.
0.25: a float key
# Keys can also be complex, like multi-line objects
# We use ? followed by a space to indicate the start of a complex key.
? |
This is a key
that has multiple lines
: and this is its value
# YAML also allows mapping between sequences with the complex key syntax
# Some language parsers might complain
# An example
? - Manchester United
- Real Madrid
: [ 2001-01-01, 2002-02-02 ]
# Sequences (equivalent to lists or arrays) look like this:
a_sequence:
- Item 1
- Item 2
- 0.5 # sequences can contain disparate types.
- Item 4
- key: value
another_key: another_value
-
- This is a sequence
- inside another sequence
# Since YAML is a superset of JSON, you can also write JSON-style maps and
# sequences:
json_map: {"key": "value"}
json_seq: [3, 2, 1, "takeoff"]
#######################
# EXTRA YAML FEATURES #
#######################
# YAML also has a handy feature called 'anchors', which let you easily duplicate
# content across your document. Both of these keys will have the same value:
anchored_content: &anchor_name This string will appear as the value of two keys.
other_anchor: *anchor_name
# Anchors can be used to duplicate/inherit properties
base: &base
name: Everyone has same name
foo: &foo
<<: *base
age: 10
bar: &bar
<<: *base
age: 20
# foo and bar would also have name: Everyone has same name
# YAML also has tags, which you can use to explicitly declare types.
explicit_string: !!str 0.5
# Some parsers implement language specific tags, like this one for Python's
# complex number type.
python_complex_number: !!python/complex 1+2j
# We can also use yaml complex keys with language specific tags
? !!python/tuple [5, 7]
: Fifty Seven
# Would be {(5, 7): 'Fifty Seven'} in python
####################
# EXTRA YAML TYPES #
####################
# Strings and numbers aren't the only scalars that YAML can understand.
# ISO-formatted date and datetime literals are also parsed.
datetime: 2001-12-15T02:59:43.1Z
datetime_with_spaces: 2001-12-14 21:59:43.10 -5
date: 2002-12-14
# The !!binary tag indicates that a string is actually a base64-encoded
# representation of a binary blob.
gif_file: !!binary |
R0lGODlhDAAMAIQAAP//9/X17unp5WZmZgAAAOfn515eXvPz7Y6OjuDg4J+fn5
OTk6enp56enmlpaWNjY6Ojo4SEhP/++f/++f/++f/++f/++f/++f/++f/++f/+
+f/++f/++f/++f/++f/++SH+Dk1hZGUgd2l0aCBHSU1QACwAAAAADAAMAAAFLC
AgjoEwnuNAFOhpEMTRiggcz4BNJHrv/zCFcLiwMWYNG84BwwEeECcgggoBADs=
# YAML also has a set type, which looks like this:
set:
? item1
? item2
? item3
# Like Python, sets are just maps with null values; the above is equivalent to:
set2:
item1: null
item2: null
item3: null