Yaml Lists Dictionaries | Yaml Syntax

Introduction

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization standard that is commonly used for configuration files and data interchange between languages of different families. This tutorial will cover YAML lists and dictionaries, two essential components in YAML syntax.

YAML Lists

In YAML, lists are used to represent a sequence of items. Lists are denoted by a leading hyphen (-) and a space. Each item in the list is placed on a new line.

Example of a YAML List:

fruits:
- Apple
- Orange
- Banana
- Mango

In the example above, the list is named fruits, and it contains four items: Apple, Orange, Banana, and Mango.

YAML Dictionaries

YAML dictionaries (or mappings) are used to represent a collection of key-value pairs. A key-value pair is written as key: value, with each pair on a new line.

Example of a YAML Dictionary:

person:
  name: John Doe
  age: 30
  city: New York

In the example above, the dictionary is named person and it contains three key-value pairs: name, age, and city.

Combining Lists and Dictionaries

YAML allows for the combination of lists and dictionaries, enabling complex data structures. You can nest dictionaries within lists and vice versa.

Example of a YAML List of Dictionaries:

employees:
  - name: Alice
    age: 28
    department: HR
  - name: Bob
    age: 34
    department: IT

In the example above, employees is a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary represents an employee with attributes name, age, and department.

Example of a YAML Dictionary with Lists:

teams:
  development:
    - Alice
    - Bob
  marketing:
    - Carol
    - Dave

In the example above, teams is a dictionary with two keys: development and marketing. Each key has a list of team members.

Conclusion

YAML lists and dictionaries are powerful tools for representing structured data in a human-readable format. By understanding how to use lists and dictionaries, you can create complex configurations and data structures easily. We hope this tutorial has provided a clear and comprehensive understanding of YAML lists and dictionaries.

YAML Lists and Dictionaries Tutorial