YAML - Syntax Characters


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Various types of characters are used for various functionalities. This chapter talks in detail about syntax used in YAML and focuses on character manipulation.

Indicator Characters

Indicator characters include a special semantics used to describe the content of YAML document. The following table shows this in detail.

Sr.No. Character & Functionality
1

_

It denotes a block sequence entry

2

?

It denotes a mapping key

3

:

It denotes a mapping value

4

,

It denotes flow collection entry

5

[

It starts a flow sequence

6

]

It ends a flow sequence

7

{

It starts a flow mapping

8

}

It ends a flow mapping

9

#

It denotes the comments

10

&

It denotes node’s anchor property

11

*

It denotes alias node

12

!

It denotes node’s tag

13

|

It denotes a literal block scalar

14

>

It denotes a folded block scalar

15

`

Single quote surrounds a quoted flow scalar

16

"

Double quote surrounds double quoted flow scalar

17

%

It denotes the directive used

The following example shows the characters used in syntax −

%YAML 1.1
---
!!map {
   ? !!str "sequence"
   : !!seq [
      !!str "one", !!str "two"
   ],
   ? !!str "mapping"
   : !!map {
      ? !!str "sky" : !!str "blue",
      ? !!str "sea" : !!str "green",
   }
}

# This represents
# only comments.
---
!!map1 {
   ? !!str "anchored"
   : !local &A1 "value",
   ? !!str "alias"
   : *A1,
}
!!str "text"
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