Strings in YAML

External

• http://www.yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2795688
• https://www.baeldung.com/yaml-multi-line
• http://blogs.perl.org/users/tinita/2018/03/strings-in-yaml---to-quote-or-not-to-quote.html
• https://yaml-multiline.info
• https://www.educative.io/answers/what-is-flow-style-in-yaml

Internal

• YAML | String Scalars
• YAML | Multi-Line String Support

Overview

There is wide variety of choices when it comes to representing strings in YAML. Strings can represented as flow scalars and block scalars. A flow scalar can be plain, single quoted and double quoted. A block scalar can be literal or folded.

Flow Scalars

"Flow" comes from "flow style", where successive YAML elements are placed on the same line, directly next to each other. This style is different from the "block style", where separate YAML elements are arranged into separate blocks defined by the same indentation. A string can be represented as a plain flow scalar, single quoted flow scalar and double quoted flow scalar.

Plain Flow Scalar

A plain flow scalar string starts immediately after :  (colon-space) and it does not require any quote.

a: this is a plain flow scalar string

The plain flow scalar string can be continued on the next lines of the YAML file. However, "folding" the string over multiple lines does not mean that we are introducing new line characters in the string. The lines are concatenated and joined with a single space (If some lines are indented more than others, this is ignored). Note that the amount of space between characters is preserved.

a: this is a plain flow scalar string
 that folds
       over the
                 line boundary

The string value is this is a plain flow scalar string that folds over the line boundary.

long_key:
 the plain flow
    scalar string may
       have a smaller 
     indentation than
             the key

The string value is the plain flow scalar string may have a smaller indentation than the key.

New lines can be introduced in the string value by entering empty lines in the flow value. Each empty line introduces a new line character in the string value:

a: this string
      
             contains


                         new lines

The string value is:

this string
contains

new lines

Plain flow scalar strings can contain:

• Single and double quotes, as long as they are not the first character of the string.
• Tabs
• Backslashes
• Unicode characters

a: this ' is " also ' a \ plain flow scalar string

The string value will be: this ' is " also ' a \ plain flow scalar string.

Plain Flow Scalar String Limitations

• Cannot contain escape sequences: \n, \t
• Cannot contain : &nbps;(:<space>). Colons are allowed but only if they are not followed by whitespace.
• Cannot contain #&nbps;(<space>#). This starts a comment
• Cannot start with:
  • -  (-<space>).

Comments and Plain Flow Scalars

A comment will end a plain flow scalar, the following example is invalid:

some_key:
   this is            # comment
   an invalid example

TODO

TODO:

• How can it be parsed and dumped with python.

TODEPLETE

Strings do not require quotation, but it is recommended to quote them, to explicitly specify they are strings and type inference should not be attempted.

The following representations are equivalent for a string:

s1: bare words string
s2: "a double-quoted string"
s3: 'a single-quoted string'

All forms represented above are named "inline", in that the strings must be rendered on one line.

In the bare word format, characters cannot be escaped.

Double-quoted strings can have specific characters escaped with \. Double quotes can be escaped with \" and line breaks can be escaped with \n.

Single-quoted strings are "literal" strings, they do not use \ to escape characters. The only escape sequence is '' (two single quotes), which is decoded as a single '.

Literal Style

Multi-line strings can be written using the '|' character followed by a new line. To be considered multi-line content, the first line under the '|'-terminated line must be indented on a level deeper that the line containing the '|' and the subsequent multi-line lines must be indented with the same offset as the first line. Trailing white space is stripped. The new line characters are preserved.

This is correct multi-line (the multi-lines must be indented under 'data'):

data: |
  This is a
  multi-line
  text section

The value of data is equivalent with "This is a\nmulti-line\ntext selection\n".

This is NOT a correct mult-line, because the "mult-lines" are not correctly indented:

data: |
This is not
a correct multi-line

The "|" multi-line operator implies that a trailing newline will be added to the string. In the correct above example, the data value will be equivalent with "This is a\nmulti-line\ntext selection\n" - note the trailing new line. If we want the YAML processor to strip off the trailing newline, we should use "|-" instead of "|":

dataWithoutTrailingNewLine: |-
  This is a
  multi-line
  text section

The dataWithoutTrailingNewLine value is equivalent with "This is a\nmulti-line\ntext selection". Note the lack of trailing newline.

If we want the trailing whitespace to be preserved, we should use "|+" instead of "|":

dataWithTrailingWhitespacePreserved: |+
  This is a
  multi-line
  text section


another: value

The dataWithTrailingWhitespacePreserved value is equivalent with "This is a\nmulti-line\ntext selection\n\n\n".

Folded Style

The '>' character followed by a new line folds all the new lines, after removing trailing white space and new lines. All but the last newline will be converted to space.

data: >
   This is another
   multi-line
   text section
   but in the final form
   it will be just one long string
   without new lines
   except the last one

The data value is equivalent with "This is another multi-line text section but in the final form it will be just one long string without new lines except the last one\n"

If we wan to drop the trailing newline instead of preserving it, use ">-" instead of ">":

dataWihtoutTrailingNewLine: >-
   Something
   else

dataWihtoutTrailingNewLine value is equivalent with "Something else". Note the lack of trailing newline.