key1: value1 key2: value2
YAML is a configuration language and data-serialization format that can include Atoms, Maps and Lists.[2]
Atoms are the elementary particles of a YAML serialization. An atom is usually either…
a boolean (e.g. true or false),
a number
(e.g. 2 or
2.718281828),
or
a
string
(e.g. hello world).
A map is a key-value pair. Here are a couple example YAML maps:
key1: value1 key2: value2
Here is an example of a YAML list:
- item1 - item2 - item3
These data structures can have names, also known as keys. For example:
name1: key1: value1 key2: value2 name2: - item1 - item2 - item3
Note that
name1 is a key whose value is a couple maps
and
name2 is a key whose value is a
three-item
list.
Naming a collection is a way to turn
it
into a
block
or
object
(with sub-objects)
that can be referenced.
An atom is also known as a scalar.
A list is also known as an array, a sequence, a slice, or a vector.
A
named collection of maps,
for example name1,
is also known as
an associative array,
a dictionary,
a dict,
a hash table,
a hash,
a keyed list,
a map,
a mapping,
a named map,
a nested map,
an object,
a record,
a struct,
or
a table.
Here is an excerpt of the config.yaml that Hugo uses to generate the Infinite Ink website.
markup:
asciidocExt:
preserveTOC: true
workingFolderCurrent: false # default is false
attributes:
toc: macro
hide-uri-scheme: true@ # trailing @ means ok to override
sectlinks: true
huri-config-vars: https://gohugo.io/getting-started/configuration/
huri-page-vars: https://gohugo.io/variables/page/
huri-site-vars: https://gohugo.io/variables/site/
huri-file-vars: https://gohugo.io/variables/files/
To learn about the above config.yaml excerpt, see section 2 of Infinite Ink’s Intertwingling AsciiDoc and Hugo:
The following is the YAML front matter that is at the top of the source of this article.
--- draft: false title: 'YAML Includes Atoms, Maps, and Lists (Featuring the String ¯∖_(ツ)_/¯)' linkTitle: YAML Includes Atoms, Maps, and Lists publishDate: 2019-11-10 lastmod: 2021-06-08 tags: - content - emoji - gohugo - iusethis - n2s - tech ---
‼ | The
value of the title key needs to be quoted because it
is a string that
contains a
backslash (\),
which is a
character
that has
a special meaning in YAML.
To learn about quoting in YAML, see
www.yaml.info/learn/quote.html. |
ℹ | To learn about the shruggie emoticon
(¯\_(ツ)_/¯),
see
emojipedia.org/person-shrugging/. |
In general, you do not need to use quotation marks around YAML strings, but quoting a string might be needed if it…
includes any of the following
14
characters,
which can have a special meaning in YAML:
Quoting a string is needed if it…
looks like a number (decimal, hexadecimal, exponential E
or e
notation, etc.)
or is one of YAML’s reserved boolean words (true, false, no, off, etc.).[3]
‼ | In YAML:
|