YAML.rst

single: YAML single: Configuration; YAML

YAML

YAML website is "a human friendly data serialization standard for all programming languages". YAML is a simple language that describes data. As PHP, it has a syntax for simple types like strings, booleans, floats, or integers. But unlike PHP, it makes a difference between arrays (sequences) and hashes (mappings).

The Symfony2 Symfony\\Component\\Yaml Component knows how to parse YAML and dump a PHP array to YAML.

Note

Even if the YAML format can describe complex nested data structure, this chapter only describes the minimum set of features needed to use YAML as a configuration file format.

Reading YAML Files

The Symfony\\Component\\Yaml\\Parser::parse method parses a YAML string and converts it to a PHP array:

use Symfony\Component\Yaml\Parser;

$yaml = new Parser();
$value = $yaml->parse(file_get_contents('/path/to/file.yaml'));

If an error occurs during parsing, the parser throws an exception indicating the error type and the line in the original YAML string where the error occurred:

try {
    $value = $yaml->parse(file_get_contents('/path/to/file.yaml'));
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    // an error occurred during parsing
    echo "Unable to parse the YAML string: ".$e->getMessage();
}

Tip

As the parser is reentrant, you can use the same parser object to load different YAML strings.

When loading a YAML file, it is sometimes better to use the Symfony\\Component\\Yaml\\Yaml::parse wrapper method:

use Symfony\Component\Yaml\Yaml;

$loader = Yaml::parse('/path/to/file.yml');

The Yaml::parse() static method takes a YAML string or a file containing YAML. Internally, it calls the Parser::parse() method, but with some added bonuses:

• It executes the YAML file as if it was a PHP file, so that you can embed PHP commands in YAML files;
• When a file cannot be parsed, it automatically adds the file name to the error message, simplifying debugging when your application is loading several YAML files.

Writing YAML Files

The Symfony\\Component\\Yaml\\Dumper::dump method dumps any PHP array to its YAML representation:

use Symfony\Component\Yaml\Dumper;

$array = array('foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => array('foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz'));

$dumper = new Dumper();
$yaml = $dumper->dump($array);
file_put_contents('/path/to/file.yaml', $yaml);

Note

There are some limitations: the dumper is not able to dump resources and dumping PHP objects is considered an alpha feature.

If you only need to dump one array, you can use the Symfony\\Component\\Yaml\\Yaml::dump static method shortcut:

$yaml = Yaml::dump($array, $inline);

The YAML format supports the two YAML array representations. By default, the dumper uses the inline representation:

{ foo: bar, bar: { foo: bar, bar: baz } }

But the second argument of the dump() method customizes the level at which the output switches from the expanded representation to the inline one:

echo $dumper->dump($array, 1);

foo: bar
bar: { foo: bar, bar: baz }

echo $dumper->dump($array, 2);

foo: bar
bar:
    foo: bar
    bar: baz

The YAML Syntax

Strings

A string in YAML

'A singled-quoted string in YAML'

Tip

In a single quoted string, a single quote ' must be doubled:

'A single quote '' in a single-quoted string'

"A double-quoted string in YAML\n"

Quoted styles are useful when a string starts or ends with one or more relevant spaces.

Tip

The double-quoted style provides a way to express arbitrary strings, by using \ escape sequences. It is very useful when you need to embed a \n or a unicode character in a string.

When a string contains line breaks, you can use the literal style, indicated by the pipe (|), to indicate that the string will span several lines. In literals, newlines are preserved:

|
  \/ /| |\/| |
  / / | |  | |__

Alternatively, strings can be written with the folded style, denoted by >, where each line break is replaced by a space:

>
  This is a very long sentence
  that spans several lines in the YAML
  but which will be rendered as a string
  without carriage returns.

Note

Notice the two spaces before each line in the previous examples. They won't appear in the resulting PHP strings.

Numbers

# an integer
12

# an octal
014

# an hexadecimal
0xC

# a float
13.4

# an exponential number
1.2e+34

# infinity
.inf

Nulls

Nulls in YAML can be expressed with null or ~.

Booleans

Booleans in YAML are expressed with true and false.

Dates

YAML uses the ISO-8601 standard to express dates:

2001-12-14t21:59:43.10-05:00

# simple date
2002-12-14

Collections

A YAML file is rarely used to describe a simple scalar. Most of the time, it describes a collection. A collection can be a sequence or a mapping of elements. Both sequences and mappings are converted to PHP arrays.

Sequences use a dash followed by a space (- ):

- PHP
- Perl
- Python

The previous YAML file is equivalent to the following PHP code:

array('PHP', 'Perl', 'Python');

Mappings use a colon followed by a space (: ) to mark each key/value pair:

PHP: 5.2
MySQL: 5.1
Apache: 2.2.20

which is equivalent to this PHP code:

array('PHP' => 5.2, 'MySQL' => 5.1, 'Apache' => '2.2.20');

Note

In a mapping, a key can be any valid scalar.

The number of spaces between the colon and the value does not matter:

PHP:    5.2
MySQL:  5.1
Apache: 2.2.20

YAML uses indentation with one or more spaces to describe nested collections:

"symfony 1.4":
    PHP:      5.2
    Doctrine: 1.2
"Symfony2":
    PHP:      5.3
    Doctrine: 2.0

The following YAML is equivalent to the following PHP code:

array(
    'symfony 1.4' => array(
        'PHP'      => 5.2,
        'Doctrine' => 1.2,
    ),
    'Symfony2' => array(
        'PHP'      => 5.3,
        'Doctrine' => 2.0,
    ),
);

There is one important thing you need to remember when using indentation in a YAML file: Indentation must be done with one or more spaces, but never with tabulations.

You can nest sequences and mappings as you like:

'Chapter 1':
    - Introduction
    - Event Types
'Chapter 2':
    - Introduction
    - Helpers

YAML can also use flow styles for collections, using explicit indicators rather than indentation to denote scope.

A sequence can be written as a comma separated list within square brackets ([]):

[PHP, Perl, Python]

A mapping can be written as a comma separated list of key/values within curly braces ({}):

{ PHP: 5.2, MySQL: 5.1, Apache: 2.2.20 }

You can mix and match styles to achieve a better readability:

'Chapter 1': [Introduction, Event Types]
'Chapter 2': [Introduction, Helpers]

"symfony 1.4": { PHP: 5.2, Doctrine: 1.2 }
"Symfony2":    { PHP: 5.3, Doctrine: 2.0 }

Comments

Comments can be added in YAML by prefixing them with a hash mark (#):

# Comment on a line
"Symfony2": { PHP: 5.3, Doctrine: 2.0 } # Comment at the end of a line

Note

Comments are simply ignored by the YAML parser and do not need to be indented according to the current level of nesting in a collection.

Dynamic YAML files

In Symfony2, a YAML file can contain PHP code that is evaluated just before the parsing occurs:

1.0:
    version: <?php echo file_get_contents('1.0/VERSION')."\n" ?>
1.1:
    version: "<?php echo file_get_contents('1.1/VERSION') ?>"

Be careful to not mess up with the indentation. Keep in mind the following simple tips when adding PHP code to a YAML file:

• The <?php ?> statements must always start the line or be embedded in a value.
• If a <?php ?> statement ends a line, you need to explicitly output a new line ("n").