From: Daniel Harple <dharple@...>
Date: 2006-03-23T10:44:09+09:00
Subject: Re: bug in YAML for Ruby?

On Mar 23, 2006, at 1:57 AM, Matt R. wrote:

> I'm getting some strange behavior with YAML in ruby regarding the
> characters '08' in a hash.
>
> This code:
> #
> require 'yaml'
> test = { "08" => '01', '01' => '08', '8' => '01'
> }
> File.open("test.yml", "w") {|f| YAML.dump(test, f)}
> #
>
> produces this file:
> ---
> "01": 08
> "8": "01"
> 08: "01"
>
> I do not understand why the 08s are not quoted. I tried it under ruby
> 1.8.2 and 1.8.4.
>
> Is this expected?

It is not a bug, but it is confusing. According the the YAML spec[1]  
numbers prefixed with a 0 signal an octal base (as does in Ruby).  
However 08 is not a valid octal number, so it doesn't get quoted.

[1] http://yaml.org/type/int.html

-- Daniel