From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2009-07-23T20:06:17+09:00
Subject: Re: YAML interpretation


On Jul 23, 2009, at 01:27 , Karan Rajput wrote:

> I have one array in ruby as,
>
> arr= [1, 2, '5', 'one', 'two', 'three', "4,6"]
>
> as after doing arr.to_yaml, it prints as,
>
> ---
> - 1
> - 2
> - "5"
> - one
> - two
> - three
> - "4,6"
>
> This is my problem. It shows "4,6" as string (double-quoted) and
> (one,two) are non-quoted which itself as string. I am passing this
> string to some else database program which need clear distinction
> between string and integer.
>
> I require the result set as,
>
> ---
> - 1
> - 2
> - "5"
> - "one"
> - "two"
> - "three"
> - "4,6"
>
> Does yaml have any provision so that i can achieve the result set in
> above consistent format?

yaml only provides the extra characters when the result would be  
ambiguous. "- one" can't be seen as anything other than an array  
element with the string one in it. "- 4,6" is ambiguous, so yaml  
provides the extra quotes to disambiguate. I suggest you use a real  
yaml parser instead of relying on regexps and duct tape. The spec is  
well written and very clear about such things.