From: Marek Janukowicz <childNOSPAM@...17.ds.pwr.wroc.pl>
Date: 2004-02-16T02:19:53+09:00
Subject: Re: YAML and quoted strings

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 16:13:01 GMT, Mike Stok wrote:
>>How can I store/load a quoted string using YAML? The problem is, YAML
>>removes quotes when loading a file and I need to know whether the string
>>was quoted or not. The only way I have found so far is to use "'some
>>string'", but this is a bit ugly for me.
>
> It depends what you mean by a quoted string.  If you mean a string
> containing quotes then YAML handles them just fine, for instance
>
> #!/usr/bin/env ruby
>
> require 'yaml'
>
> FILE_NAME = 'test.yml'
>
> hash = {
>     'key1' => %w{ 'foo' "bar" O'Brien }
> }
>
> puts "storing: #{hash.inspect}"
>
> File.open(FILE_NAME, 'w') do |f|
>     f << hash.to_yaml
> end
>
> File.open(FILE_NAME) do |f|
>     retrieved = YAML.load(f)
>     puts "retrieved: #{retrieved.inspect}"
>     puts "test element: #{retrieved['key1'][0]}"
> end
>
> produces this output:
>
> storing: {"key1"=>["'foo'", "\"bar\"", "O'Brien"]}
> retrieved: {"key1"=>["'foo'", "\"bar\"", "O'Brien"]}
> test element: 'foo'
>
> and the content of test.yml is
>
> ---
> key1:
>   - "'foo'"
>   - "\"bar\""
>   - "O'Brien"

Yes, I know YAML can handle string containing quotes. But my YAML files
are to be created by a user by hand and I find the "'foo'" notation
ugly. OTOH maybe I just expect too much...

-- 
Marek Janukowicz