4 ms·

Strings in YAML – To quote or not to quote (2018)

32 points by DMell 4y ago

merlincorey 4y ago
I'm surprised in a discussion of when to quote or not quote with YAML the dreaded "yes", "no", "true", "false", "on", and "off" booleans didn't come up. Quoting the article: > In YAML, you can write a string without quotes, if it doesn't have a special meaning. Yeah, about that...
- AceJohnny2 4y ago
  Indeed the if is doing a lot of work there ;) What parent refers to, YAML's Norway Problem: https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/ https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/
  - Defletter 4y ago
    Didn't realise YAML's problems were that extensive, but I have to disagree with the seeming decision to effectively parse everything as strings instead of requiring all strings be quoted.
    - AceJohnny2 4y ago
      it's really a good lesson in "make it human-readable" being at odds with "make it easily parseable"
- deleted 4y ago
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- deleted 4y ago
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- emmelaich 4y ago
  It is mentioned though ... > Another use case for quotes is when you have a string that would be resolved as a special type. This highly depends on the YAML version and on the Schema in use. Here are some examples where you need quotes: true, false 23 1e3 3.14159 null
- Spivak 4y ago
  Eh, YAML 1.2 fixed this. It's only true/false now. The set of values that are special is pretty sane now. true, false, null, <ints>, <floats>
mhio 4y ago
Quote strings, always.
- deleted 4y ago
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behnamoh 4y ago
Is this even a question? I double quote ALL strings. In fact, my C background makes me use " in Python too, even though single quote ' is acceptable. Somehow " feels more __stringy__.
- raydiatian 4y ago
  “You guys’ heads are on backwards”, I said. “How many times have your strings needed to convey some speaker’s voice? How many times have your coded strings needed to convey an object’s possession relationship?” Apostrophe, 3. Double quotes, 0.
- deleted 4y ago
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imwillofficial 4y ago
For the love of God, save yourself pain. Always quote.

32 points by DMell 4y ago

I'm surprised in a discussion of when to quote or not quote with YAML the dreaded "yes", "no", "true", "false", "on", and "off" booleans didn't come up. Quoting the article: > In YAML, you can write a string without quotes, if it doesn't have a special meaning. Yeah, about that...

AceJohnny2 4y ago
Indeed the if is doing a lot of work there ;) What parent refers to, YAML's Norway Problem: https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/ https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/
- Defletter 4y ago
  Didn't realise YAML's problems were that extensive, but I have to disagree with the seeming decision to effectively parse everything as strings instead of requiring all strings be quoted.
  - AceJohnny2 4y ago
    it's really a good lesson in "make it human-readable" being at odds with "make it easily parseable"
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
emmelaich 4y ago
It is mentioned though ... > Another use case for quotes is when you have a string that would be resolved as a special type. This highly depends on the YAML version and on the Schema in use. Here are some examples where you need quotes: true, false 23 1e3 3.14159 null
Spivak 4y ago
Eh, YAML 1.2 fixed this. It's only true/false now. The set of values that are special is pretty sane now. true, false, null, <ints>, <floats>

mhio 4y ago

Quote strings, always.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

behnamoh 4y ago

Is this even a question? I double quote ALL strings. In fact, my C background makes me use " in Python too, even though single quote ' is acceptable. Somehow " feels more __stringy__.

raydiatian 4y ago
“You guys’ heads are on backwards”, I said. “How many times have your strings needed to convey some speaker’s voice? How many times have your coded strings needed to convey an object’s possession relationship?” Apostrophe, 3. Double quotes, 0.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

imwillofficial 4y ago

For the love of God, save yourself pain. Always quote.