I think the GP was using '...' as a standard "stuff removed for brevity" ellipsis. However, since you asked: In a YAML document, there is an implicit top-leve

I think the GP was using '...' as a standard "stuff removed for brevity" ellipsis. However, since you asked: In a YAML document, there is an implicit top-level object, either a hash/dict/associative array or a list/array depending on your formatting. The '...' separates streams, or top-level objects, within a single file or IO stream. YAML parsers generally stop when they hit the separator, even in languages that can do multiple assignment. If your IO stream behaves like a file handle, you can read it repeatedly into different variables until EOF. Multiple streams in a YAML document are fairly uncommon. I think most people don't know they exist, but I appreciate the flexibility and use it whenever it makes sense.