YAML stands for Yet Another Markup Language or YAML ain't Markup Language, and it is a data serialization language used to write configuration files. But what is data serialization??

Data Serialization: A process of converting a data object into a series of bytes in a form that is easily transmittable over a network.

In easy terms, data serialization means converting data into a form that can be transmitted easily. We use languages like YAML, JSON, XML for data serialization.

YAML, as I told you above, is also used to write config files for Docker, Kubernetes, Flutter, etc.

Benefits of YAML

It is simple and easy to read.
It has Python style indentation format (but we use spaces here, instead of tabs)
YAML is easily convertible to JSON, or XML.
Plenty of tools are available!

Check out these tools for working with YAML files: https://onlineyamltools.com/

Extension of YAML Files

YAML uses these file extensions: *.yaml and *.yml

How to write comments in YAML

YAML uses Python like comments as well. You have to write a hashtag # to start a comment.

How to write YAML Files

Key Value Pairs

You can write key-value pairs as follows:

"Harshit": "I am learning DevOps"     # A simple key-value pair

bio: |                                # Multi line string
Hey, my name is Harshit Sharma
I am a pre-final year student

message: >                            # A single line in multiple lines
This is a
single line

List

You can write a list as follows:

fruits:
 - Apple
 - Mango
 - mango             # YAML is case sensitive, so this mango is different

# This can also be represented as

fruits: [Apple, Mango, mango]

Different Types

# Integers
positiveNumber: !!int 12
negativeNumber: !!int -12
binaryNumber: !!int 0b010101
octalNumber: !!int 05673
hexaNumber: !!int 0x45A
commaValue: !!int +120_000                # Will be represented as 120,000

# Floats
marks: !!float 95.8                       # My board exam marks ;)
not_a_number: !!float .nan
infinite: !!float .inf

# Null
surname: !!null Null                       # or null NULL ~

# Dates
date: !!timestamp 2002-12-14
indiaTime: !!timestamo 2001-11-04T17:30:00 +5:30

# List
student: !!seq
 - name
 - marks
 - hobbies

That's all for this article!

Hope you liked it!

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Harshit Sharma