Building an array of dictionary items in YAML?

Question

Basically trying to something in yaml that could be done using this json:

{
models:
 [
  { 
    model: \"a\"
    type: \"x\"
    #bunch of properties...
  },
  {         


        

Answer 1

You probably have been looking at YAML for too long because that what you call JSON in your post isn't, it is more a half-and-half of YAML and JSON. Lets skip the fact that JSON doesn't allow comments starting with a #, you should quote the strings that are keys and you should put , between elements in mapping:

{
"models":
 [
  {
    "model": "a",
    "type": "x"
  },
  {
    "model": "b",
    "type": "y"
  }
 ]
}

That is correct JSON as well as it is YAML, because YAML is a superset of JSON. You can e.g. check that online at this YAML parser.

You can convert it to the block-style you seem to prefer as YAML using ruamel.yaml.cmd (based on my enhanced version of PyYAML: pip install ruamel.yaml.cmd). You can use its commandline utility to convert JSON to block YAML (in version 0.9.1 you can also force flow style):

yaml json in.json

which gets you:

models:
- model: a
  type: x
- model: b
  type: y

There are some online resources that allow you to do the above, but as with any of such services, don't use them for anything important (like the list of credit-card numbers and passwords).

Answer 2

Use a dash to start a new list element:

models:
 - model: "a"
   type: "x"
   #bunch of properties...
 - model: "b"
   type: "y"
   #bunch of properties...