How can I parse a YAML file in Python

python yaml
Szymon Lipiński picture Szymon Lipiński · Nov 21, 2009 · Viewed 638.8k times · Source

How can I parse a YAML file in Python?

Answer

Jon picture Jon · Nov 21, 2009

The easiest and purest method without relying on C headers is PyYaml (documentation), which can be installed via pip install pyyaml:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import yaml

with open("example.yaml", 'r') as stream:
    try:
        print(yaml.safe_load(stream))
    except yaml.YAMLError as exc:
        print(exc)

And that's it. A plain yaml.load() function also exists, but yaml.safe_load() should always be preferred unless you explicitly need the arbitrary object serialization/deserialization provided in order to avoid introducing the possibility for arbitrary code execution.

Note the PyYaml project supports versions up through the YAML 1.1 specification. If YAML 1.2 specification support is needed, see ruamel.yaml as noted in this answer.

Related questions

How do I install the yaml package for Python?

I have a Python program that uses YAML. I attempted to install it on a new server using pip install yaml and it returns the following: $ sudo pip install yaml Downloading/unpacking yaml Could not find any downloads that satisfy …

Read More
What's the best practice using a settings file in Python?

I have a command line script that I run with a lot of arguments. I have now come to a point where I have too many arguments, and I want to have some arguments in dictionary form too. So in …

Read More
How can I write data in YAML format in a file?

I need to write the below data to yaml file using Python: {A:a, B:{C:c, D:d, E:e}} i.e., dictionary in a dictionary. How can I achieve this?

Read More