Overview

Psych is a YAML parser and emitter. Psych leverages libyaml [Home page: pyyaml.org/wiki/LibYAML] or [HG repo: bitbucket.org/xi/libyaml] for its YAML parsing and emitting capabilities. In addition to wrapping libyaml, Psych also knows how to serialize and de-serialize most Ruby objects to and from the YAML format.

I NEED TO PARSE OR EMIT YAML RIGHT NOW!

# Parse some YAML
Psych.load("--- foo") # => "foo"

# Emit some YAML
Psych.dump("foo")     # => "--- foo\n...\n"
{ :a => 'b'}.to_yaml  # => "---\n:a: b\n"

Got more time on your hands? Keep on reading!

YAML Parsing

Psych provides a range of interfaces for parsing a YAML document ranging from low level to high level, depending on your parsing needs. At the lowest level, is an event based parser. Mid level is access to the raw YAML AST, and at the highest level is the ability to unmarshal YAML to Ruby objects.

YAML Emitting

Psych provides a range of interfaces ranging from low to high level for producing YAML documents. Very similar to the YAML parsing interfaces, Psych provides at the lowest level, an event based system, mid-level is building a YAML AST, and the highest level is converting a Ruby object straight to a YAML document.

High-level API

Parsing

The high level YAML parser provided by Psych simply takes YAML as input and returns a Ruby data structure. For information on using the high level parser see ::load

Reading from a string

Psych.load("--- a")             # => 'a'
Psych.load("---\n - a\n - b")   # => ['a', 'b']

Reading from a file

Psych.load_file("database.yml")

handling

begin
  # The second argument changes only the exception contents
  Psych.parse("--- `", "file.txt")
rescue Psych::SyntaxError => ex
  ex.file    # => 'file.txt'
  ex.message # => "(file.txt): found character that cannot start any token"
end

Emitting

The high level emitter has the easiest interface. Psych simply takes a Ruby data structure and converts it to a YAML document. See ::dump for more information on dumping a Ruby data structure.

Writing to a string

# Dump an array, get back a YAML string
Psych.dump(['a', 'b'])  # => "---\n- a\n- b\n"

# Dump an array to an IO object
Psych.dump(['a', 'b'], StringIO.new)  # => #<StringIO:0x000001009d0890>

# Dump an array with indentation set
Psych.dump(['a', ['b']], :indentation => 3) # => "---\n- a\n-  - b\n"

# Dump an array to an IO with indentation set
Psych.dump(['a', ['b']], StringIO.new, :indentation => 3)

Writing to a file

Currently there is no direct API for dumping Ruby structure to file:

File.open('database.yml', 'w') do |file|
  file.write(Psych.dump(['a', 'b']))
end

Mid-level API

Parsing

Psych provides access to an AST produced from parsing a YAML document. This tree is built using the Psych::Parser and Psych::TreeBuilder. The AST can be examined and manipulated freely. Please see ::parse_stream, Psych::Nodes, and Psych::Nodes::Node for more information on dealing with YAML syntax trees.

Reading from a string

# Returns Psych::Nodes::Stream
Psych.parse_stream("---\n - a\n - b")

# Returns Psych::Nodes::Document
Psych.parse("---\n - a\n - b")

Reading from a file

# Returns Psych::Nodes::Stream
Psych.parse_stream(File.read('database.yml'))

# Returns Psych::Nodes::Document
Psych.parse_file('database.yml')

handling

begin
  # The second argument changes only the exception contents
  Psych.parse("--- `", "file.txt")
rescue Psych::SyntaxError => ex
  ex.file    # => 'file.txt'
  ex.message # => "(file.txt): found character that cannot start any token"
end

Emitting

At the mid level is building an AST. This AST is exactly the same as the AST used when parsing a YAML document. Users can build an AST by hand and the AST knows how to emit itself as a YAML document. See Psych::Nodes, Psych::Nodes::Node, and Psych::TreeBuilder for more information on building a YAML AST.

Writing to a string

# We need Psych::Nodes::Stream (not Psych::Nodes::Document)
stream = Psych.parse_stream("---\n - a\n - b")

stream.to_yaml # => "---\n- a\n- b\n"

Writing to a file

# We need Psych::Nodes::Stream (not Psych::Nodes::Document)
stream = Psych.parse_stream(File.read('database.yml'))

File.open('database.yml', 'w') do |file|
  file.write(stream.to_yaml)
end

Low-level API

Parsing

The lowest level parser should be used when the YAML input is already known, and the developer does not want to pay the price of building an AST or automatic detection and conversion to Ruby objects. See Psych::Parser for more information on using the event based parser.

Reading to structure

parser = Psych::Parser.new(TreeBuilder.new) # => #<Psych::Parser>
parser = Psych.parser                       # it's an alias for the above

parser.parse("---\n - a\n - b")             # => #<Psych::Parser>
parser.handler                              # => #<Psych::TreeBuilder>
parser.handler.root                         # => #<Psych::Nodes::Stream>

Receiving an events stream

parser = Psych::Parser.new(Psych::Handlers::Recorder.new)

parser.parse("---\n - a\n - b")
parser.events # => [list of [event, args] lists]
              # event is one of: Psych::Handler::EVENTS
              # args are the arguments passed to the event

Emitting

The lowest level emitter is an event based system. Events are sent to a Psych::Emitter object. That object knows how to convert the events to a YAML document. This interface should be used when document format is known in advance or speed is a concern. See Psych::Emitter for more information.

Writing to a Ruby structure

Psych.parser.parse("--- a")       # => #<Psych::Parser>

parser.handler.first              # => #<Psych::Nodes::Stream>
parser.handler.first.to_ruby      # => ["a"]

parser.handler.root.first         # => #<Psych::Nodes::Document>
parser.handler.root.first.to_ruby # => "a"

# You can instantiate an Emitter manually
Psych::Visitors::ToRuby.new.accept(parser.handler.root.first)
# => "a"