CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonyaml
user2464943
user2464943

Reputation: 21

strange output from yaml.dump

I've just started using yaml and I love it. However, the other day I came across a case that seemed really odd and I am not sure what is causing it. I have a list of file path locations and another list of file path destinations. I create a dictionary out of them and then use yaml to dump it out to read later (I work with artists and use yaml so that it is human readable as well).

sorry for the long lists:

source = ['/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_diff.exr', '/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor.1051.exr', '/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskBurnt.1031.exr']
dest = ['/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_diff_diffuse_v0006.exr', '/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor_diffuse_v0006.1051.exr', '/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_maskBurnt_diffuse_v0006.1031.exr']
dictionary = dict(zip(source, dest))
print yaml.dump(dictionary)

this is the output that I get:

{/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_diff.exr: /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhaw
k_diff_diffuse_v0006.exr,
  /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskBurnt.1031.exr: /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v00
06/blackhawk_maskBurnt_diffuse_v0006.1031.exr,
  ? /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor.1051.exr
  : /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor_diffuse_v0006.1051.exr}

It comes back in fine with a yaml.load, but this is not useful for artists to be able to edit if need be.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 726

Answers (1)

abarnert
abarnert

Reputation: 365657

This is the first question in the FAQ.

By default, PyYAML chooses the style of a collection depending on whether it has nested collections. If a collection has nested collections, it will be assigned the block style. Otherwise it will have the flow style.

If you want collections to be always serialized in the block style, set the parameter default_flow_style of dump() to False.

So:

>>> print yaml.dump(dictionary, default_flow_style=False)
/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_diff.exr: /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_diff_diffuse_v0006.exr
/data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskBurnt.1031.exr: /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_maskBurnt_diffuse_v0006.1031.exr
? /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/model/v026_03/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor.1051.exr
: /data/job/maze/build/vehicle/blackhawk/blackhawkHelicopter/work/data/map/tasks/texture/v0006/blackhawk_maskTapeFloor_diffuse_v0006.1051.exr

Still not exactly beautiful, but when you have strings longer than 80 characters as keys, it's about as good as you can reasonably expect.

If you model (part of) the filesystem hierarchy in your object hierarchy, or create aliases (or dynamic aliasers) for parts of the tree, etc., the YAML will look a lot nicer. But that's something you have to actually do at the object-model level; as far as YAML is concerned, those long paths full of repeated prefixes are just strings.

Upvotes: 1

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