Issue in writing a list to a YML file

Question

import yaml

output = [
    '{"football": "basketball"}',
    '{"basketball": "basketball" }'
]

dict_file = [
    {'sports' : output},
    {'countries' : [
        'Pakistan',
        'USA',
        'India',
        'China',
        'Germany',
        'France',
        'Spain']
    }
]

with open(r'E:\data\store_file.yaml', 'w') as file:
    documents = yaml.dump(dict_file, file)

Output:

- sports:
  - '{"football": "basketball"}'
  - '{"basketball": "basketball" }'

Desired output:

- sports:
  - {"football": "basketball"}
  - {"basketball": "basketball" }

Please help me out.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 12 '22 at 13:57

The YAML file accurately represents the data you've shown in your question. The variable output is a list of strings, not a list of dictionaries. For the desired output, you would need to fix your code:

output = [{"football": "basketball"}, {"basketball": "basketball" }]

Note that this will give you:

- sports:
  - football: basketball
  - basketball: basketball

Which is syntactically identical to:

- sports:
  - {"football": "basketball"}
  - {"basketball": "basketball" }

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '22 at 13:58

0

You are storing strings in output

Remove the single quotes to make them dictionaries:

output = [{"football": "basketball"}, {"basketball": "basketball" }]

answered Jan 12 '22 at 13:58

jfn

2,486
1
13
14

Thanks for the response. What if I have output like below? output = ['i prefer a [football]{"xyz": "sports", "val": "health"} than basketball'] – Shiva Sharan Jan 12 '22 at 14:10

Tamil Selvan · Answer 3 · 2022-01-12T14:29:04.097

0

ultimately, this can work for you

import yaml
import json
output = ['{"football": "basketball"}', '{"basketball": "basketball" }']
dict_file = [{'sports' : [json.loads(_) for _ in output]},
{'countries' : ['Pakistan', 'USA', 'India', 'China', 'Germany', 'France', 'Spain']}]

with open(r'E:\data\store_file.yaml', 'w') as file:
    documents = yaml.dump(dict_file, file)

.yml file:


    - sports:
      - football: basketball
      - basketball: basketball
    - countries:
      - Pakistan
      - USA
      - India
      - China
      - Germany
      - France
      - Spain

For your information, the dict structure will not come with {} brackets in the .yml. It will be without brackets and when reading you can read as a keys & values(Dict) type.

Note: Updated the answer and thanks for suggesting @accdias

edited Jan 12 '22 at 14:29

answered Jan 12 '22 at 14:03

Tamil Selvan

1,600
1
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25

Instead of `eval()`, I guess `json.loads()` is a safer alternative. Something like this will do the job: `{'sports': [json.loads(_) for _ in output]}`. – accdias Jan 12 '22 at 14:15
1

@accdias, you are 100% right. – Tamil Selvan Jan 12 '22 at 14:24
@accdias I have updated the answer with your suggestion and yes, it is the safest method to implement. – Tamil Selvan Jan 12 '22 at 14:27
1

Nice. You are missing an `import json` in your answer though. :-) – accdias Jan 12 '22 at 14:28
1

Thanks for pointing it out. I added that too. – Tamil Selvan Jan 12 '22 at 14:29

Issue in writing a list to a YML file

3 Answers3