How to embed Python code into YAML?

Question

I need to embed Python code into a YAML document. The document should preferably be portable (standard YAML), or at least parsable by Python (using PyYaml for example).

In fact I'm trying to include unmodified strings into yaml attributes. Indentations and new lines should be kept, so that embedded Python code could then be executed later.

I found the '>' but it removes newlines.

Answer 1

You can use the literal scalar block style, introduced with |. For instance:

code: |
    def foo():
        print "foo"

    # we can include blank lines with no difficulty

    foo()

If you need to generate the file from code, then the yaml module does have functionality that allows you to control the block style: Any yaml libraries in Python that support dumping of long strings as block literals or folded blocks?

Thanks to @delnan for pointing me towards this very useful information.