YAML syntax for Salt and Python

Question

What is the diference between this:

dic1: 
  - subdict1.1: value11.1
  - subdict1.2: value1.2
  - cubdict1.3: value1.3

and This:

dict2:
  subdict2.1: value2.2
  subdict2.1: value2.2
  subdict2.3: value2.3

I know the first one evaluates to a list of dictionaries. but what is the second one? isn't also a list of dictionaries?

Answer 1

No, it is just a nested dictionary.

Example

YAML code:

first_level_dict_key:
  second_level_dict_key: value_in_second_level_dict

Results in Python:

{
    'first_level_dict_key': {
        'second_level_dict_key': 'value_in_second_level_dict'
    }
}

Explanation from salt docs.

RULE TWO: COLONS

Python dictionaries are, of course, simply key-value pairs. Users from other languages may recognize this data type as hashes or associative arrays.

Dictionary keys are represented in YAML as strings terminated by a trailing colon. Values are represented by either a string following the colon, separated by a space