Yet Another Markup Language or YAML for short is a data-serialization with a heavy emphasis on human readability. It is often used as a configuration language for major tools and applications, debug logs, document headers, etc.
With its rise over the recent years, learning how to work with YAML files can be very beneficial. In this article, we will learn how to work with YAML file using the yaml.v3 package in Go.
Golang YAML Package
To work with YAML in Go, we use the Yaml.v3 package. It provides tools and methods to performing encoding and decoding of YAML data.
To install the package, run the go get command as:
Once installed, you can import the package as shown:
import “gopkg.in/yaml.v3”
Golang Read YAML
Let us begin by discussing how to read YAML files in Go. Suppose we have a sample YAML file as shown below:
item1: 100
item2: 40
item3: 22
item4: 50
item5: 323
We can use the YAML file using the Unmarshal method. An example code is as shown below:
package main
import (
“fmt”
“io/ioutil”
“log”
“gopkg.in/yaml.v3”
)
funcmain() {
file, err := ioutil.ReadFile(“users.yaml”)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
data := make(map[interface{}]interface{})
error := yaml.Unmarshal([]byte(file), &data)
if error != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
for key, value := range data {
fmt.Printf(“%s : %dn“, key, value)
}
}
In the example code above, we read the file using the ioutil.ReadFile() method. We then create a map to store the data of type interface, interface.
We then Unmarshal the data from the file using the using the Unmarshal method. Finally, we iterate over the keys and values of the map using the range operator.
The code above should return:
item1 : 100
item2 : 40
item3 : 22
item4 : 50
item5 : 323
Suppose you have a nested YAML file as shown:
dev1:
name: John Creese
department: Game developer
dev2:
name: Emma Rin
department: DevOps Developer
dev3:
name: SammuelMwese
department: Backe–End Developer
For that, we can use the structure to store the information as shown:
type User struct {
Name string
Department string
}
Next, we can perform a simple Unmarshal operation as:
package main
import (
“fmt”
“io/ioutil”
“log”
“gopkg.in/yaml.v3”
)
type User struct {
Name string
Department string
}
funcmain() {
file, err := ioutil.ReadFile(“users.yaml”)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
data := make(map[string]User)
err1 := yaml.Unmarshal(file, &data)
if err1 != nil {
log.Fatal(err1)
}
for key, value := range data {
fmt.Println(key, value)
}
}
The code above should return an output as:
dev1 {John Creese Game developer}
dev2 {Emma Rin DevOps Developer}
dev3 {Sammuel Mwese Backe–End Developer}
Golang Write YAML
To write YAML file, we can use the marshal method. An example is as shown below:
package main
import (
“fmt”
“io/ioutil”
“log”
“gopkg.in/yaml.v3”
)
funcmain() {
fruits := […]string{“apple”, “orange”, “mango”, “strawberry”}
data, err := yaml.Marshal(fruits)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
err1 := ioutil.WriteFile(“fruits.yaml”, data, 0644)
if err1 != nil {
log.Fatal(err1)
}
fmt.Println(“Success!”)
}
In the example above, we use the marshal method to serialize the slice of strings into YAML. We then use the serialized data and write it into a file.
If the file does not exist, the code should create it with the specified permission and write to it. Running the above program should return:
Success!
Closing
This tutorial covered the basics of reading and writing YAML Files in Go using the Yaml.v3 package. Check the docs to learn more.
About the author
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John Otieno
My name is John and am a fellow geek like you. I am passionate about all things computers from Hardware, Operating systems to Programming. My dream is to share my knowledge with the world and help out fellow geeks. Follow my content by subscribing to LinuxHint mailing list
