YAML Parser

Parse and analyze your YAML structure. Inspect root type, key counts, nesting depth, value types, and total size at a glance.

Input YAML

YAML Analysis

Output will appear here...

All processing is done locally in your browser. No data is sent to our servers.

What Does the YAML Parser Show?

Parsing a YAML document means converting its text representation into an in-memory data structure and then inspecting that structure. This tool reports the key structural properties of your YAML: the root type, the number of top-level keys, the maximum nesting depth, the distribution of value types, and the document's byte size.

These statistics are useful for understanding an unfamiliar YAML file at a glance, detecting structural anomalies (a nesting depth of 12 in a config file usually indicates a schema design problem), and sizing documents before processing them programmatically.

YAML Data Types

Mappings

Unordered key-value pairs, equivalent to a JSON object or a Python dictionary. The most common root type in configuration YAML. Keys are strings; values can be any YAML type, enabling arbitrarily nested structures.

Sequences

Ordered lists of values, equivalent to a JSON array. Written with - item markers or inline bracket notation [a, b, c]. Common root type in YAML files that represent lists of items, such as Ansible task lists.

Scalars

Individual values: strings, integers, floats, booleans (true/false), and null. YAML infers the type from the value's format unless the value is quoted. A bare 42 is an integer; "42" is a string.

Null

Represented as null, ~, or an empty value after a colon. A key with no value (key:) also produces null. Many configuration parsers treat null as "use the default", making it semantically distinct from an empty string.

Understanding the Analysis Output

Root type - whether the document is a mapping, sequence, or scalar at the top level. Most config files are mappings; task lists (Ansible, etc.) are often sequences.
Top-level keys - the number of keys at the root mapping level. Kubernetes manifests typically have 4-5 top-level keys (apiVersion, kind, metadata, spec).
Max nesting depth - the deepest level of nested mappings or sequences. Depth above 8-10 often signals a schema that could be flattened or restructured for easier programmatic access.
Value type breakdown - the count of strings, numbers, booleans, nulls, sequences, and mappings in the document. A high null count may indicate optional fields that are explicitly set to their default; a high boolean count is typical in feature-flag configurations.
Byte size - the UTF-8 size of the raw input. YAML is more compact than XML for the same data, but more verbose than JSON due to key repetition in sequences of mappings. Large YAML files (>500 KB) can slow down parsers in resource-constrained environments.

YAML Anchors and Aliases

YAML supports anchors (&name) and aliases (*name) for reusing values across a document without repetition. An anchor marks a node; an alias inserts a reference to that node. This is particularly useful in CI/CD pipelines for sharing job templates and in Docker Compose files for sharing service configurations.

When parsing, aliases are resolved to their referenced values before the analysis is produced. This means the statistics reflect the fully expanded document, which is the form your application will actually receive when it reads the file.