YAML to HTML Table is the process of converting data stored in a YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) file into an HTML table format for display on a web page.
This is particularly useful when you want to visualize or present hierarchical YAML data in a structured, tabular format that can be easily viewed in a browser.
Example of YAML Data:
yaml
students:
- name: John Doe
age: 22
grade: A
- name: Jane Smith
age: 21
grade: B+
Desired HTML Table Output:
html
<table border="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Grade</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>John Doe</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jane Smith</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>B+</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Steps to Convert YAML to HTML Table:
Parse the YAML data — You need to load and parse the YAML data.
Generate the HTML table — Use the parsed data to create an HTML table with appropriate rows and columns.
Example of Conversion using Python:
You can use Python with libraries like PyYAML to parse YAML and then generate an HTML table. Here's an example script:
Install the necessary libraries:
bash
pip install pyyaml
Python Code to Convert YAML to HTML Table:
python
import yaml
# Sample YAML data
yaml_data = """
students:
- name: John Doe
age: 22
grade: A
- name: Jane Smith
age: 21
grade: B+
"""
# Load YAML data
data = yaml.safe_load(yaml_data)
# Start the HTML table structure
html_output = """
<table border="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Grade</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
"""
# Iterate through each student and create table rows
for student in data['students']:
html_output += f"""
<tr>
<td>{student['name']}</td>
<td>{student['age']}</td>
<td>{student['grade']}</td>
</tr>
"""
# Close the table
html_output += """
</tbody>
</table>
"""
# Print or save the HTML output
print(html_output)
Explanation of Code:
PyYAML is used to load and parse the YAML data into a Python dictionary.
We generate the HTML table with <table>, <thead>, <tr>, <th>, and <td> tags.
For each entry in the students list in the YAML data, we create a new table row (<tr>), where each student's name, age, and grade are placed into individual cells (<td>).
Result:
This script will generate the following HTML table:
html
<table border="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Grade</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>John Doe</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jane Smith</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>B+</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Alternative Approaches:
Online Converters: You can find online YAML-to-HTML table converters that automate this process for you.
JavaScript in a Browser: If you're working with YAML in a web environment, you can use JavaScript to load YAML (using libraries like js-yaml), parse it, and dynamically generate an HTML table.