Style

The style operator can be used to get or set the style of nodes (e.g. string style, yaml style). Use this to control the formatting of the document in yaml.

Update and set style of a particular node (simple)

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a:
  b: thing
  c: something

then

bash

yq '.a.b = "new" | .a.b style="double"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a:
  b: "new"
  c: something

Update and set style of a particular node using path variables

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a:
  b: thing
  c: something

then

bash

yq 'with(.a.b ; . = "new" | . style="double")' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a:
  b: "new"
  c: something

Set tagged style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="tagged"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

!!map
a: !!str cat
b: !!int 5
c: !!float 3.2
e: !!bool true
f: !!seq
  - !!int 1
  - !!int 2
  - !!int 3
g: !!map
  something: !!str cool

Set double quote style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="double"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: "cat"
b: "5"
c: "3.2"
e: "true"
f:
  - "1"
  - "2"
  - "3"
g:
  something: "cool"

Set double quote style on map keys too

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '... style="double"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

"a": "cat"
"b": "5"
"c": "3.2"
"e": "true"
"f":
  - "1"
  - "2"
  - "3"
"g":
  "something": "cool"

Set single quote style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="single"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: 'cat'
b: '5'
c: '3.2'
e: 'true'
f:
  - '1'
  - '2'
  - '3'
g:
  something: 'cool'

Set literal quote style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="literal"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: |-
  cat
b: |-
  5
c: |-
  3.2
e: |-
  true
f:
  - |-
    1
  - |-
    2
  - |-
    3
g:
  something: |-
    cool

Set folded quote style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="folded"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: >-
  cat
b: >-
  5
c: >-
  3.2
e: >-
  true
f:
  - >-
    1
  - >-
    2
  - >-
    3
g:
  something: >-
    cool

Set flow quote style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

then

bash

yq '.. style="flow"' sample.yml

will output

yaml

{a: cat, b: 5, c: 3.2, e: true, f: [1, 2, 3], g: {something: cool}}

Reset style - or pretty print

Set empty (default) quote style, note the usage of ... to match keys too. Note that there is a --prettyPrint/-P short flag for this.

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

{a: cat, "b": 5, 'c': 3.2, "e": true,  f: [1,2,3], "g": { something: "cool"} }

then

bash

yq '... style=""' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: cat
b: 5
c: 3.2
e: true
f:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3
g:
  something: cool

Set style relatively with assign-update

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

a: single
b: double

then

bash

yq '.[] style |= .' sample.yml

will output

yaml

a: 'single'
b: "double"

Read style

Given a sample.yml file of:

yaml

{a: "cat", b: 'thing'}

then

bash

yq '.. | style' sample.yml

will output

yaml

flow
double
single