🧩JSON/YAML Converter

How to Convert JSON and YAML?

JSON to YAML:

1. Paste or type your JSON data in the left text area.
2. Click Convert to transform it to YAML format.
3. Optionally click Pretty to format your JSON.
4. Click Copy YAML to copy the result.

YAML to JSON:

1. Paste or type your YAML data in the right text area.
2. Click Convert to transform it to JSON format.
3. Click Copy JSON to copy the result.

How to Use the JSON & YAML Converter

JSON vs. YAML: Architectural Comparison

Both JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) are data serialization formats used to represent structured hierarchies of key-value pairs, sequences, and scalar values. However, they were designed with fundamentally different philosophies:

Common YAML Pitfalls to Avoid

• The Tab Trap: YAML specifications strictly forbid tabs for indentation. Indentation must be composed of spaces (standard convention is 2 spaces per level).
• The "Norway Problem" (Boolean Coercion): In YAML 1.1 parsers, unquoted strings like no, yes, on, and off are interpreted as booleans. If a country code is written as country: NO without quotes, some parsers will deserialize it as country: false. Always quote two-letter country codes in YAML.
• Multi-Line Strings (| vs >): The pipe operator | (literal style) preserves all line breaks, whereas the right chevron > (folded style) converts line breaks into single spaces.

Programmatic JSON & YAML Conversion in Code

Here is how you can automate bidirectional JSON and YAML conversions in production services:

Python 3 (using PyYAML)

import json
import yaml

# Convert JSON string to YAML string
json_data = '{"service": "auth-api", "port": 8080, "active": true}'
parsed_obj = json.loads(json_data)
yaml_output = yaml.dump(parsed_obj, sort_keys=False)
print(yaml_output)

# Convert YAML string to JSON string
yaml_input = """
app: database
replicas: 3
tags:
  - production
  - eu-west
"""
obj_from_yaml = yaml.safe_load(yaml_input)
json_output = json.dumps(obj_from_yaml, indent=2)
print(json_output)

Node.js (using the modern 'yaml' package)

// npm install yaml
const YAML = require('yaml');

// JSON to YAML
const config = { database: { host: 'localhost', port: 5432 }, pool: 10 };
const yamlString = YAML.stringify(config);
console.log(yamlString);

// YAML to JSON
const parsedJson = YAML.parse(yamlString);
console.log(JSON.stringify(parsedJson, null, 2));

Frequently Asked Questions