neat-notation

Neat Object Notation 0.6.16

pip install neat-notation

To load your .neat file into python, call neat_notation.load(filename:str). It will return a dictionary/list containing the content of your file.

A smart, modular and readable configuration file format for complex multifile solutions.

Comments

| Any lines which are to be commented out must start with a pipe character.
| The pipe must ALWAYS be at the beginning of the line for comments.

Global Scope

By default the global scope of a Neat config file is a dictionary, if you wish to specify otherwise you must put this somewhere in your .neat file on its own line

~list

Labeled Structures

[This is where you write the key associated with your dictionary]

	"This is a key to an inline dictionary":{"This is the key to an inline list":()}

| This [-] token denotes the end of a dictionary.
[-]

<This is where you write the key associated with your list>

|	The line below is the 0th index of this labeled list and is a list with a single item,
|	That single item is an empty dictionary
	({})

| This <-> token denotes the end of a list.
<->

Unlabeled Structures

If you wish to create an unlabeled structure vertically you can do so like this:

~list

{
	"Some key":29873198273
}

Another example:

<section name>
	{
		[inner section name]
			"some key": True
		[-]
		"another key": "abc"
	}
<->

Modules

Importing only specific sections of a module:

| This file is called filename.neat
<section name>
	{
		[inner section name]
			"some key": True
		[-]
		"another key": "abc"
	}
<->

|this is where we are importing the module
mod filename : 'section name'.0.'inner section name'

| Alternate syntax

* foldername.filename : 'section name'.0.'inner section name'

Importing a whole module:

|this file is called module.neat
[section]
	1:"abc"
[-]

| This is where we import module.neat
mod module

[another section]
	"def":2
[-]

| Result:
| {"module":{"section":{"1":"abc"}},"another section":{"def":2}}

Alias

Aliases can be used to add items to sections outside of that section and its parent. The left hand side of the : is the alias name. The right hand side of the : is the alias path.

<section name>
	{
		[inner section name]
			"some key": True
		[-]
		"another key": "abc"
	}
<->

| this is the alias declaration
alias alias_name : [section name] 0 [inner section name]

| the name of the alias, in this case alias_name, marks the start of an alias section.
alias_name
	"some other key": false
| The /-/ token marks the end of an alias section
/-/

| Result:
| {"section name":[{"inner section name":{"some key":True,"some other key":False},"another key":"abc"}]}

Environment Variables

Environment variables can be used in strings and section keys.

| For this example lets say ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME = "3"

[:{ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME}:]
	":{ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME}:" : "this is ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME's value -> :{ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME}:"
[-]

| output:
| {'3': {'3': 'This is ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME's value -> 3'}}

To denote an environment variable wrap the variable name in :{ and }: it works the same way as an f-string in python.

Auto-Increment

When inside a dictionary you can prefix values with - value to autoincrement their key as an integer from the last integer key you set. For example:

[section]
	- "foo"
	- "bar"
	- 123
	7: true
	- 0.1
	- -22.2
	- -12
[-]

| output:
| {"section":{0: "foo", 1: "bar", 2: 123, 7: True, 8: 0.1, 9: -22.2, 10: -12}}

Escape Character

Escape characters can be used to use syntax characters inside of their syntaxes or to use the combination of characters that creates a token such as the environment variable wrapping token as their literal characters, like so:

[section\] key\]]
	"\:{this is my key\}:" : 123
[-]
| output:
| {'section] key]': {':{this is my key}:': 123}}