REAM

# Variable

All REAM file starts with a Level-1 Entry Header, in the form of

# <Level-1 Entry Header>

We will discuss what entries are later. For now, just see this as the title of your dataset.

<variable> assigns a <value> to a <key>, in the form of

- <key>: <value>

Note that a space is required after the dash and colon.

<key> can't be empty. It may contain any upper and lowercase letters (A-Za-z), digits (0-9) and spaces (U+0020), but must start with a letter.

<value> can be any of the following types:

# String

Example:

# Example
- string: value
- long string: Hello World
- quoted string: "quote"

There is not need to quote strings. Quotation marks will be preserved.

Values can't contain line breaks. The following will raise an error:



 


# Example
- key 1: first line
         second line
- key 2: value
Known Issue

The current parser is able to parse the example. It will read everything before and including - key 1: first line, then stop parsing and return whatever has been parsed, ignoring the rest of the file. So the example is equivalent to:

# Example
- key 1: first line

Error handling will be improved in future versions.

# Number

Numbers are surrounded by dollar signs ($).

Example:

# Example
- number 1: $1$
- number 2: $-2$
- number 3: $3.1415926$

If characters are placed outside the dollar signs, the entire value will be stored as a string, preserving the dollar signs.

Example:

# Example
- number: $1$
- not number 1: a$1$
- not number 2: $1$b
Known Issue

The current parser will identify every value surrounded by dollar signs as a number. So

# Example
- number: $1$
- not a number: $abc$

generates

1,abc

instead of

1,$abc$

even though abc is not a valid number.

Strict number type checking will be implemented in the future.

# Boolean

Boolean values are `TRUE` and `FALSE`, both uppercase and surrounded by backticks (`).

Example:

# Example
- bool 1: `TRUE`
- bool 2: `FALSE`
- not bool 1: `true`
- not bool 2: FALSE

Note that boolean values must be exact matches. Values not surrounded by batckticks or not uppercased will be stored as strings.

# List

A list is a sequence of strings, numbers, and/or boolean, in the form of:

- <key>:
  * <item>
  * <item>
  ...
  * <item>

<item> should be in separate lines, following an asterisk (*)

Example:

# Example
- list of strings:
  * item 1
  * item 2
  * item 3
- list of numbers:
  * $1$
  * $-2$
  * $3.1415926$

TIP

By default, items in lists would be joined as strings with semicolons as separators

Recall that REAM is indentation insensitive. Spaces before asterisks are not required, but two spaces are recommended.

# Example
- still a list:
* item 1
* item 2
* item 3

Empty lines between list items are allowed, but discouraged:

# Example
- still a list:
  * item 1

  * item 2
  * item 3

← Annotation →