(PECL yaml >= 0.4.0)
yaml_parse — Parse a YAML stream
Convert all or part of a YAML document stream to a PHP variable.
inputThe string to parse as a YAML document stream.
posDocument to extract from stream (-1 for all documents, 0 for first document, ...).
ndocs
       If ndocs is provided, then it is filled with the
       number of documents found in stream.
      
callbacksContent handlers for YAML nodes. Associative array of YAML tag => callable mappings. See parse callbacks for more details.
   Returns the value encoded in input in appropriate
   PHP type or FALSE on failure. If pos is -1 an
   array will be returned with one entry for each document found
   in the stream.
  
Example #1 yaml_parse() example
<?php
$yaml = <<<EOD
---
invoice: 34843
date: "2001-01-23"
bill-to: &id001
  given: Chris
  family: Dumars
  address:
    lines: |-
      458 Walkman Dr.
              Suite #292
    city: Royal Oak
    state: MI
    postal: 48046
ship-to: *id001
product:
- sku: BL394D
  quantity: 4
  description: Basketball
  price: 450
- sku: BL4438H
  quantity: 1
  description: Super Hoop
  price: 2392
tax: 251.420000
total: 4443.520000
comments: Late afternoon is best. Backup contact is Nancy Billsmer @ 338-4338.
...
EOD;
$parsed = yaml_parse($yaml);
var_dump($parsed);
?>
The above example will output something similar to:
array(8) {
  ["invoice"]=>
  int(34843)
  ["date"]=>
  string(10) "2001-01-23"
  ["bill-to"]=>
  &array(3) {
    ["given"]=>
    string(5) "Chris"
    ["family"]=>
    string(6) "Dumars"
    ["address"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["lines"]=>
      string(34) "458 Walkman Dr.
        Suite #292"
      ["city"]=>
      string(9) "Royal Oak"
      ["state"]=>
      string(2) "MI"
      ["postal"]=>
      int(48046)
    }
  }
  ["ship-to"]=>
  &array(3) {
    ["given"]=>
    string(5) "Chris"
    ["family"]=>
    string(6) "Dumars"
    ["address"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["lines"]=>
      string(34) "458 Walkman Dr.
        Suite #292"
      ["city"]=>
      string(9) "Royal Oak"
      ["state"]=>
      string(2) "MI"
      ["postal"]=>
      int(48046)
    }
  }
  ["product"]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    array(4) {
      ["sku"]=>
      string(6) "BL394D"
      ["quantity"]=>
      int(4)
      ["description"]=>
      string(10) "Basketball"
      ["price"]=>
      int(450)
    }
    [1]=>
    array(4) {
      ["sku"]=>
      string(7) "BL4438H"
      ["quantity"]=>
      int(1)
      ["description"]=>
      string(10) "Super Hoop"
      ["price"]=>
      int(2392)
    }
  }
  ["tax"]=>
  float(251.42)
  ["total"]=>
  float(4443.52)
  ["comments"]=>
  string(68) "Late afternoon is best. Backup contact is Nancy Billsmer @ 338-4338."
}
Processing untrusted user input with yaml_parse() is dangerous if the use of unserialize() is enabled for nodes using the !php/object tag. This behavior can be disabled by using the yaml.decode_php ini setting.