Question

I am looking for basic examples of YAML syntax and how to work with it in Ruby.
Basically, by looking at the examples, I hope to better understand how to map YAML scalars to object attributes, and whether to use different YAML files or having one YAML file containing multiple objects.

Answer 1

There is a YAML class in Ruby core which has a short tutorial and a few links.

YAML in Five Minutes

Serializing and Deserializing objects with Ruby

require "yaml"

test_obj = ["dogs", "cats", "badgers"]

yaml_obj = YAML::dump( test_obj )
                    # -> ---
                         - dogs
                         - cats
                         - badgers
ruby_obj = YAML::load( yaml_obj )
                    # => ["dogs", "cats", "badgers"]
ruby_obj == test_obj
                    # => true