KVN (kevin)

Key/Value Notation

Similar to JSON but more limited in scope. Can be used to represent basic key/value data structures as (human readable) strings.

Useful when working with limited storage options to capture additional (human readable) data in a single field.

Rules

• Data structures should be flat (i.e. 1 level deep, no nesting)

• Keys & values are limited to primitive types

  • String
  • Numeric
  • Boolean
  • Null

• Colons & semicolons are prohibited in keys & values

• Keys are sorted alphabetically

Examples

Convert a Hash to a KVN string

data = { d: "example with whitespace", a: true, c: "example", b: 1, e: nil }
Kvn::Converter.new(data).convert
# => "a:true; b:1; c:example; d:example with whitespace; e:null;"

Parse a KVN string into a Hash

value = "a:true; b:1; c:example; d:example with whitespace; e:null;"
Kvn::Parser.new(value).parse
# => {"a"=>true, "b"=>1, "c"=>"example", "d"=>"example with whitespace", "e"=>nil}