# Abything out there that emits structured text?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/abything-out-there-that-emits-structured-text/80020>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 20, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/abything-out-there-that-emits-structured-text/80020 "2006-12-20T22:08:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![noagenda](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@noagenda](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noagenda)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/abything-out-there-that-emits-structured-text/80020/1 "2006-12-20T22:08:12Z")

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I am writing something that has to emits structured text by parsing  
some internal structures and don’t want to write something that has  
already been done better by others a million times, so just wanted a  
couple of pointers on places to look.

All I want to do is be able to do is build up an output string that  
contains nested indented text not dissimilar to the output from YAML,  
but I don’t need all that YAML does.

Anything out there that does this?

Thanks  
James

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![noagenda](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@noagenda](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/noagenda)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/abything-out-there-that-emits-structured-text/80020/2 "2006-12-20T22:26:18Z")

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> All I want to do is be able to do is build up an output string that  
> contains nested indented text not dissimilar to the output from YAML,  
> but I don’t need all that YAML does.
> 
> Anything out there that does this?

I think prettyprint.rb does that, should come with your ruby 1.8.x

## best, UG

Uma G.

> **[The Umasphere](https://umageller.wordpress.com)**
>
> Uma Geller dreams by day and types by night