You can do something like:
def decimal_constructor(loader, node):
value = loader.construct_scalar(node)
return Decimal(value)
yaml.add_constructor(u'!decimal', decimal_constructor)
This allows you to load decimals, but only if they are prefixed with the !decimal tag in the YAML document. However, you can use a custom Resolver to resolve all numbers to !decimal:
class MyResolver(BaseResolver):
pass
MyResolver.add_implicit_resolver(
'!decimal',
re.compile(r'''^(?:[-+]?(?:[0-9][0-9_]*)\.[0-9_]*(?:[eE][-+][0-9]+)?
|\.[0-9_]+(?:[eE][-+][0-9]+)?
|[-+]?[0-9][0-9_]*(?::[0-5]?[0-9])+\.[0-9_]*
|[-+]?\.(?:inf|Inf|INF)
|\.(?:nan|NaN|NAN))$''', re.X),
list('-+0123456789.'))
You should copy the other implicit resolvers over from the default resolver. Then, you need to define a Loader that uses your resolver.
class MyLoader(Reader, Scanner, Parser, Composer, SafeConstructor, MyResolver):
def __init__(self, stream):
Reader.__init__(self, stream)
Scanner.__init__(self)
Parser.__init__(self)
Composer.__init__(self)
SafeConstructor.__init__(self)
MyResolver.__init__(self)
Above, we added your constructor to the default loader. Change that line to:
yaml.add_constructor(u'!decimal', decimal_constructor, MyLoader)
Finally, load the YAML using
yaml.load(stream, MyLoader)