.. _formats:

=======
Formats
=======

Storing QuAAC data can be done using different formats. The following formats are supported:

- JSON
- YAML: Yet another markup language (`YAML <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML>`__) is a human-readable file
  format and most programming languages can easily read and write to YAML.

These formats are supported for both input and output.

A QuAAC data file can be written any way desired. Although there is an associated Python package :ref:`library`,
the file can be written by hand or by any other programming language. Here are some other libraries that
can write to these formats:

YAML Libraries
--------------

The following are free libraries that can be used to read and write YAML:

* Python: `PyYAML <https://pyyaml.org/>`__
* C#: `YamlDotNet <https://github.com/aaubry/YamlDotNet>`__
* Javascript: `yaml <https://github.com/eemeli/yaml>`__

Many other exist. The point is that YAML is easily usable for most programming
languages.