Data types in toml allow you to define the type of a key and value pairs.

Toml data types

In Toml documents, value data must support the following types

  • a String
  • an Integer
  • a Float
  • a boolean
  • date and time types(Offset Local date, times)
  • an array
  • an inline-table

toml value can not support the following types

  • Binary data
  • Infinity and NAN
  • undefined
  • functions

TOML Strings

value strings accept basic strings, multiple-line strings, literals, and multiple-line literals. values of strings can be represented in double quotes as follows,

name=“Franc”

Multiple lines of strings are accepted as values, Multiline strings are enclosed in three quotations as follows statement=""" I am statement with multi-line strings """"

Literal values are enclosed in single quotes as follows

documentpath='opt\docs\repo'

multi-line literal values are enclosed by three single quotes as follows

lines=’’' this is multiple lines literals example’''

TOML Integer types

values in documents accept positive and negative values

example

key1=+45 \# positive number value
key2=-20 \# negative number value

Big integers are expressed with an underscore as follows

key3=300_000

values can also accept hexadecimal, octal, and binary numbers

key5=0xDFA1 \# prefix 0X for hex decimal numbers
key6=0o746 \# prefix 0o for octal numbers
key6=0b1001 \# prefix 0b for binary numbers

TOML Float types

float numbers contain integers and decimal numbers separated by a dot(.)

example

keyfloat1=+1.5
keyfloat1=-1.5

TOML Boolean types

Boolean is true and false in lower cases accepted as values.

key_true=true
key_false=false

TOML Date types

The following are supported date formats, Date must be as per RFC 3339

OffsetDate Time Local Date Time Local Date Local Time

Example

offsetdatetime-key=2020-02-20T06:10:20Z # offset Date time
offsetdatetime-key1=2020-02-20 06:10:20Z # offset Date time - T is replaced with spaces also
localdatetime-key=2020-02-20 06:10:20 # local Date time
date-key=2020-02-20 #  Date type
time-key=06:10:20 #  Time type

TOML Array type

Like any programming language, This also provides arrays, arrays are used to group the elements referred to with a single variable name. Syntax

Array-Key=Array-Values
  • Array values are enclosed with square brackets
  • Double quotes are not required
  • spaces are not considered
  • each value in an Array-Values is separated by a comma symbol.
  • value contains the same types - strings, numbers, etc.. or of mixed types- (string and numbers)
  • values contain multiple lines with a line break or enter

TOML Array of strings/numbers Example

Array values contain the same type of data i.e. strings.

numbers=[1,2,3,4] # array of numbers
weekends=["SATURDAY","SUNDAY"] # array of strings
floatarray=[1.0,3.5] # array of floats
mixed-array-1=[1,"one"] # array of mixed type
array-multiple-lines=[
  7,9,0
]


nested array in toml examples

a nested array is an array of arrays, each element in an array contains an array of values.

nested-array-key=[[2,3],[5,6]] # nested array of numbers
nested-array-key1=[
  [12,3],
  ["URL1","URL2"]
  ] # nested array of mixed types

Table Data type

One of the important types is the type that is a representation of HashTable or properties objects in another programming language. The table stores the collection of keys and values under a one name.

Syntax:

[table-name]
key="value"
      #line break

Table type rules

  • The first line of the table is enclosed in a square bracket
  • The last line must be EOF or specify the next table.
  • data in the table is unordered
  • All the data type rules are applied to table data
  • spaces are ignored
  • Tables without data is valid
  • Duplicate tables are not allowed

Example:

[my-table]
id=1
name="Frank"

Inline Table type

This is another way of expressing data in table format examples

employee={id=2,name="Tom"}

Rules

  • Inline tables data is enclosed in curly braces
  • All the data placed in a single line
  • Newline inside braces are invalid