DAN (Data Advanced Notation) Python Library

A Python implementation of the DAN (Data Advanced Notation) parser and encoder. DAN is a human-readable data format that combines the simplicity of key-value pairs with the power of nested structures and tables.

Features

• Decode: Parse DAN text into Python dictionaries
• Encode: Convert Python dictionaries into DAN text
• Support for nested blocks, tables, arrays, and various data types
• Comment support (# and //)
• Type inference (strings, numbers, booleans, arrays)
• Comprehensive test suite with 40+ test cases
• Multiple real-world examples

See FEATURES.md for a complete feature list.

Installation

This repo uses uv for environments and lockfiles (uv.lock).

# Install uv: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/
uv sync

Editable install from a clone:

git clone https://github.com/marcuwynu23/dan-py.git
cd dan-py
uv sync

With dev tools (e.g. pytest):

uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest tests/

You can still install from PyPI with pip when a release is published:

pip install dan-annotation

Quick Start

Decoding DAN

from dan import decode

text = """
app {
  name: "MyApp"
  version: 1.0
  server {
    host: localhost
    port: 3000
  }
}
"""

data = decode(text)
print(data)
# {'app': {'name': 'MyApp', 'version': 1.0, 'server': {'host': 'localhost', 'port': 3000}}}

Encoding to DAN

from dan import encode

data = {
    "app": {
        "name": "MyApp",
        "version": 1.0,
        "server": {
            "host": "localhost",
            "port": 3000
        }
    }
}

text = encode(data)
print(text)

Working with Tables

text = """
users: table(id, username, email) [
  1, alice, "alice@example.com"
  2, bob, "bob@example.com"
]
"""

data = decode(text)
# {'users': [{'id': 1, 'username': 'alice', 'email': 'alice@example.com'}, ...]}

Reading from Files

from dan import decode

with open('config.dan', 'r') as f:
    config = decode(f.read())

Examples

Check out the examples/ directory for real-world usage scenarios:

• Application configuration (config.dan)
• Database schemas (database_schema.dan)
• API routes (api_routes.dan)
• Microservices configuration (microservices.dan)
• Docker Compose (docker_compose.dan)
• Kubernetes resources (kubernetes.dan)
• And many more!

Running Tests

# Run all tests
python -m unittest discover tests -v

# Run specific test file
python -m unittest tests.test_dan -v

# Using pytest (if installed)
pytest tests/

Documentation

• FEATURES.md - Complete feature documentation
• CONTRIBUTING.md - Guidelines for contributing
• CHANGELOG.md - Version history and changes
• SECURITY.md - Responsible vulnerability disclosure
• examples/README.md - Example files documentation

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. Optional support: PayPal or the repository Sponsor button (.github/FUNDING.yml).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Security

Please report security vulnerabilities to the maintainers. See SECURITY.md for more information.

Support

• 📖 Documentation
• 🐛 Issue Tracker
• 💬 Discussions