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4. Syntax tree and spans

The syntax layer is designed for scenarios where you need:

• Lossless parsing and re-emitting (including trivia such as whitespace and comments)
• Precise source locations (file name, line, column, span) for diagnostics and tooling

Parse a document

using SharpYaml.Syntax;

var text = "a: 1\n";
var tree = YamlSyntaxTree.Parse(text);

To include or exclude trivia tokens (whitespace/newlines/comments), use YamlSyntaxOptions:

var tree = YamlSyntaxTree.Parse(text, new YamlSyntaxOptions { IncludeTrivia = false });

Spans and marks

SharpYaml uses source locations for errors and editor integrations.

• Mark captures index, line, and column.
• YamlSourceSpan captures a start/end mark.

Parse errors throw YamlException with location information.

Tokens

The syntax tree exposes a flat list of YamlSyntaxToken with spans and text.

This is useful for:

• syntax highlighting
• quick diagnostics
• building editor features without building a full semantic model