How to Convert YAML to a Table in Excel (and Back)
Pipelines, manifests, inventories and config files are all YAML, and the moment a list inside one has to be reviewed, sorted or bulk-edited, a spreadsheet is the right tool. Excel has no idea what YAML is.
Last updated: October 2026
| YAML | → | name | port | enabled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - name: web port: 8080 enabled: true | → | web | 8080 | TRUE |
| - name: db port: 5432 | → | db | 5432 |
Why not just paste it in?
Pasting YAML into Excel gives you one column of text with the indentation intact and nothing you can sort or filter. Text to Columns on the colon half-works until a value contains one — a URL, a time, a Windows path — at which point rows start shifting sideways in ways that are easy to miss and hard to unpick.
What this handles, and what it refuses
- Handled: a list of flat items — each starting with
-, withkey: valuelines under it. Quoted strings, numbers, true/false/null, comments and document markers. - Refused, by name: nested blocks, lists inside items, anchors and aliases, multi-line block scalars. None of them has a two-dimensional equivalent, so rather than flattening them into something that looks right and round-trips wrong, it stops and tells you which line it could not take.
That refusal is the point: a tool that silently mangles a Kubernetes manifest is worse than one that declines it.
The 1-click way (Tellsheet)
YAML ⇄ Columns
Select the pasted YAML and run YAML ⇄ Columns. Each item becomes a row, each key a column, and keys missing from an item are left blank rather than guessed. Run it the other way and the table is written back out as YAML, with quotes added only where a value needs them — so 8080 stays a number and yes stays the word you typed rather than becoming true.
Frequently asked questions
Can I paste YAML straight in?
Yes — paste it into a column and run the tool on it.
What about nested blocks?
They are refused by name, not silently flattened.
Does it round-trip?
Yes, for the supported shape: table to YAML and back.
Are types preserved?
Numbers, booleans and nulls are read and written as themselves.
Related Excel guides
YAML in, table out
YAML ⇄ Columns works offline and both ways — with a preview before anything is written.
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