Management of overriden inner values in Yaml

[pdufrene]

Hello,

this question is not really related to YamlDotNet and maybe more a question on Yaml specification but because I am using YamlDotNet I am asking it here:

I have the following code:

namespace ConsoleApp;

using YamlDotNet.Core;
using YamlDotNet.Core.Events;
using YamlDotNet.Serialization;

internal class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var content = @"---
&ref
  value: 5
  min: 0
  max: 10
  sub:
    value: 10
    min: 0
    max: 100
---
  <<: *ref
  value: 6
  sub:
    value: 20
...";

        var deserializer = new DeserializerBuilder()
            .WithCaseInsensitivePropertyMatching()
            .Build();
        var parser = new MergingParser(new Parser(new StringReader(content)));

        // Consume the stream start event "manually"
        parser.Consume<StreamStart>();

        while (parser.Accept<DocumentStart>(out _))
        {
            // Deserialize the document
            var container = deserializer.Deserialize<Parameter>(parser);
        }
    }

    public class Parameter
    {
        public int Value { get; set; }
        public int Min { get; set; }
        public int Max { get; set; }

        public Parameter? Sub { get; set; }
    }

}

But for the second document, I have as expected:
value = 6, min = 10 and max = 100
and sub.value = 20
but sub.min and sub.max are equal to 0.

I understand that the sub object is redefined this is why min and max are not set.
But, by chance, is there something in Yaml spec (or maybe in YamlDotNet) that could help me?

Thanks in advance,

[pdufrene]

Actually, I found a product which is doing what I am looking for:
https://docs.magnolia-cms.com/product-docs/6.3/developing/reusing-configuration/yaml-inherit-and-include/#_yaml_override

So by following this idea, I tested this:

namespace ConsoleApp73;

using YamlDotNet.Core;
using YamlDotNet.Core.Events;
using YamlDotNet.Serialization;

internal class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var content = @"
value: 5
min: 0
max: 10
sub:
  value: 10
  min: 0
  max: 100
  sub:
    value: 11
    min: 10
    max: 20
value: 6
sub:
  sub:
    value: 15";

        var deserializer = new DeserializerBuilder()
            .WithCaseInsensitivePropertyMatching()
            .Build();
        var parser = new MergingParser(new Parser(new StringReader(content)));

        // Consume the stream start event "manually"
        parser.Consume<StreamStart>();

        // Deserialize the document
        var container = deserializer.Deserialize<Parameter>(parser);
    }

    public class Parameter
    {
        private Parameter? sub;

        public int? Value { get; set; }
        public int? Min { get; set; }
        public int? Max { get; set; }

        public Parameter? Sub
        {
            get => sub;
            set
            {
                if (sub != null)
                {
                    if (value!.Value != null) sub.Value = value.Value;
                    if (value.Max != null) sub.Max = value.Max;
                    if (value.Min != null) sub.Min = value.Min;
                    if (value.Sub != null) sub.Sub = value.Sub;
                }
                else
                {
                    sub = value;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

which is giving me the expected behavior.

So based on that I could do something like:

with a main.yaml like this

value: 5
min: 0
max: 10
sub:
  value: 10
  min: 0
  max: 100
  sub:
    value: 11
    min: 10
    max: 20

and my content like this:

!include:main.yaml
value: 6
sub:
  sub:
    value: 15

If I implement a piece of code able to understand the !include and something special on my type I could achieve what I am looking for.