load() missing 1 required positional argument: 'Loader'

load() missing 1 required positional argument: 'Loader' #

The Python "TypeError: load() missing 1 required positional argument: 'Loader'" occurs when we use the yaml.load() method without specifying the Loader keyword argument. To solve the error, use the yaml.full_load() method instead or explicitly set the Loader keyword arg.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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import yaml

document = """
  a: 1
  b:
    c: 3
    d: 4
"""

# ⛔️ TypeError: load() missing 1 required positional argument: 'Loader'
print(yaml.dump(yaml.load(document)))

The yaml.load method now requires us to explicitly specify the Loader keyword arguments because of some security implications around the default behavior of the method.

The easiest way to solve the error is to use one of the yaml.full_load() or yaml.safe_load() methods.

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import yaml

document = """
  a: 1
  b:
    c: 3
    d: 4
"""

print(yaml.dump(yaml.safe_load(document)))

print(yaml.dump(yaml.full_load(document)))

The examples above achieve the same result as explicitly passing the Loader keyword argument in a call to the yaml.load() method.

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import yaml

document = """
  a: 1
  b:
    c: 3
    d: 4
"""

print(yaml.dump(yaml.load(document, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)))

print(yaml.dump(yaml.load(document, Loader=yaml.FullLoader)))

The SafeLoader which is used by the yaml.safe_load() method loads a subset of the YAML language. This is recommended for loading untrusted input.

The FullLoader which is used by the yaml.full_load method loads the full YAML language. Using this with untrusted input is not recommended.

You can read more about why the default behavior of the yaml.load method was deprecated in this Github wiki.