As Jesse Donat mentioned the type will be infered automatically. To enforce some type you can use the callback facility like this:
<?php
function cb_yaml_date($value, $tag, $flags) {
return new DateTime($value);
}
$yaml = <<<YAML
event1:
name: My Event
date: !date 25.05.2001
YAML;
$ndocs = 0;
$data = yaml_parse($yaml, 0, $ndocs, array('!date' => 'cb_yaml_date'));
print_r($data);
?>
The above example will output something similar to:
Array
(
[event1] => Array
(
[name] => My Event
[date] => DateTime Object
(
[date] => 2001-05-25 00:00:00
[timezone_type] => 3
[timezone] => Europe/Berlin
)
)
)
BTW if you want to have large numbers you are probably using BC Math. Thus, you simple enclose your number in quotes:
<?php
$yaml = <<<YAML
largenumber: '14695760472279668267313200104308'
YAML;
?>