Don't parse our own types, let yaml do it for us.

src/kbmod/configuration.py

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from astropy.table import Table
 from numpy import result_type
 from pathlib import Path
+import yaml
 from yaml import dump, safe_load
 
 
@@ -177,21 +178,10 @@ def from_table(cls, t, strict=True):
         if len(t) > 1:
             raise ValueError(f"More than one row in the configuration table ({len(t)}).")
 
-        config = SearchConfiguration()
-        for key in t.colnames:
-            # We use a special indicator for serializing certain types (including
-            # None and dict) to FITS.
-            if key.startswith("__NONE__"):
-                val = None
-                key = key[8:]
-            elif key.startswith("__DICT__"):
-                val = dict(t[key][0])
-                key = key[8:]
-            else:
-                val = t[key][0]
+        # guaranteed to only have 1 element due to check above
+        params = {col.name: safe_load(col.value[0]) for col in t.values()}
+        return SearchConfiguration.from_dict(params)
 
-            config.set(key, val, strict)
-        return config
 
     @classmethod
     def from_yaml(cls, config, strict=True):
@@ -228,21 +218,8 @@ def from_hdu(cls, hdu, strict=True):
         Raises a ``KeyError`` if the parameter is not part on the list of known parameters
         and ``strict`` is False.
         """
-        config = SearchConfiguration()
-        for column in hdu.data.columns:
-            key = column.name
-            val = hdu.data[key][0]
-
-            # We use a special indicator for serializing certain types (including
-            # None and dict) to FITS.
-            if type(val) is str and val == "__NONE__":
-                val = None
-            elif key.startswith("__DICT__"):
-                val = ast.literal_eval(val)
-                key = key[8:]
-
-            config.set(key, val, strict)
-        return config
+        t = Table(hdu.data)
+        return SearchConfiguration.from_table(t)
 
     @classmethod
     def from_file(cls, filename, strict=True):
@@ -257,15 +234,9 @@ def to_hdu(self):
         hdu : `astropy.io.fits.BinTableHDU`
             The HDU with the configuration information.
         """
-        t = Table()
-        for col in self._params.keys():
-            val = self._params[col]
-            if val is None:
-                t[col] = ["__NONE__"]
-            elif type(val) is dict:
-                t["__DICT__" + col] = [str(val)]
-            else:
-                t[col] = [val]
+        serialized_dict = {key: dump(val, default_flow_style=True)
+                           for key, val in self._params.items()}
+        t = Table(rows=[serialized_dict, ])
         return fits.table_to_hdu(t)
 
     def to_yaml(self):

tests/test_configuration.py

@@ -39,12 +39,14 @@ def test_from_dict(self):
         self.assertEqual(config["num_obs"], 5)
 
     def test_from_hdu(self):
-        t = Table([["Here3"], [7], ["__NONE__"]], names=("im_filepath", "num_obs", "cluster_type"))
+        t = Table([["Here3"], ["7"], ["null"], ["[1, 2]", ]],
+                  names=("im_filepath", "num_obs", "cluster_type", "ang_arr"))
         hdu = fits.table_to_hdu(t)
 
         config = SearchConfiguration.from_hdu(hdu)
         self.assertEqual(config["im_filepath"], "Here3")
         self.assertEqual(config["num_obs"], 7)
+        self.assertEqual(config["ang_arr"], [1, 2])
         self.assertIsNone(config["cluster_type"])
 
     def test_to_hdu(self):
@@ -60,14 +62,12 @@ def test_to_hdu(self):
         config = SearchConfiguration.from_dict(d)
         hdu = config.to_hdu()
 
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["im_filepath"][0], "Here2")
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["num_obs"][0], 5)
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["cluster_type"][0], "__NONE__")
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["__DICT__mask_bits_dict"][0], "{'bit1': 1, 'bit2': 2}")
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["res_filepath"][0], "There")
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["ang_arr"][0][0], 1.0)
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["ang_arr"][0][1], 2.0)
-        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["ang_arr"][0][2], 3.0)
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["im_filepath"][0], "Here2\n...")
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["num_obs"][0], "5\n...")
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["cluster_type"][0], "null\n...")
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["mask_bits_dict"][0], "{bit1: 1, bit2: 2}")
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["res_filepath"][0], "There\n...")
+        self.assertEqual(hdu.data["ang_arr"][0], "[1.0, 2.0, 3.0]")
 
     def test_to_yaml(self):
         d = {