def _loads(self, data_string, layer=None, source=None):
        """Load data from a yaml formatted string.

        Parameters
        ----------
        data_string : str
            yaml formatted string. The root element of the document should be
            an associative array
        layer : str
            layer to load data into. If none is supplied the outermost one is used
        source : str
            Source to attribute the values to
        """
        data_dict = yaml.full_load(data_string)
        self._read_dict(data_dict, layer, source)
Load data from a yaml formatted string.

        Parameters
        ----------
        data_string : str
            yaml formatted string. The root element of the document should be
            an associative array
        layer : str
            layer to load data into. If none is supplied the outermost one is used
        source : str
            Source to attribute the values to