Heavy-flavour production in proton--proton collisions with the ALICE experiment

The production of heavy-flavour hadrons in high-energy hadronic collisions is a unique source of information on various aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Production of heavy-flavour hadrons in proton--proton collisions allows the test of perturbative QCD models, while the comparison of mesons and baryons with heavy-flavour quarks can differentiate between fragmentation scenarios. Multiplicity-dependent measurements allow for the understanding of semi-hard vacuum QCD effects, as well as to study the coalescence mechanisms of heavy-flavour quarks with light and strange quarks. Recent results from the ALICE experiment in proton--proton collisions on the production of D mesons and leptons from the decay of heavy-flavour hadrons, as well as charmed baryons, are presented in this contribution. Furthermore, the multiplicity dependence of self-normalised heavy-flavour electron yields, as well as that of strange to non-strange D-meson and charmed baryon-to-meson ratios are also shown.