C - Generator of lexical analyzers

ERROR HANDLING
EXAMPLES
BUGS
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
COPYRIGHT

NAME

Parse::Lex - Generator of lexical analyzers

SYNOPSIS

        require 5.005;

        use Parse::Lex;
        @token = (
          qw(
             ADDOP    [-+]
             LEFTP    [\(]
             RIGHTP   [\)]
             INTEGER  [1-9][0-9]*
             NEWLINE  \n


            ),
          qw(STRING),   [qw(" (?:[^"]+|"")* ")],
          qw(ERROR  .*), sub {
            die qq!can\'t analyze: "$_[1]"!;
          }
         );

        Parse::Lex->trace;  # Class method
        $lexer = Parse::Lex->new(@token);
        $lexer->from(\*DATA);
        print "Tokenization of DATA:\n";

        TOKEN:while (1) {
          $token = $lexer->next;
          if (not $lexer->eoi) {
            print "Line $.\t";
            print "Type: ", $token->name, "\t";
            print "Content:->", $token->text, "<-\n";
          } else {
            last TOKEN;
          }
        }

        __END__
        1+2-5
        "a multiline
        string with an embedded "" in it"
        an invalid string with a "" in it"

DESCRIPTION

The classes Parse::Lex and Parse::CLex create lexical analyzers. They use different analysis techniques:

1. Parse::Lex steps through the analysis by moving a pointer within the character strings to be analyzed (use of pos() together with \G),

2. Parse::CLex steps through the analysis by consuming the data recognized (use of s///).

Analyzers of the Parse::CLex class do not allow the use of anchoring in regular expressions. In addition, the subclasses of Parse::Token are not implemented for this type of analyzer.

A lexical analyzer is specified by means of a list of tokens passed as arguments to the new() method. Tokens are instances of the Parse::Token class, which comes with Parse::Lex. The definition of a token usually comprises two arguments: a symbolic name (like INTEGER), followed by a regular expression. If a sub ref (anonymous subroutine) is given as third argument, it is called when the token is recognized. Its arguments are the Parse::Token instance and the string recognized by the regular expression. The anonymous subroutine's return value is used as the new string contents of the Parse::Token instance.

The order in which the lexical analyzer examines the regular expressions is determined by the order in which these expressions are passed as arguments to the new() method. The token returned by the lexical analyzer corresponds to the first regular expression which matches (this strategy is different from that used by Lex, which returns the longest match possible out of all that can be recognized).

The lexical analyzer can recognize tokens which span multiple records. If the definition of the token comprises more than one regular expression (placed within a reference to an anonymous array), the analyzer reads as many records as required to recognize the token (see the documentation for the Parse::Token class). When the start pattern is found, the analyzer looks for the end, and if necessary, reads more records. No backtracking is done in case of failure.

The analyzer can be used to analyze an isolated character string or a stream of data coming from a file handle. At the end of the input data the analyzer returns a Parse::Token instance named EOI (End Of Input).

Start Conditions

You can associate start conditions with the token-recognition rules that comprise your lexical analyzer (this is similar to what Flex provides). When start conditions are used, the rule which succeeds is no longer necessarily the first rule that matches.

A token symbol may be preceded by a start condition specifier for the associated recognition rule. For example:

        qw(C1:TERMINAL_1  REGEXP), sub { # associated action },
        qw(TERMINAL_2  REGEXP), sub { # associated action },

Symbol TERMINAL_1 will be recognized only if start condition C1 is active. Start conditions are activated/deactivated using the start(CONDITION_NAME) and end(CONDITION_NAME) methods.

start('INITIAL') resets the analysis automaton.

Start conditions can be combined using AND/OR operators as follows:

        C1:SYMBOL      condition C1

        C1:C2:SYMBOL   condition C1 AND condition C2

        C1,C2:SYMBOL   condition C1 OR  condition C2

There are two types of start conditions: inclusive and exclusive, which are declared by class methods inclusive() and exclusive() respectively. With an inclusive start condition, all rules are active regardless of whether or not they are qualified with the start condition. With an exclusive start condition, only the rules qualified with the start condition are active; all other rules are deactivated.

Example (borrowed from the documentation of Flex):

 use Parse::Lex;
 @token = (
          'EXPECT', 'expect-floats', sub {
            $lexer->start('expect'); 
            $_[1] 
          },
          'expect:FLOAT', '\d+\.\d+', sub { 
            print "found a float: $_[1]\n";
            $_[1] 
          },
          'expect:NEWLINE', '\n', sub { 
            $lexer->end('expect') ;
            $_[1] 
          },
          'NEWLINE2', '\n',
          'INT', '\d+', sub {
            print "found an integer: $_[1] \n";
            $_[1] 
          },
          'DOT', '\.', sub {
            print "found a dot\n";
            $_[1] 
          },
         );

 Parse::Lex->exclusive('expect');
 $lexer = Parse::Lex->new(@token);

The special start condition ALL is always verified.

Methods

analyze EXPR

Analyzes EXPR and returns a list of pairs consisting of a token name followed by recognized text. EXPR can be a character string or a reference to a filehandle.

Examples:

 @tokens = Parse::Lex->new(qw(PLUS [+] NUMBER \d+))->analyze("3+3+3");
 @tokens = Parse::Lex->new(qw(PLUS [+] NUMBER \d+))->analyze(\*STREAM);

buffer EXPR

buffer

Returns the contents of the internal buffer of the lexical analyzer. With an expression as argument, places the result of the expression in the buffer.

It is not advisable to directly change the contents of the buffer without changing the position of the analysis pointer (pos()) and the value length of the buffer (length()).

configure(HASH)

Instance method which permits specifying a lexical analyzer. This method accepts the list of the following attribute values:

From => EXPR

This attribute plays the same role as the from(EXPR) method. EXPR can be a filehandle or a character string.

Tokens => ARRAY_REF

ARRAY_REF must contain the list of attribute values specifying the tokens to be recognized (see the documentation for Parse::Token).

Skip => REGEX

This attribute plays the same role as the skip(REGEX) method. REGEX describes the patterns to skip over during the analysis.

end EXPR

Deactivates condition EXPR.

eoi

Returns TRUE when there is no more data to analyze.

every SUB

Avoids having to write a reading loop in order to analyze a stream of data. SUB is an anonymous subroutine executed after the recognition of each token. For example, to lex the string ``1+2'' you can write:

        use Parse::Lex;

        $lexer = Parse::Lex->new(
          qw(
             ADDOP [-+]
             INTEGER \d+
            ));

        $lexer->from("1+2");
        $lexer->every (sub { 
          print $_[0]->name, "\t";
          print $_[0]->text, "\n"; 
        });

The first argument of the anonymous subroutine is the Parse::Token instance recognized.

exclusive LIST

Class method declaring the conditions present in LIST to be exclusive.

flush

If saving of the consumed strings is activated, flush() returns and clears the buffer containing the character strings recognized up to now. This is only useful if hold() has been called to activate saving of consumed strings.

from EXPR

from

from(EXPR) allows specifying the source of the data to be analyzed. The argument of this method can be a string (or list of strings), or a reference to a filehandle. If no argument is given, from() returns the filehandle if defined, or undef if input is a string. When an argument EXPR is used, the return value is the calling lexer object itself.

By default it is assumed that data are read from STDIN.

Examples:

        $handle = new IO::File;
        $handle->open("< filename");
        $lexer->from($handle);

        $lexer->from(\*DATA);
        $lexer->from('the data to be analyzed');

getSub

getSub returns the anonymous subroutine that performs the lexical analysis.

Example:

        my $token = '';
        my $sub = $lexer->getSub;
        while (($token = &$sub()) ne $Token::EOI) {
          print $token->name, "\t";
          print $token->text, "\n";
        }


   # or


        my $token = '';
        local *tokenizer = $lexer->getSub;
        while (($token = tokenizer()) ne $Token::EOI) {
          print $token->name, "\t";
          print $token->text, "\n";
        }

getToken

Same as token() method.

hold EXPR

hold

Activates/deactivates saving of the consumed strings. The return value is the current setting (TRUE or FALSE). Can be used as a class method.

You can obtain the contents of the buffer using the flush method, which also empties the buffer.

inclusive LIST

Class method declaring the conditions present in LIST to be inclusive.

length EXPR

length

Returns the length of the current record. length EXPR sets the length of the current record.

line EXPR

line

Returns the line number of the current record. line EXPR sets the value of the line number. Always returns 1 if a character string is being analyzed. The readline() method increments the line number.

name EXPR

name

name EXPR lets you give a name to the lexical analyzer. name() return the value of this name.

next

Causes searching for the next token. Return the recognized Parse::Token instance. Returns the Token::EOI instance at the end of the data.

Examples:

        $lexer = Parse::Lex->new(@token);
        print $lexer->next->name;   # print the token type
        print $lexer->next->text;   # print the token content

nextis SCALAR_REF

Variant of the next() method. Tokens are placed in SCALAR_REF. The method returns 1 as long as the token is not EOI.

Example:

        while($lexer->nextis(\$token)) {
           print $token->text();
        }

new LIST

Creates and returns a new lexical analyzer. The argument of the method is a list of Parse::Token instances, or a list of triplets permitting their creation. The triplets consist of: the symbolic name of the token, the regular expression necessary for its recognition, and possibly an anonymous subroutine that is called when the token is recognized. For each triplet, an instance of type Parse::Token is created in the calling package.

offset

Returns the number of characters already consumed since the beginning of the analyzed data stream.

pos EXPR

pos

pos EXPR sets the position of the beginning of the next token to be recognized in the current line (this doesn't work with analyzers of the Parse::CLex class). pos() returns the number of characters already consumed in the current line.

readline

Reads data from the input specified by the from() method. Returns the result of the reading.

Example:

        use Parse::Lex;

        $lexer = Parse::Lex->new();
        while (not $lexer->eoi) {
          print $lexer->readline() # read and print one line
        }

reset

Clears the internal buffer of the lexical analyzer and erases all tokens already recognized.

restart

Reinitializes the analysis automaton. The only active condition becomes the condition INITIAL.

setToken TOKEN

Sets the token to TOKEN. Useful to requalify a token inside the anonymous subroutine associated with this token.

skip EXPR

skip

EXPR is a regular expression defining the token separator pattern (by default [ \t]+). skip('') sets this to no pattern. With no argument, skip() returns the value of the pattern. skip() can be used as a class method.

Changing the skip pattern causes recompilation of the lexical analyzer.

Example:

  Parse::Lex->skip('\s*#(?s:.*)|\s+');
  @tokens = Parse::Lex->new('INTEGER' => '\d+')->analyze(\*DATA);
  print "@tokens\n"; # print INTEGER 1 INTEGER 2 INTEGER 3 INTEGER 4 EOI 
  __END__
  1 # first string to skip
  2
  3# second string to skip
  4

start EXPR

Activates condition EXPR.

state EXPR

Returns the state of the condition represented by EXPR.

token

Returns the instance corresponding to the last recognized token. In case no token was recognized, return the special token named DEFAULT.

tokenClass EXPR

tokenClass

Indicates which is the class of the tokens to be created from the list passed as argument to the new() method. If no argument is given, returns the name of the class. By default the class is Parse::Token.

trace OUTPUT

trace

Class method which activates trace mode. The activation of trace mode must take place before the creation of the lexical analyzer. The mode can then be deactivated by another call of this method.

OUTPUT can be a file name or a reference to a filehandle where the trace will be redirected.

ERROR HANDLING

To handle the cases of token non-recognition, you can define a specific token at the end of the list of tokens that comprise our lexical analyzer. If searching for this token succeeds, it is then possible to call an error handling function:

     qw(ERROR  (?s:.*)), sub {
       print STDERR "ERROR: buffer content->", $_[0]->lexer->buffer, "<-\n";
       die qq!can\'t analyze: "$_[1]"!;
     }

EXAMPLES

ctokenizer.pl - Scan a stream of data using the Parse::CLex class.

tokenizer.pl - Scan a stream of data using the Parse::Lex class.

every.pl - Use of the every method.

sexp.pl - Interpreter for prefix arithmetic expressions.

sexpcond.pl - Interpeter for prefix arithmetic expressions, using conditions.

BUGS

Analyzers of the Parse::CLex class do not allow the use of regular expressions with anchoring.

AUTHOR

Philippe Verdret. Documentation translated to English by Vladimir Alexiev and Ocrat.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Version 2.0 owes much to suggestions made by Vladimir Alexiev. Ocrat has significantly contributed to improving this documentation. Thanks also to the numerous people who have sent me bug reports and occasionally fixes.

REFERENCES

Friedl, J.E.F. Mastering Regular Expressions. O'Reilly & Associates 1996.

Mason, T. & Brown, D. - Lex & Yacc. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 1990.

FLEX - A Scanner generator (available at ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/ and elsewhere)

COPYRIGHT

C - Generator of lexical analyzers