Background

I often need to do small and incomplete parsers. An example of such parser is included at the and.

The principles of this parser

Read the file into $text. Divide $text in parts. The parts are represented in @part. For each part there is [ $type, $first, $last ]. $first and $last are positions in $text.

The parsing is done by the sub parse. It is controlled by @spec, which contains a number of [ $reg_exp, $type ]. All the $reg_exp start with \G. The $reg_exp are tried in order. After a match the tries starts with the first $reg_exp. The last $reg_exp must match so much that one of the other $reg_exp can match and the $type = '??'.

In this and in many cases the parsing is done step-by-step. In the example the first step is locating strings ( 'sq' and 'dq' ) and comments ( 'cn' and 'cb' ). The second step is then, in the parts with $type eq '??', locating names ( 'na' ), digits ( 'di' ) and reserved words ( 'rw' ).

Discussion

By using the function pos() in combination with the \G zero-width assertion you can control where the regexp engine starts. The sub parser can been simplified if it was possible to set the position where the regexp engine stops.

Are there any easy way, with the current Perl, to control where the engine should stop?

Or is it feasible to add a new feature to Perl. Possibilities could be:

• A new function stop_pos().
• Extend the binary operator =~, which binds a scalar expression to a pattern match, with parameters like =~[$start, $stop].
• Add a string slice $string.slice( $start, $stop), which can be used together with =~.
• Let function substr return a lvalue which could be store in a (new type of?) scalar. The lvalue can then be used together with =~.

Example of parser

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;

sub parse {
    my ( $txt_ref, $part_aref, $spec_aref ) = @_;

    my ( $type, $first, $last );    # for the current part
    # used in the current matching
    my $cur_txt_ref;
    my $cur_sub_str;
    my $cur_pos0;                   # start of $cur_sub_str in $$txt_r
+ef

    my @part;                       # result from the parsing

    my $do_part = sub {
        my $end_last_match = 0;
      MATCH:
        {
            for my $spec (@$spec_aref) {
                my ( $reg_exp, $type ) = @$spec;
                if ( $$cur_txt_ref =~ m{$reg_exp}gcm ) {
                    push @part, [ $type, $-[0] + $cur_pos0, $+[0] + $c
+ur_pos0 ];
                    $end_last_match = $+[0];
                    redo MATCH;
                }
            }
            last MATCH;
        }
        if ( $end_last_match < length $$cur_txt_ref ) {
            warn 'ERROR: Stopped before string end at pos: ',
              "$cur_pos0 + $end_last_match\n<",
              substr( $$cur_txt_ref, $end_last_match ), '>';
        }
    };

    if ( not defined $part_aref ) {    # use the whole $$txt_ref
        $cur_txt_ref = $txt_ref;
        $cur_pos0    = 0;
        $do_part->();
        return \@part;
    }

    $cur_txt_ref = \$cur_sub_str;      # use a substring from $$txt_re
+f
    map {
        ( $type, $first, $last ) = @$_;

        if ( $type eq '??' ) {
            $cur_sub_str = substr( $$txt_ref, $first, $last - $first )
+;
            $cur_pos0 = $first;
            $do_part->();
        }
        else { push @part, $_; }
    } @$part_aref;
    return \@part;
}

my @spec_1 = (
    [ qr{\G'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*'},      'sq' ],
    [ qr{\G"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"},      'dq' ],
    [ qr{\G//[^\n]*[\n]?},                 'cn' ],
    [ qr{\G/[*](?:[^*]*|[*]+[^/*]*)*[*]/}, 'cb' ],
    [ qr{\G(?:[^'"/]+|[/][^'"/*])+},       '??' ],
);

my $dig1  = qr{-?\d+\.\d*};
my $dig2  = qr{-?\d*\.\d+};
my $dig3  = qr{-?\d+};
my $dig4  = qr{E-?\d+};
my $digit = qr{(?:$dig1|$dig2|$dig3)$dig4?};

my @spec_2 = (
    [ qr{\G(?:var|alert)},                    'rw' ],
    [ qr{\G$digit},                           'di' ],
    [ qr{\G[_a-zA-Z0-9.\$]+},                 'na' ],
    [ qr{\G(?:[^_a-zA-Z0-9.\$\d]+|[\n\s]+)+}, '??' ],
);

sub to_string_part_aref {
    my ( $txt_ref, $part_aref ) = @_;
    return join '', map {
        my ( $type, $first, $last ) = @$_;
        if ( $type eq '??' ) {
            substr( $$txt_ref, $first, $last - $first );
        }
        else {
            "<$type>"
              . substr( $$txt_ref, $first, $last - $first )
              . "</$type>";
        }
    } @{$part_aref};
}

my $text = do { local $/; <DATA> };
my $text_ref = \$text;
my $part_ref_1 = parse( $text_ref, undef,       \@spec_1 );
my $part_ref_2 = parse( $text_ref, $part_ref_1, \@spec_2 );
warn to_string_part_aref( $text_ref, $part_ref_2 );
exit 0;
__DATA__
// This is a single-line comment

var x = 4; // Single

/* Multiple-line
comment that can
span any number
of lines */
/*
    This is a multi-line comment
    // Still a multi-line comment
*/
/* Stop code
var x = 4;
var y = 5;
/* Bug? *
x = "cool";
End Stop code */
// This is a single-line comment /* ...still a single-line comment
'string\' // still a string'; // comment /* not-a-nested-comment
var = 0.5; // comment */* still-a-comment
' /**/ string ' /* "comment..."
// still-a-comment */ alert('This isn\'t a comment!');
/\/* this isn't a comment! */; //* comment
/*
    //a comment... // still-a-comment
    12345
    "Foo /bar/ ""
*/
/*//Boo*/
/*/**/
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