goparsify/readme.md
2017-08-11 00:08:08 +10:00

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goparsify [![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/Vektah/goparsify/tree/master.svg?style=shield)](https://circleci.com/gh/Vektah/goparsify/tree/master) [![godoc](http://b.repl.ca/v1/godoc-reference-blue.png)](https://godoc.org/github.com/Vektah/goparsify) [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/vektah/goparsify)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/vektah/goparsify)
=========
A parser-combinator library for building easy to test, read and maintain parsers using functional composition.
Everything should be unicode safe by default, but you can opt out of unicode whitespace for a decent ~20% performance boost.
```go
Run(parser, input, ASCIIWhitespace)
```
### benchmarks
I dont have many benchmarks set up yet, but the json parser is very promising. Nearly keeping up with the stdlib for raw speed:
```
$ go test -bench=. -benchtime=2s -benchmem ./json
BenchmarkUnmarshalParsec-8 20000 65682 ns/op 50460 B/op 1318 allocs/op
BenchmarkUnmarshalParsify-8 30000 51292 ns/op 45104 B/op 334 allocs/op
BenchmarkUnmarshalStdlib-8 30000 46522 ns/op 13953 B/op 262 allocs/op
PASS
ok github.com/vektah/goparsify/json 10.840s
```
### debugging parsers
When a parser isnt working as you intended you can build with debugging and enable logging to get a detailed log of exactly what the parser is doing.
1. First build with debug using `-tags debug`
2. enable logging by calling `EnableLogging(os.Stdout)` in your code
This works great with tests, eg in the goparsify source tree
```
$ cd html
$ go test -tags debug -parselogs
html.go:50 | <body>hello <p | | tag
html.go:45 | <body>hello <p | | tstart
html.go:45 | body>hello <p c | < | <
html.go:20 | >hello <p color | body | identifier
html.go:35 | >hello <p color | | attrs
html.go:34 | >hello <p color | | attr
html.go:20 | >hello <p color | fail | identifier
html.go:45 | hello <p color= | > | >
html.go:26 | hello <p color= | | elements
html.go:25 | hello <p color= | | element
html.go:21 | <p color="blue" | hello | text
html.go:25 | <p color="blue" | | element
html.go:21 | <p color="blue" | fail | text
html.go:50 | <p color="blue" | | tag
html.go:45 | <p color="blue" | | tstart
html.go:45 | p color="blue"> | < | <
html.go:20 | color="blue">w | p | identifier
html.go:35 | color="blue">w | | attrs
html.go:34 | color="blue">w | | attr
html.go:20 | ="blue">world</ | color | identifier
html.go:34 | "blue">world</p | = | =
html.go:34 | >world</p></bod | | string literal
html.go:34 | >world</p></bod | | attr
html.go:20 | >world</p></bod | fail | identifier
html.go:45 | world</p></body | > | >
html.go:26 | world</p></body | | elements
html.go:25 | world</p></body | | element
html.go:21 | </p></body> | world | text
html.go:25 | </p></body> | | element
html.go:21 | </p></body> | fail | text
html.go:50 | </p></body> | | tag
html.go:45 | </p></body> | | tstart
html.go:45 | /p></body> | < | <
html.go:20 | /p></body> | fail | identifier
html.go:46 | </p></body> | | tend
html.go:46 | p></body> | </ | </
html.go:20 | ></body> | p | identifier
html.go:46 | </body> | > | >
html.go:25 | </body> | | element
html.go:21 | </body> | fail | text
html.go:50 | </body> | | tag
html.go:45 | </body> | | tstart
html.go:45 | /body> | < | <
html.go:20 | /body> | fail | identifier
html.go:46 | </body> | | tend
html.go:46 | body> | </ | </
html.go:20 | > | body | identifier
html.go:46 | | > | >
PASS
ok github.com/vektah/goparsify/html 0.118s
```
### debugging performance
If you build the parser with -tags debug it will instrument each parser and a call to DumpDebugStats() will show stats:
```
_value 12.6186996s 2618801 calls json.go:36
_object 9.0349494s 361213 calls json.go:24
_properties 8.9393995s 361213 calls json.go:14
_properties 8.5702176s 2438185 calls json.go:14
_array 2.3471541s 391315 calls json.go:16
_array 2.263117s 30102 calls json.go:16
_properties 257.1277ms 2438185 calls json.go:14
_string 165.0818ms 2528489 calls json.go:12
_properties 94.0519ms 2438185 calls json.go:14
_true 81.5423ms 2618798 calls json.go:10
_false 74.032ms 2558593 calls json.go:11
_null 70.0318ms 2618801 calls json.go:9
_properties 56.5289ms 2438185 calls json.go:14
_number 52.0277ms 933135 calls json.go:13
_array 20.008ms 391315 calls json.go:16
_object 17.5049ms 361213 calls json.go:24
_object 9.0073ms 361213 calls json.go:24
_array 3.0025ms 150509 calls json.go:16
_array 3.0019ms 30102 calls json.go:16
```
All times are cumulative, it would be nice to break this down into a parse tree with relative times. This is a nice addition to pprof as it will break down the parsers based on where they are used instead of grouping them all by type.
This is **free** when the debug tag isnt used.
### example calculator
Lets say we wanted to build a calculator that could take an expression and calculate the result.
Lets start with test:
```go
func TestNumbers(t *testing.T) {
result, err := Calc(`1`)
require.NoError(t, err)
require.EqualValues(t, 1, result)
}
```
Then define a parser for numbers
```go
var number = Map(NumberLit(), func(n Result) Result {
switch i := n.Result.(type) {
case int64:
return Result{Result: float64(i)}
case float64:
return Result{Result: i}
default:
panic(fmt.Errorf("unknown value %#v", i))
}
})
func Calc(input string) (float64, error) {
result, err := Run(y, input)
if err != nil {
return 0, err
}
return result.(float64), nil
}
```
This parser will return numbers either as float64 or int depending on the literal, for this calculator we only want floats so we Map the results and type cast.
Run the tests and make sure everything is ok.
Time to add addition
```go
func TestAddition(t *testing.T) {
result, err := Calc(`1+1`)
require.NoError(t, err)
require.EqualValues(t, 2, result)
}
var sumOp = Chars("+-", 1, 1)
sum = Map(Seq(number, Some(And(sumOp, number))), func(n Result) Result {
i := n.Child[0].Result.(float64)
for _, op := range n.Child[1].Child {
switch op.Child[0].Token {
case "+":
i += op.Child[1].Result.(float64)
case "-":
i -= op.Child[1].Result.(float64)
}
}
return Result{Result: i}
})
// and update Calc to point to the new root parser -> `result, err := ParseString(sum, input)`
```
This parser will match number ([+-] number)+, then map its to be the sum. See how the Child map directly to the positions in the parsers? n is the result of the and, `n.Child[0]` is its first argument, `n.Child[1]` is the result of the Some parser, `n.Child[1].Child[0]` is the result of the first And and so fourth. Given how closely tied the parser and the Map are it is good to keep the two together.
You can continue like this and add multiplication and parenthesis fairly easily. Eventually if you keep adding parsers you will end up with a loop, and go will give you a handy error message like:
```
typechecking loop involving value = goparsify.Any(number, groupExpr)
```
we need to break the loop using a pointer, then set its value in init
```go
var (
value Parser
prod = Seq(&value, Some(And(prodOp, &value)))
)
func init() {
value = Any(number, groupExpr)
}
```
Take a look at [calc](calc/calc.go) for a full example.
### preventing backtracking with cuts
A cut is a marker that prevents backtracking past the point it was set. This greatly improves error messages when used correctly:
```go
alpha := Chars("a-z")
// without a cut if the close tag is left out the parser will backtrack and ignore the rest of the string
nocut := Many(Any(Seq("<", alpha, ">"), alpha))
_, err := Run(nocut, "asdf <foo")
fmt.Println(err.Error())
// Outputs: left unparsed: <foo
// with a cut, once we see the open tag we know there must be a close tag that matches it, so the parser will error
cut := Many(Any(Seq("<", Cut(), alpha, ">"), alpha))
_, err = Run(cut, "asdf <foo")
fmt.Println(err.Error())
// Outputs: offset 9: expected >
```
### prior art
Inspired by https://github.com/prataprc/goparsec