Documentation

The parser p ? msg behaves as parser p, but whenever the parser p fails without consuming any input, it replaces expect error messages with the expect error message msg.

This is normally used at the end of a set alternatives where we want to return an error message in terms of a higher level construct rather than returning all possible characters. For example, if the expr parser from the try example would fail, the error message is: '...: expecting expression'. Without the (<?>) combinator, the message would be like '...: expecting "let" or letter', which is less friendly.

An associative binary operation

The most general way to run a parser. runParser p state filePath input runs parser p on the input list of tokens input, obtained from source filePath with the initial user state st. The filePath is only used in error messages and may be the empty string. Returns either a ParseError (Left) or a value of type a (Right).

 parseFromFile p fname
   = do{ input <- readFile fname
       ; return (runParser p () fname input)
       }

parse p filePath input runs a parser p without user state. The filePath is only used in error messages and may be the empty string. Returns either a ParseError (Left) or a value of type a (Right).

 main    = case (parse numbers "" "11, 2, 43") of
            Left err  -> print err
            Right xs  -> print (sum xs)

 numbers = commaSep integer

The expression parseTest p input applies a parser p against input input and prints the result to stdout. Used for testing parsers.

The parser token showTok posFromTok testTok accepts a token t with result x when the function testTok t returns Just x. The source position of the t should be returned by posFromTok t and the token can be shown using showTok t.

This combinator is expressed in terms of tokenPrim. It is used to accept user defined token streams. For example, suppose that we have a stream of basic tokens tupled with source positions. We can than define a parser that accepts single tokens as:

 mytoken x
   = token showTok posFromTok testTok
   where
     showTok (pos,t)     = show t
     posFromTok (pos,t)  = pos
     testTok (pos,t)     = if x == t then Just t else Nothing

The parser token showTok nextPos testTok accepts a token t with result x when the function testTok t returns Just x. The token can be shown using showTok t. The position of the next token should be returned when nextPos is called with the current source position pos, the current token t and the rest of the tokens toks, nextPos pos t toks.

This is the most primitive combinator for accepting tokens. For example, the char parser could be implemented as:

 char c
   = tokenPrim showChar nextPos testChar
   where
     showChar x        = "'" ++ x ++ "'"
     testChar x        = if x == c then Just x else Nothing
     nextPos pos x xs  = updatePosChar pos x

The most primitive token recogniser. The expression tokenPrimEx show nextpos mbnextstate test, recognises tokens when test returns Just x (and returns the value x). Tokens are shown in error messages using show. The position is calculated using nextpos, and finally, mbnextstate, can hold a function that updates the user state on every token recognised (nice to count tokens :-). The function is packed into a Maybe type for performance reasons.

The parser try p behaves like parser p, except that it pretends that it hasn't consumed any input when an error occurs.

This combinator is used whenever arbitrary look ahead is needed. Since it pretends that it hasn't consumed any input when p fails, the (<|>) combinator will try its second alternative even when the first parser failed while consuming input.

The try combinator can for example be used to distinguish identifiers and reserved words. Both reserved words and identifiers are a sequence of letters. Whenever we expect a certain reserved word where we can also expect an identifier we have to use the try combinator. Suppose we write:

 expr        = letExpr <|> identifier <?> "expression"

 letExpr     = do{ string "let"; ... }
 identifier  = many1 letter

If the user writes "lexical", the parser fails with: unexpected 'x', expecting 't' in "let". Indeed, since the (<|>) combinator only tries alternatives when the first alternative hasn't consumed input, the identifier parser is never tried (because the prefix "le" of the string "let" parser is already consumed). The right behaviour can be obtained by adding the try combinator:

 expr        = letExpr <|> identifier <?> "expression"

 letExpr     = do{ try (string "let"); ... }
 identifier  = many1 letter

lookAhead p parses p without consuming any input.

The parser unexpected msg always fails with an unexpected error message msg without consuming any input.

The parsers MonadFail, (<?>) and unexpected are the three parsers used to generate error messages. Of these, only (<?>) is commonly used. For an example of the use of unexpected, see the definition of notFollowedBy.

Zero or more.

skipMany p applies the parser p zero or more times, skipping its result.

 spaces  = skipMany space

Returns the current user state.

setState st set the user state to st.

updateState f applies function f to the user state. Suppose that we want to count identifiers in a source, we could use the user state as:

 expr  = do{ x <- identifier
           ; updateState (+1)
           ; return (Id x)
           }

Returns the current source position. See also SourcePos.

setPosition pos sets the current source position to pos.

Returns the current input

setInput input continues parsing with input.

Returns the full parser state as a State record.

setParserState st set the full parser state to st.