libpypa - A Python Parser Library in C++
- Introduction
- Motivation
- Goal
- Example
- Error Reporting
- Requirements
- Structure
- Lexer
- Parser
- AST
- License
Introduction
libpypa is a Python parser implemented in pure C++. It neither uses any tools like flex, yacc, bison etc, nor is it using any parser framework like Boost.Spirit. It's implementation is pure C++ code.
Motivation
I started getting involved into the pyston project where it had an entry in their getting involved list for implementing a parser for Python. Never having properly tackled the problem of creating a parser library for any language, I decided it might be worth a try, since most of the libraries I found, where basically just using the builtin Python parser or where implemented in Python itself.
Goal
The first goal of the library is to support python 2.7 syntax, later on 3.x syntax might be added.
Example
An example file:
$cat hello_world.py
#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
"""
A "Hello World" example for the pypa parser
"""
import sys
print >> sys.stdout, "Hello", "World!"
And here the output of the test parser:
$ ./parser-test hello_world.py
Parsing successfull
[Module]
- body:
[Suite]
- items: [
[DocString]
- doc:
A "Hello World" example for the pypa parser
[Import]
- names:
[Alias]
- as_name: <NULL>
- name:
[Name]
- context: Load
- dotted: False
- id: sys
[Print]
- destination:
[Attribute]
- attribute:
[Name]
- context: Load
- dotted: False
- id: stdout
- context: Load
- value:
[Name]
- context: Load
- dotted: False
- id: sys
- newline: True
- values: [
[Str]
- value: Hello
[Str]
- value: World!
]
]
- kind: Module
And here the parse tree of python: (astdump.py can be found in tools)
[Module]
- body: [
[Expr]
- value:
[Str]
- s:
A "Hello World" example for the pypa parser
[Import]
- names: [
[alias]
- asname: None
- name: sys
]
[Print]
- dest:
[Attribute]
- attr: stdout
- ctx: Load
- value:
[Name]
- ctx: Load
- id: sys
- nl: True
- values: [
[Str]
- s: Hello
[Str]
- s: World!
]
]
Error Reporting
The parser supports also SyntaxError and IndentionError reporting:
Let's take a look at this file syntax_error.py which clearly has a
syntax error:
#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Syntax error example
"""
print x y z
This is the output of the test parser:
$./parser-test syntax_error.py
File "syntax_error.py", line 7
print x y z
^
SyntaxError: Expected new line after statement
-> Reported @pypa/parser/parser.cc:944 in bool pypa::simple_stmt(pypa::{anonymous}::State&, pypa::AstStmt&)
Parsing failed
And this of cpython 2.7:
$ python syntax_error.py
File "syntax_error.py", line 7
print x y z
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
libpypa uses different error messages than python, however in the hopes that that would increase the clarity.
Requirements
To be able using libpypa, you have to have a C++11 compiler available. libpypa was developed on top of g++ 4.8.2 and it heavily uses C++11 features where seen fit.
libpypa currently does not depend on any other libraries than the C++11
standard library with the exception of the class FileBuf which currently
uses system libraries, but might be changed to just use fopen/fread/
fclose.
Structure
libpypa currently consists of 3 major parts:
LexerParserAST
Lexer
The Lexer portion of the library tokenizes the input for the Parser and
distinguishes the different types of tokens for the Parser.
Parser
The Parser utilizes the Lexer to parse the input and generates a
preliminary AST from the input.
AST
The AST contains the definition of all syntax elements in the code. The main
parts of the definition are in pypa/ast/ast.hh which makes heavily use of
preprocessor macros to define typedefs, mappings for compile time type lookups
by AstType (enum class), and an implementation for a switch based visitor.
The AST types do not implement any methods, they are just structures with data. The only thing which is in there for some of the bases is the constructor, to set the type id value and initialize the line and column values.
License
Copyright 2014 Vinzenz Feenstra
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
License for src/double-conversion
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