Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Let’s write a parser! [RUG::B edition]
Search
Denis Defreyne
May 12, 2016
Programming
230
3
Share
Let’s write a parser! [RUG::B edition]
Denis Defreyne
May 12, 2016
More Decks by Denis Defreyne
See All by Denis Defreyne
The importance of naming
denisdefreyne
0
150
An introduction to fibers
denisdefreyne
0
280
Code as data (RubyConfBY 2019 edition)
denisdefreyne
0
160
Code as data
denisdefreyne
0
240
How to memoize
denisdefreyne
0
240
Clean & fast code with enumerators
denisdefreyne
0
190
Fibers
denisdefreyne
0
550
Let’s create a programming language! [SoundCloud HQ edition]
denisdefreyne
0
270
Let’s create a programming language! [RUG::B edition]
denisdefreyne
1
270
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
PHPでローカル環境用のSSL/TLS証明書を発行することはできるのか? #phpconkagawa
akase244
0
360
How We Practice Exploratory Testing in Iterative Development( #scrumniigata ) / 反復開発の中で、探索的テストをどう実施しているか
teyamagu
PRO
3
790
ふにゃっとしない名前の付け方 〜哲学で茹で上げる、コシのあるソフトウェア設計〜
shimomura
0
120
20260514_its_the_context_window_stupid.pdf
heita
0
920
AlarmKitで明後日起きれるアラームアプリを作る
trickart
0
130
〜バイブコーディングを超えて〜 チームで実験し続けたAI駆動開発
tigertora7571
0
200
UaaL×Androidアプリのメモリ計測 — Memory Profilerの先へ
rio432
0
150
Spec Driven Development | AI Summit Vilnius
danielsogl
PRO
1
150
エラー処理の温故知新 / history of error handling technic
ryotanakaya
7
1.9k
PHPでバイナリをパースして理解するASN.1
muno92
PRO
0
450
Symfony AI in Action - SymfonyLive Berlin 2026
chr_hertel
1
140
SkillsをS3 Filesに置く時のあれこれ
watany
3
1.5k
Featured
See All Featured
Context Engineering - Making Every Token Count
addyosmani
9
880
Why Your Marketing Sucks and What You Can Do About It - Sophie Logan
marketingsoph
0
140
HU Berlin: Industrial-Strength Natural Language Processing with spaCy and Prodigy
inesmontani
PRO
0
370
Git: the NoSQL Database
bkeepers
PRO
432
67k
AI Search: Where Are We & What Can We Do About It?
aleyda
0
7.4k
Building Experiences: Design Systems, User Experience, and Full Site Editing
marktimemedia
0
500
Groundhog Day: Seeking Process in Gaming for Health
codingconduct
0
170
Beyond borders and beyond the search box: How to win the global "messy middle" with AI-driven SEO
davidcarrasco
3
130
Become a Pro
speakerdeck
PRO
31
5.9k
The agentic SEO stack - context over prompts
schlessera
0
770
Build your cross-platform service in a week with App Engine
jlugia
234
18k
Unsuck your backbone
ammeep
672
58k
Transcript
Let’s write a parser! DENIS DEFREYNE / RUG˸˸B / MAY
12TH, 2016
1. Language 2
I am Denis. 3
But how do you know that I am Denis? 4
But how do you know that I am Denis? I
told you. I wrote it down. Tobi introduced me. You might have seen me before. Etc. 5
But how do you know that I am Denis? You
understand English. 6
Computers are stupid. 7
8 $ git commit --message="Fix bugs"
9 def greet(name) puts "Hello, #{name}" end
Text forms a language, but computers don’t know that. 10
2. Parsing 11
Basic idea: 12 Parser objects that are small, composable, and
purely functional.
13 def read(input, pos)
14 def read(input, pos) Success.new(pos + 1) end
15 def read(input, pos) Failure.new(pos) end
16 char("H") Succeeds if the next character is the given
one.
17 char("H").apply("Hello")
17 H e l l o char("H").apply("Hello")
17 H e l l o 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Hello")
17 H e l l o 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Hello")
17 H e l l o 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Hello")
17 H e l l o 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Hello") Success(position = 1)
18 char("H").apply("Adiós")
18 A d i ó s 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Adiós")
18 A d i ó s 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Adiós")
18 A d i ó s 0 1 2 3
4 char("H").apply("Adiós")
Failure(position = 0) 18 A d i ó s 0
1 2 3 4 char("H").apply("Adiós")
19 if input[pos] == @char Success.new(pos + 1) else Failure.new(pos)
end
20 seq(a, b) Succeeds if both given parsers succeed in
sequence.
21 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 21 0 1 2 3
4 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 21 0 1 2 3
4 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 21 0 1 2 3
4 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 21 0 1 2 3
4 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 21 0 1 2 3
4 seq(char("H"), char("e")).apply("Hello") Success(position = 2)
22 seq( char("H"), char("e"), char("l"), char("l"), char("o"), )
23 string(s) Succeeds if all characters in the given string
can be read in sequence.
H e l l o 24 0 1 2 3
4 string("Hello").apply("Hello")
H e l l o 24 0 1 2 3
4 string("Hello").apply("Hello")
H e l l o 24 0 1 2 3
4 string("Hello").apply("Hello")
H e l l o 24 0 1 2 3
4 string("Hello").apply("Hello") Success(position = 5)
25 eof() Succeeds at the end of input; fails otherwise.
H e l l o 26 0 1 2 3
4 seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 26 0 1 2 3
4 seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 26 0 1 2 3
4 seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 26 0 1 2 3
4 seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello")
H e l l o 26 0 1 2 3
4 seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello") Success(position = 5)
27 0 1 2 3 4 5 H e l
l o ! seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello!")
27 0 1 2 3 4 5 H e l
l o ! seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello!")
27 0 1 2 3 4 5 H e l
l o ! seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello!")
27 0 1 2 3 4 5 H e l
l o ! seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello!")
27 0 1 2 3 4 5 Failure(position = 5)
H e l l o ! seq(string("Hello"), eof).apply("Hello!")
28 alt(a, b) Succeeds if either of the given parsers
succeed.
A d i ó s 29 0 1 2 3
4 alt(char("H"), char("A")).apply("Adiós")
A d i ó s 29 0 1 2 3
4 alt(char("H"), char("A")).apply("Adiós")
A d i ó s 29 0 1 2 3
4 alt(char("H"), char("A")).apply("Adiós")
A d i ó s 29 0 1 2 3
4 alt(char("H"), char("A")).apply("Adiós") Success(position = 1)
30 whitespace_char = alt(char(" "), char("\t"))
31 optional(p) Succeeds always, but only advances if p succeeds.
32 repeat(p) Succeeds always, and attempts to apply p as
often as possible.
33 repeat(whitespace_char)
34 intersperse(a, b) Alternates between a and b., always ending
with a.
35 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b")
a , a , b 35 0 1 2 3
4 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b")
a , a , b 35 0 1 2 3
4 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b")
a , a , b 35 0 1 2 3
4 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b")
a , a , b 35 0 1 2 3
4 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b")
a , a , b 35 0 1 2 3
4 intersperse(char("a"), char(",")).apply("a,a,b") Success(position = 3)
36 etc.
37 720 6 29530
38 digit = alt( *('0'..'9') .map { |c| char(c)
} )
39 digit = char_in('0'..'9')
40 nat_number = seq(digit, repeat(digit))
41 nat_number = repeat1(digit)
42 nat_number = repeat1(digit) .capture
42 nat_number = repeat1(digit) .capture Success(position = 3, data =
"123")
43 nat_number = repeat1(digit) .capture .map(&:to_i)
43 nat_number = repeat1(digit) .capture .map(&:to_i) Success(position = 3, data
= 123)
44 def read(input, pos)
45 def read(input, pos) Success.new(pos + 1) end
46 def read(input, pos) Success.new(pos + 1, "blahblah") end
47 first,last,age Denis,Defreyne,29
48
48 field = repeat(char_not(',', "\n")).capture
48 field = repeat(char_not(',', "\n")).capture line = field.intersperse(char(','))
48 field = repeat(char_not(',', "\n")).capture line = field.intersperse(char(',')) file =
seq( line.intersperse(char("\n")), end_of_input, )
49 [ ["first_name", "last_name", "age"], ["Denis", "Defreyne", "29"], ]
50 add(1, mul(2, 3)) mul(2, 3)
51 lparen = char('(') rparen = char(')') comma = char(',')
52 expr = alt(lazy { funcall }, nat_number)
53 funcall = seq( identifier, lparen, arglist, rparen, )
54 letter = char_in('a'..'z') identifier = repeat1(letter).capture
55
55 arglist = seq(expr, arglist_tail)
55 arglist = seq(expr, arglist_tail) arglist_tail = repeat(seq(comma, whitespace, expr))
56
56 expr_list = expr.intersperse(char("\n"))
56 expr_list = expr.intersperse(char("\n")) program = seq(expr_list, eof)
57 [ ["add", 1, ["mul", 2, 3]], ["mul", 2, 3],
]
And that is how you can write a parser. 58
github.com/ddfreyne/d-parse 59
github.com/ddfreyne/d-parse 59
github.com/ddfreyne/d-parse 59
60 My name is Denis Defreyne. Ready to parse your
questions. Find me at
[email protected]
, or @ddfreyne on Twitter.