Parsec

Categories: Compiler tools | Combinators | Stub articles

1 Parsec

Parsec is an industrial strength, monadic parser combinator library for Haskell. It can parse context-sensitive, infinite look-ahead grammars but it performs best on predictive (LL[1]) grammars.

For downloads and documentation see:

• the Parsec site
• hackage
• GHC library documentation

1.1 Usage

Parsec lets you construct parsers by combining higher-order Combinators to create larger expressions. Combinator parsers are written and used within the same programming language as the rest of the program. The parsers are first-class citizens of the language , unlike Happy parsers, which must be generated via a preprocessor.

Much more documentation can be found on the parsec site.

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1.2 Parsec clones in other languages

• PCL for O'Caml http://lprousnth.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/pcl.pdf
• JParsec for Java http://jparsec.codehaus.org/JParsec+Overview
• NParsec, JParsec ported to C# http://jparsec.codehaus.org/NParsec+Tutorial
• Ruby Parsec, JParsec ported to Ruby http://jparsec.codehaus.org/Ruby+Parsec
• FParsec for F# http://www.quanttec.com/fparsec/
• A small Parsec in Erlang http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~jeffm/Source/Erlang/
• AliceParsec for Alice ML http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/alice/contribs.html
• Parsnip for C++ http://parsnip-parser.sourceforge.net/
• Somewhere there is a Nemerle port
• Pysec for Python http://www.valuedlessons.com/2008/02/pysec-monadic-combinatoric-parsing-in.html

Interesting non-Parsec parser combinator libraries:

• Spirit for C++ http://spirit.sourceforge.net/documentation.html
• Scala http://www.scala-lang.org/docu/files/api/scala/util/parsing/combinator$content.html

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