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| <td width="85%"> <font size="6" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The Switch Parser </b></font></td> |
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| <p>Switch parsers may be used to simplify certain alternation constructs. Consider the following code:</p> |
| <pre> rule<span class="special"><></span> rule_overall <span class="special">=</span> |
| ch_p<span class="special">(</span><span class="literal">'a'</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">>></span> parser_a |
| <span class="special">|</span> ch_p<span class="special">(</span><span class="literal">'b'</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">>></span> parser_b |
| <span class="comment">// ...</span> |
| <span class="special">|</span> ch_p<span class="special">(</span><span class="literal">'n'</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">>></span> parser_n |
| <span class="special">;</span></pre> |
| <p>Each of the alternatives are evaluated normally in a sequential manner. This tend to be inefficient, especially for a large number of alternatives. To avoid this inefficiency and to make it possible to write such constructs in a more readable form, Spirit contains the <tt>switch_p</tt> family of parsers. The switch_p parser allows us to rewrite the previous construct as:</p> |
| <pre> rule<span class="special"><></span> rule_overall <span class="special">=</span> |
| switch_p |
| <span class="special">[</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'a'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_a<span class="special">),</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'b'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_b<span class="special">),</span> |
| <span class="comment"> // ...</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'n'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_n<span class="special">)</span> |
| ] |
| ;</pre> |
| <p>This <tt>switch_p</tt> parser takes the next character (or token) from the input stream and tries to match it against the given integral compile time constants supplied as the template parameters to the <tt>case_p</tt> parsers. If this character matches one of the <tt>case_p</tt> branches, the associated parser is executed (i.e. if 'a' is matched, <tt>parser_a</tt> is executed, if 'b' is matched, <tt>parser_b</tt> is executed and so on) . If no <tt>case_p</tt> branch matches the next input character, the overall construct does not match at all. </p> |
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| <td class="note_box"><div align="justify"><img src="theme/bulb.gif" width="13" height="18"><strong> Nabialek trick </strong><br> |
| <br> |
| The <strong><em><a href="techniques.html#nabialek_trick">"Nabialek trick" </a></em></strong>(from the name of its inventor, Sam Nabialek), can also improve the rule dispatch from linear non-deterministic to deterministic. This is similar to the <tt>switch_p</tt> parser, yet, can handle grammars where a keyword (operator, etc), instead of a single character or token, precedes a production.</div></td> |
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| <p>Sometimes it is desireable to add handling of the default case (none of the <tt>case_p</tt> branches matched). This may be achieved with the help of a <tt>default_p</tt> branch:</p> |
| <pre> rule<span class="special"><></span> rule_overall <span class="special">=</span> |
| switch_p |
| <span class="special">[</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'a'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_a<span class="special">),</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'b'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_b<span class="special">),</span> |
| <span class="comment"> // ...</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'n'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_n<span class="special">),</span> |
| default_p<span class="special">(</span>parser_default<span class="special">)</span> |
| <span class="special">] |
| ;</span></pre> |
| <p>This form chooses the <tt>parser_default</tt> parser if none of the cases matches the next character from the input stream. Please note that, obviously, only one <tt>default_p</tt> branch may be added to the <tt>switch_p</tt> parser construct. </p> |
| <p>Moreover, it is possible to omit the parentheses and body from the <tt>default_p</tt> construct, in which case, no additional parser is executed and the overall <tt>switch_p</tt> construct simply returns a match on any character of the input stream, which does not match any of the <tt>case_p</tt> branches:</p> |
| <pre> rule<span class="special"><></span> rule_overall <span class="special">=</span> |
| switch_p |
| <span class="special">[</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'a'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_a<span class="special">),</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'b'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_b<span class="special">),</span> |
| <span class="comment">// ...</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'n'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_n<span class="special">),</span> |
| default_p |
| <span class="special">]</span> |
| ;</pre> |
| <p>There is another form of the switch_p construct. This form allows us to explicitly specify the value to be used for matching against the <tt>case_p</tt> branches: </p> |
| <pre> rule<span class="special"><></span> rule_overall <span class="special">=</span> |
| switch_p<span class="special">(</span>cond<span class="special">)</span> |
| <span class="special">[</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'a'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_a<span class="special">),</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'b'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_b<span class="special">),</span> |
| <span class="comment"> // ...</span> |
| case_p<span class="special"><</span><span class="literal">'n'</span><span class="special">>(</span>parser_n<span class="special">)</span> |
| <span class="special">]</span> |
| ;</pre> |
| <p>where <tt>cond</tt> is a parser or a nullary function or function object (functor). If it is a parser, then it is tried and its return value is used to match against the <tt>case_p</tt> branches. If it is a nullary function or functor, then its return value will be used. </p> |
| <p>Please note that during its compilation, the <tt>switch_p</tt> construct is transformed into a real C++ <tt>switch</tt> statement. This makes the runtime execution very efficient. </p> |
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| <td class="note_box"><p><img src="theme/alert.gif" width="16" height="16"> <tt>BOOST_SPIRIT_SWITCH_CASE_LIMIT</tt><br> |
| <br> |
| The number of possible <tt>case_p</tt>/<tt>default_p</tt> branches is limited by the Spirit compile time constant <tt>BOOST_SPIRIT_SWITCH_CASE_LIMIT</tt>, which defaults to 3. There is no theoretical upper limit for this constant, but most compilers won't allow you to specify a very large number.</p> |
| <p>Example:</p> |
| <p class="style1"><span class="comment">// Define these before including switch.hpp <br> |
| </span><span class="preprocessor">#define</span> BOOST_SPIRIT_SWITCH_CASE_LIMIT 10 </p></td> |
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| <p class="copyright">Copyright © 2003-2004 Hartmut Kaiser <br> |
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| <font size="2">Use, modification and distribution is subject to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) </font> </p> |
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