Accessing Scala Parser regular expression match data

Question

I wondering if it\'s possible to get the MatchData generated from the matching regular expression in the grammar below.

object DateParser extends JavaTokenParser         


        

Answer 1

I ran into a similar issue using scala 2.8.1 and trying to parse input of the form "name:value" using the RegexParsers class:

package scalucene.query

import scala.util.matching.Regex
import scala.util.parsing.combinator._

object QueryParser extends RegexParsers {
  override def skipWhitespace = false

  private def quoted = regex(new Regex("\"[^\"]+"))
  private def colon = regex(new Regex(":"))
  private def word = regex(new Regex("\\w+"))
  private def fielded = (regex(new Regex("[^:]+")) <~ colon) ~ word
  private def term = (fielded | word | quoted)

  def parseItem(str: String) = parse(term, str)
}

It seems that you can grab the matched groups after parsing like this:

QueryParser.parseItem("nameExample:valueExample") match {
  case QueryParser.Success(result:scala.util.parsing.combinator.Parsers$$tilde, _) => {
      println("Name: " + result.productElement(0) + " value: " + result.productElement(1))
  }
}

Answer 2

When a Regex is used in a RegexParsers instance, the implicit def regex(Regex): Parser[String] in RegexParsers is used to appoly that Regex to the input. The Match instance yielded upon successful application of the RE at the current input is used to construct a Success in the regex() method, but only its "end" value is used, so any captured sub-matches are discarded by the time that method returns.

As it stands (in the 2.7 source I looked at), you're out of luck, I believe.

Answer 3

No, you can't do this. If you look at the definition of the Parser used when you convert a regex to a Parser, it throws away all context and just returns the full matched string:

http://lampsvn.epfl.ch/trac/scala/browser/scala/tags/R_2_7_7_final/src/library/scala/util/parsing/combinator/RegexParsers.scala?view=markup#L55

You have a couple of other options, though:

• break up your parser into several smaller parsers (for the tokens you actually want to extract)
• define a custom parser that extracts the values you want and returns a domain object instead of a string

The first would look like

val separator = "-" | "/"
  val year = ("""\d{4}"""r) <~ separator
  val month = ("""\d\d"""r) <~ separator
  val day = """\d\d"""r

  val date = ((year?) ~ (month?) ~ day) map {
    case year ~ month ~ day =>
      (year.getOrElse("2009"), month.getOrElse("11"), day)
  }

The <~ means "require these two tokens together, but only give me the result of the first one.

The ~ means "require these two tokens together and tie them together in a pattern-matchable ~ object.

The ? means that the parser is optional and will return an Option.

The .getOrElse bit provides a default value for when the parser didn't define a value.

Answer 4

Here is the implicit definition that converts your Regex into a Parser:

  /** A parser that matches a regex string */
  implicit def regex(r: Regex): Parser[String] = new Parser[String] {
    def apply(in: Input) = {
      val source = in.source
      val offset = in.offset
      val start = handleWhiteSpace(source, offset)
      (r findPrefixMatchOf (source.subSequence(start, source.length))) match {
        case Some(matched) =>
          Success(source.subSequence(start, start + matched.end).toString, 
                  in.drop(start + matched.end - offset))
        case None =>
          Failure("string matching regex `"+r+"' expected but `"+in.first+"' found", in.drop(start - offset))
      }
    }
  }

Just adapt it:

object X extends RegexParsers {
  /** A parser that matches a regex string and returns the Match */
  def regexMatch(r: Regex): Parser[Regex.Match] = new Parser[Regex.Match] {
    def apply(in: Input) = {
      val source = in.source
      val offset = in.offset
      val start = handleWhiteSpace(source, offset)
      (r findPrefixMatchOf (source.subSequence(start, source.length))) match {
        case Some(matched) =>
          Success(matched,
                  in.drop(start + matched.end - offset))
        case None =>
          Failure("string matching regex `"+r+"' expected but `"+in.first+"' found", in.drop(start - offset))
      }
    }
  }
  val t = regexMatch("""(\d\d)/(\d\d)/(\d\d\d\d)""".r) ^^ { case m => (m.group(1), m.group(2), m.group(3)) }
}

Example:

scala> X.parseAll(X.t, "23/03/1971")
res8: X.ParseResult[(String, String, String)] = [1.11] parsed: (23,03,1971)