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Parser
Description

The Parser is the most fundamental concept. A Parser has a member function, parse, that accepts a first-last ForwardIterator pair and returns bool as its result. The iterators delimit the data being parsed. The Parser's parse member function returns true if the parse succeeds, in which case the first iterator is advanced accordingly. Each Parser can represent a specific pattern or algorithm, or it can be a more complex parser formed as a composition of other Parsers.

Notation

p

A Parser.

P

A Parser type.

Iter

a ForwardIterator type.

f, l

ForwardIterator. first/last iterator pair.

Context

The parser's Context type.

context

The parser's Context, or unused.

skip

A skip Parser, or unused.

attrib

A Compatible Attribute, or unused.

Valid Expressions

In the expressions below, the behavior of the parser, p, and how skip and attrib are handled by p, are left unspecified in the base Parser concept. These are specified in subsequent, more refined concepts and by the actual models thereof.

For any Parser the following expressions must be valid:

Expression

Semantics

Return type

p.parse(f, l, context, skip, attr)

Match the input sequence starting from f. Return true if successful, otherwise return false.

bool

p.what(context)

Get information about a Parser.

info

Type Expressions

Expression

Description

P::template attribute<Context, Iter>::type

The Parser's expected attribute.

traits::is_parser<P>::type

Metafunction that evaluates to mpl::true_ if a certain type, P is a Parser, mpl::false_ otherwise (See MPL Boolean Constant).

Postcondition

Upon return from p.parse the following post conditions should hold:

Models

All parsers in Spirit.Qi are models of the Parser concept.


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