Boost C++ Libraries

A parser will not be complete without error handling. Spirit2 provides some facilities to make it easy to adapt a grammar for error handling. We'll wrap up the Qi tutorial with another version of the mini xml parser, this time, with error handling.

The full cpp file for this example can be found here: ../../example/qi/mini_xml3.cpp

Here's the grammar:

template <typename Iterator>
struct mini_xml_grammar
  : qi::grammar<Iterator, mini_xml(), qi::locals<std::string>, ascii::space_type>
{
    mini_xml_grammar()
      : mini_xml_grammar::base_type(xml, "xml")
    {
        using qi::lit;
        using qi::lexeme;
        using qi::on_error;
        using qi::fail;
        using ascii::char_;
        using ascii::string;
        using namespace qi::labels;

        using phoenix::construct;
        using phoenix::val;

        text %= lexeme[+(char_ - '<')];
        node %= xml | text;

        start_tag %=
                '<'
            >>  !lit('/')
            >   lexeme[+(char_ - '>')]
            >   '>'
        ;

        end_tag =
                "</"
            >   lit(_r1)
            >   '>'
        ;

        xml %=
                start_tag[_a = _1]
            >   *node
            >   end_tag(_a)
        ;

        xml.name("xml");
        node.name("node");
        text.name("text");
        start_tag.name("start_tag");
        end_tag.name("end_tag");

        on_error<fail>
        (
            xml
          , std::cout
                << val("Error! Expecting ")
                << _4                               // what failed?
                << val(" here: \"")
                << construct<std::string>(_3, _2)   // iterators to error-pos, end
                << val("\"")
                << std::endl
        );
    }

    qi::rule<Iterator, mini_xml(), qi::locals<std::string>, ascii::space_type> xml;
    qi::rule<Iterator, mini_xml_node(), ascii::space_type> node;
    qi::rule<Iterator, std::string(), ascii::space_type> text;
    qi::rule<Iterator, std::string(), ascii::space_type> start_tag;
    qi::rule<Iterator, void(std::string), ascii::space_type> end_tag;
};

What's new?

Readable Names

First, when we call the base class, we give the grammar a name:

: mini_xml_grammar::base_type(xml, "xml")

Then, we name all our rules:

xml.name("xml");
node.name("node");
text.name("text");
start_tag.name("start_tag");
end_tag.name("end_tag");

On Success

on_success declares a handler that is applied when a rule is succesfully matched.

on_success(rule, handler)

This specifies that the handler will be called when a rule is matched successfully. The handler has the following signature:

void handler(
	fusion::vector<
		Iterator& first,
		Iterator const& last,
		Iterator const& i> args,
	Context& context)

first points to the position in the input sequence before the rule is matched. last points to the last position in the input sequence. i points to the position in the input sequence following the last character that was consumed by the rule.

A success handler can be used to annotate each matched rule in the grammar with additional information about the portion of the input that matched the rule. In a compiler application, this can be a combination of file, line number and column number from the input stream for reporting diagnostics or other messages.

On Error

on_error declares our error handler:

on_error<Action>(rule, handler)

This will specify what we will do when we get an error. We will print out an error message using phoenix:

on_error<fail>
(
    xml
  , std::cout
        << val("Error! Expecting ")
        << _4                               // what failed?
        << val(" here: \"")
        << construct<std::string>(_3, _2)   // iterators to error-pos, end
        << val("\"")
        << std::endl
);

we choose to fail in our example for the Action: Quit and fail. Return a no_match (false). It can be one of:

rule is the rule to which the handler is attached. In our case, we are attaching to the xml rule.

handler is the actual error handling function. It expects 4 arguments:

Expectation Points

You might not have noticed it, but some of our expressions changed from using the >> to >. Look, for example:

end_tag =
        "</"
    >   lit(_r1)
    >   '>'
;

What is it? It's the expectation operator. You will have some "deterministic points" in the grammar. Those are the places where backtracking cannot occur. For our example above, when you get a "</", you definitely must see a valid end-tag label next. It should be the one you got from the start-tag. After that, you definitely must have a '>' next. Otherwise, there is no point in proceeding and trying other branches, regardless where they are. The input is definitely erroneous. When this happens, an expectation_failure exception is thrown. Somewhere outward, the error handler will catch the exception.

Try building the parser: ../../example/qi/mini_xml3.cpp. You can find some examples in: ../../example/qi/mini_xml_samples for testing purposes. "4.toyxml" has an error in it:

<foo><bar></foo></bar>

Running the example with this gives you:

Error! Expecting "bar" here: "foo></bar>"
Error! Expecting end_tag here: "<bar></foo></bar>"
-------------------------
Parsing failed
-------------------------