PLY (Python Lex-Yacc) Version 3.2
Copyright (C) 2001-2009,
David M. Beazley (Dabeaz LLC)
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Introduction
============
PLY is a 100% Python implementation of the common parsing tools lex
and yacc. Here are a few highlights:
- PLY is very closely modeled after traditional lex/yacc.
If you know how to use these tools in C, you will find PLY
to be similar.
- PLY provides *very* extensive error reporting and diagnostic
information to assist in parser construction. The original
implementation was developed for instructional purposes. As
a result, the system tries to identify the most common types
of errors made by novice users.
- PLY provides full support for empty productions, error recovery,
precedence specifiers, and moderately ambiguous grammars.
- Parsing is based on LR-parsing which is fast, memory efficient,
better suited to large grammars, and which has a number of nice
properties when dealing with syntax errors and other parsing problems.
Currently, PLY builds its parsing tables using the LALR(1)
algorithm used in yacc.
- PLY uses Python introspection features to build lexers and parsers.
This greatly simplifies the task of parser construction since it reduces
the number of files and eliminates the need to run a separate lex/yacc
tool before running your program.
- PLY can be used to build parsers for "real" programming languages.
Although it is not ultra-fast due to its Python implementation,
PLY can be used to parse grammars consisting of several hundred
rules (as might be found for a language like C). The lexer and LR
parser are also reasonably efficient when parsing typically
sized programs. People have used PLY to build parsers for
C, C++, ADA, and other real programming languages.
How to Use
==========
PLY consists of two files : lex.py and yacc.py. These are contained
within the 'ply' directory which may also be used as a Python package.
To use PLY, simply copy the 'ply' directory to your project and import
lex and yacc from the associated 'ply' package. For example:
import ply.lex as lex
import ply.yacc as yacc
Alternatively, you can copy just the files lex.py and yacc.py
individually and use them as modules. For example:
import lex
import yacc
The file setup.py can be used to install ply using distutils.
The file doc/ply.html contains complete documentation on how to use
the system.
The example directory contains several different examples including a
PLY specification for ANSI C as given in K&R 2nd Ed.
A simple example is found at the end of this document
Requirements
============
PLY requires the use of Python 2.2 or greater. However, you should
use the latest Python release if possible. It should work on just
about any platform. PLY has been tested with both CPython and Jython.
It also seems to work with IronPython.
Resources
=========
More information about PLY can be obtained on the PLY webpage at:
http://www.dabeaz.com/ply
For a detailed overview of parsing theory, consult the excellent
book "Compilers : Principles, Techniques, and Tools" by Aho, Sethi, and
Ullman. The topics found in "Lex & Yacc" by Levine, Mason, and Brown
may also be useful.
A Google group for PLY can be found at
http://groups.google.com/group/ply-hack
Acknowledgments
===============
A special thanks is in order for all of the students in CS326 who
suffered through about 25 different versions of these tools :-).
The CHANGES file acknowledges those who have contributed patches.
Elias Ioup did the first implementation of LALR(1) parsing in PLY-1.x.
Andrew Waters and Markus Schoepflin were instrumental in reporting bugs
and testing a revised LALR(1) implementation for PLY-2.0.
Special Note for PLY-3.0
========================
PLY-3.0 the first PLY release to support Python 3. However, backwards
compatibility with Python 2.2 is still preserved. PLY provides dual
Python 2/3 compatibility by restricting its implementation to a common
subset of basic language features. You should not convert PLY using
2to3--it is not necessary and may in fact break the implementation.
Example
=======
Here is a simple example showing a PLY implementation of a calculator
with variables.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# calc.py
#
# A simple calculator with variables.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
tokens = (
'NAME','NUMBER',
'PLUS','MINUS','TIMES','DIVIDE','EQUALS',
'LPAREN','RPAREN',
)
# Tokens
t_PLUS = r'\+'
t_MINUS = r'-'
t_TIMES = r'\*'
t_DIVIDE = r'/'
t_EQUALS = r'='
t_LPAREN = r'\('
t_RPAREN = r'\)'
t_NAME = r'[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*'
def t_NUMBER(t):
r'\d+'
t.value = int(t.value)
return t
# Ignored characters
t_ignore = " \t"
def t_newline(t):
r'\n+'
t.lexer.lineno += t.value.count("\n")
def t_error(t):
print "Illegal character '%s'" % t.value[0]
t.lexer.skip(1)
# Build the lexer
import ply.lex as lex
lex.lex()
# Precedence rules for the arithmetic operators
precedence = (
('left','PLUS','MINUS'),
('left','TIMES','DIVIDE'),
('right','UMINUS'),
)
# dictionary of names (for storing variables)
names = { }
def p_statement_assign(p):
'statement : NAME EQUALS expression'
names[p[1]] = p[3]
def p_statement_expr(p):
'statement : expression'
print p[1]
def p_expression_binop(p):
'''expression : expression PLUS expression
| expression MINUS expression
| expression TIMES expression
| expression DIVIDE expression'''
if p[2] == '+' : p[0] = p[1] + p[3]
elif p[2] == '-': p[0] = p[1] - p[3]
elif p[2] == '*': p[0] = p[1] * p[3]
elif p[2] == '/': p[0] = p[1] / p[3]
def p_expression_uminus(p):
'expression : MINUS expression %prec UMINUS'
p[0] = -p[2]
def p_expression_group(p):
'expression : LPAREN expression RPAREN'
p[0] = p[2]
def p_expression_number(p):
'expression : NUMBER'
p[0] = p[1]
def p_expression_name(p):
'expression : NAME'
try:
p[0] = names[p[1]]
except LookupError:
print "Undefined name '%s'" % p[1]
p[0] = 0
def p_error(p):
print "Syntax error at '%s'" % p.value
import ply.yacc as yacc
yacc.yacc()
while 1:
try:
s = raw_input('calc > ')
except EOFError:
break
yacc.parse(s)
Bug Reports and Patches
=======================
My goal with PLY is to simply have a decent lex/yacc implementation
for Python. As a general rule, I don't spend huge amounts of time
working on it unless I receive very specific bug reports and/or
patches to fix problems. I also try to incorporate submitted feature
requests and enhancements into each new version. To contact me about
bugs and/or new features, please send email to dave@dabeaz.com.
In addition there is a Google group for discussing PLY related issues at
http://groups.google.com/group/ply-hack
-- Dave
29c15c6870