funcparserlib FAQ

Frequently asked questions related to funcparserlib.

1. Why did my parser enter an infinite loop?

Because the grammar you've defined allows infinite empty sequences. It's a general pitfall of grammar rules and it must be avoided. Let's explain why this may happen.

Upd: There is an automatic defense against looping in the tip version of funcpaserlib. It raises an exception telling you to fix your grammar.

A universally successful parser is a parser that may consume no token from the input sequence returning a value without raising NoParseError. It still may consume some tokens and return values, but when it cannot, it just returns a value, not an error.

The basic parser combinators that return parsers having this property are pure, maybe, and many:

• A result of pure always returns its argument without even accessing the input sequence
• A result of maybe always returns either a parsing result or None
• A result of many always returns a list (maybe the empty one)

By using these combinators for composing parsers you can (and you have done this actually!) create your own universally successful parsers.

One more fact. Given some parser p, the many combinator returns a parser q that applies p to the input sequence unless p fails with NoParseError.

So we can deduce that, given a universally successful parser, many returns a parser that may apply it to the input forever. This is the cause of an infinite loop.

You must not pass a universally successful parser to the many combinator.

Consider the following parsers:

from funcparserlib.parser import a, many, maybe, pure

const = lambda x: lambda _: x
x = a('x')

p1 = maybe(x)
p2 = many(p1)
p3 = maybe(x) + x
p4 = many(p3)
p5 = x | many(x)
p6 = many(p5)
p7 = x + many(p4)
p8 = x >> const(True)
p9 = pure(True)

Here p1, p2, p4, p5, p6, and p9 are universally successful parsers while p3, p7, and p8 are is not. Parsers p2, p6, and p7 may enter an infinite loop, while others cannot. Just apply the statements we have made above to these parsers to figure out why.

2. A GrammarError tells that my parser does not halt. What does it mean?

It's an automatic defense against infinite loops caused by passing a universally successful parser to the many combinator. See Item 1 of this FAQ.