base-4.6.0.1: Basic libraries

Portabilitynon-portable (uses Text.ParserCombinators.ReadP)
Stabilityprovisional
Maintainerlibraries@haskell.org
Safe HaskellTrustworthy

Text.Read

Contents

Description

Converting strings to values.

The Text.Read library is the canonical library to import for Read-class facilities. For GHC only, it offers an extended and much improved Read class, which constitutes a proposed alternative to the Haskell 98 Read. In particular, writing parsers is easier, and the parsers are much more efficient.

Synopsis

The Read class

class Read a whereSource

Parsing of Strings, producing values.

Minimal complete definition: readsPrec (or, for GHC only, readPrec)

Derived instances of Read make the following assumptions, which derived instances of Show obey:

  • If the constructor is defined to be an infix operator, then the derived Read instance will parse only infix applications of the constructor (not the prefix form).
  • Associativity is not used to reduce the occurrence of parentheses, although precedence may be.
  • If the constructor is defined using record syntax, the derived Read will parse only the record-syntax form, and furthermore, the fields must be given in the same order as the original declaration.
  • The derived Read instance allows arbitrary Haskell whitespace between tokens of the input string. Extra parentheses are also allowed.

For example, given the declarations

 infixr 5 :^:
 data Tree a =  Leaf a  |  Tree a :^: Tree a

the derived instance of Read in Haskell 98 is equivalent to

 instance (Read a) => Read (Tree a) where

         readsPrec d r =  readParen (d > app_prec)
                          (\r -> [(Leaf m,t) |
                                  ("Leaf",s) <- lex r,
                                  (m,t) <- readsPrec (app_prec+1) s]) r

                       ++ readParen (d > up_prec)
                          (\r -> [(u:^:v,w) |
                                  (u,s) <- readsPrec (up_prec+1) r,
                                  (":^:",t) <- lex s,
                                  (v,w) <- readsPrec (up_prec+1) t]) r

           where app_prec = 10
                 up_prec = 5

Note that right-associativity of :^: is unused.

The derived instance in GHC is equivalent to

 instance (Read a) => Read (Tree a) where

         readPrec = parens $ (prec app_prec $ do
                                  Ident "Leaf" <- lexP
                                  m <- step readPrec
                                  return (Leaf m))

                      +++ (prec up_prec $ do
                                  u <- step readPrec
                                  Symbol ":^:" <- lexP
                                  v <- step readPrec
                                  return (u :^: v))

           where app_prec = 10
                 up_prec = 5

         readListPrec = readListPrecDefault

Methods

readsPrecSource

Arguments

:: Int

the operator precedence of the enclosing context (a number from 0 to 11). Function application has precedence 10.

-> ReadS a 

attempts to parse a value from the front of the string, returning a list of (parsed value, remaining string) pairs. If there is no successful parse, the returned list is empty.

Derived instances of Read and Show satisfy the following:

That is, readsPrec parses the string produced by showsPrec, and delivers the value that showsPrec started with.

readList :: ReadS [a]Source

The method readList is provided to allow the programmer to give a specialised way of parsing lists of values. For example, this is used by the predefined Read instance of the Char type, where values of type String should be are expected to use double quotes, rather than square brackets.

readPrec :: ReadPrec aSource

Proposed replacement for readsPrec using new-style parsers (GHC only).

readListPrec :: ReadPrec [a]Source

Proposed replacement for readList using new-style parsers (GHC only). The default definition uses readList. Instances that define readPrec should also define readListPrec as readListPrecDefault.

Instances

Read Bool 
Read Char 
Read Double 
Read Float 
Read Int 
Read Int8 
Read Int16 
Read Int32 
Read Int64 
Read Integer 
Read Ordering 
Read Word 
Read Word8 
Read Word16 
Read Word32 
Read Word64 
Read () 
Read Lexeme 
Read IOMode 
Read SeekMode 
Read CUIntMax 
Read CIntMax 
Read CUIntPtr 
Read CIntPtr 
Read CSUSeconds 
Read CUSeconds 
Read CTime 
Read CClock 
Read CSigAtomic 
Read CWchar 
Read CSize 
Read CPtrdiff 
Read CDouble 
Read CFloat 
Read CULLong 
Read CLLong 
Read CULong 
Read CLong 
Read CUInt 
Read CInt 
Read CUShort 
Read CShort 
Read CUChar 
Read CSChar 
Read CChar 
Read GeneralCategory 
Read Associativity 
Read Fixity 
Read Arity 
Read IntPtr 
Read WordPtr 
Read Any 
Read All 
Read NewlineMode 
Read Newline 
Read BufferMode 
Read ExitCode 
Read Fd 
Read CRLim 
Read CTcflag 
Read CSpeed 
Read CCc 
Read CUid 
Read CNlink 
Read CGid 
Read CSsize 
Read CPid 
Read COff 
Read CMode 
Read CIno 
Read CDev 
Read GCStats 
Read Version 
Read a => Read [a] 
(Integral a, Read a) => Read (Ratio a) 
Read a => Read (Maybe a) 
Read a => Read (Last a) 
Read a => Read (First a) 
Read a => Read (Product a) 
Read a => Read (Sum a) 
Read a => Read (Dual a) 
Read a => Read (Complex a) 
HasResolution a => Read (Fixed a) 
(Read a, Read b) => Read (Either a b) 
(Read a, Read b) => Read (a, b) 
(SingRep k a rep, Read rep, Eq rep) => Read (Sing k a) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c) => Read (a, b, c) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d) => Read (a, b, c, d) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e) => Read (a, b, c, d, e) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j, Read k) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j, Read k, Read l) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j, Read k, Read l, Read m) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j, Read k, Read l, Read m, Read n) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n) 
(Read a, Read b, Read c, Read d, Read e, Read f, Read g, Read h, Read i, Read j, Read k, Read l, Read m, Read n, Read o) => Read (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o) 

type ReadS a = String -> [(a, String)]Source

A parser for a type a, represented as a function that takes a String and returns a list of possible parses as (a,String) pairs.

Note that this kind of backtracking parser is very inefficient; reading a large structure may be quite slow (cf ReadP).

Haskell 98 functions

reads :: Read a => ReadS aSource

equivalent to readsPrec with a precedence of 0.

read :: Read a => String -> aSource

The read function reads input from a string, which must be completely consumed by the input process.

readParen :: Bool -> ReadS a -> ReadS aSource

readParen True p parses what p parses, but surrounded with parentheses.

readParen False p parses what p parses, but optionally surrounded with parentheses.

lex :: ReadS StringSource

The lex function reads a single lexeme from the input, discarding initial white space, and returning the characters that constitute the lexeme. If the input string contains only white space, lex returns a single successful `lexeme' consisting of the empty string. (Thus lex "" = [("","")].) If there is no legal lexeme at the beginning of the input string, lex fails (i.e. returns []).

This lexer is not completely faithful to the Haskell lexical syntax in the following respects:

  • Qualified names are not handled properly
  • Octal and hexadecimal numerics are not recognized as a single token
  • Comments are not treated properly

New parsing functions

data Lexeme Source

Haskell lexemes.

Constructors

Char Char

Character literal

String String

String literal, with escapes interpreted

Punc String

Punctuation or reserved symbol, e.g. (, ::

Ident String

Haskell identifier, e.g. foo, Baz

Symbol String

Haskell symbol, e.g. >>, :%

Number Number 
EOF 

lexP :: ReadPrec LexemeSource

Parse a single lexeme

parens :: ReadPrec a -> ReadPrec aSource

(parens p) parses "P", "(P0)", "((P0))", etc, where p parses "P" in the current precedence context and parses "P0" in precedence context zero

readListDefault :: Read a => ReadS [a]Source

A possible replacement definition for the readList method (GHC only). This is only needed for GHC, and even then only for Read instances where readListPrec isn't defined as readListPrecDefault.

readListPrecDefault :: Read a => ReadPrec [a]Source

A possible replacement definition for the readListPrec method, defined using readPrec (GHC only).

readEither :: Read a => String -> Either String aSource

Parse a string using the Read instance. Succeeds if there is exactly one valid result. A Left value indicates a parse error.

readMaybe :: Read a => String -> Maybe aSource

Parse a string using the Read instance. Succeeds if there is exactly one valid result.