Prelude.String.Read

Documentation

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

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).

class Read a where

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 2010 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

Minimal complete definition

readsPrec | readPrec

Methods

readsPrec

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:

• (x,"") is an element of (readsPrec d (showsPrec d x "")).

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

readList :: ReadS [a]

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.

Instances

Read Bool

Read Char

Read Double

Read Float

Read Int

Read Integer

Read Ordering

Read Word

Read ()

Read ExitCode

Read Lexeme

Read a => Read [a]

(Integral a, Read a) => Read (Ratio a)

Read a => Read (Maybe a)

(Read a, Read b) => Read (Either a b)

(Read a, Read b) => Read (a, b)

(Ix a, Read a, Read b) => Read (Array a b)

(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)

reads :: Read a => ReadS a

equivalent to readsPrec with a precedence of 0.

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

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

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

read :: Read a => String -> a

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

lex :: ReadS String

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