Portability	unknown
Stability	experimental
Maintainer	bos@serpentine.com

Data.Attoparsec

Contents

Differences from Parsec
Performance considerations
Parser types
- Typeclass instances
Running parsers
- Result conversion
Combinators
Parsing individual bytes
- Byte classes
Efficient string handling
State observation and manipulation functions

Description

Simple, efficient combinator parsing for ByteString strings, loosely based on the Parsec library.

Synopsis

Differences from Parsec

Compared to Parsec 3, Attoparsec makes several tradeoffs. It is not intended for, or ideal for, all possible uses.

While Attoparsec can consume input incrementally, Parsec cannot. Incremental input is a huge deal for efficient and secure network and system programming, since it gives much more control to users of the library over matters such as resource usage and the I/O model to use.
Much of the performance advantage of Attoparsec is gained via high-performance parsers such as takeWhile and string. If you use complicated combinators that return lists of bytes or characters, there really isn't much performance difference the two libraries.
Unlike Parsec 3, Attoparsec does not support being used as a monad transformer. This is mostly a matter of the implementor not having needed that functionality.
Attoparsec is specialised to deal only with strict ByteString input. Efficiency concernts rule out both lists and lazy bytestrings. The usual use for lazy bytestrings would be to allow consumption of very large input without a large footprint. For this need, Attoparsec's incremental input provides an excellent substitute, with much more control over when input takes place.
Parsec parsers can produce more helpful error messages than Attoparsec parsers. This is a matter of focus: Attoparsec avoids the extra book-keeping in favour of higher performance.

Performance considerations

If you write an Attoparsec-based parser carefully, it can be realistic to expect it to perform within a factor of 2 of a hand-rolled C parser (measuring megabytes parsed per second).

To actually achieve high performance, there are a few guidelines that it is useful to follow.

Use the ByteString-oriented parsers whenever possible, e.g. takeWhile1 instead of many1 anyWord8. There is about a factor of 100 difference in performance between the two kinds of parser.

For very simple byte-testing predicates, write them by hand instead of using inClass or notInClass. For instance, both of these predicates test for an end-of-line byte, but the first is much faster than the second:

endOfLine_fast w = w == 13 || w == 10
endOfLine_slow   = inClass "\r\n"

Make active use of benchmarking and profiling tools to measure, find the problems with, and improve the performance of your parser.

Parser types

data Parser a Source

The Parser type is a monad.

Instances

Monad Parser
Functor Parser
MonadPlus Parser
Applicative Parser
Alternative Parser
IsString (Parser ByteString)

data Result r Source

The result of a parse.

Constructors

Fail !ByteString [String] String	The parse failed. The `ByteString` is the input that had not yet been consumed when the failure occurred. The `[String]` is a list of contexts in which the error occurred. The `String` is the message describing the error, if any.
Partial (ByteString -> Result r)	Supply this continuation with more input so that the parser can resume. To indicate that no more input is available, use an `empty` string.
Done !ByteString r	The parse succeeded. The `ByteString` is the input that had not yet been consumed (if any) when the parse succeeded.

Instances

Functor Result
Show r => Show (Result r)

Typeclass instances

The Parser type is an instance of the following classes:

Monad, where fail throws an exception (i.e. fails) with an error message.
Functor and Applicative, which follow the usual definitions.
MonadPlus, where mzero fails (with no error message) and mplus executes the right-hand parser if the left-hand one fails.
Alternative, which follows MonadPlus.

The Result type is an instance of Functor, where fmap transforms the value in a Done result.

Running parsers

parse :: Parser a -> ByteString -> Result aSource

Run a parser and return its result.

feed :: Result r -> ByteString -> Result rSource

If a parser has returned a Partial result, supply it with more input.

parseWith Source

Arguments

:: Monad m
=> m ByteString	An action that will be executed to provide the parser with more input, if necessary. The action must return an `empty` string when there is no more input available.
-> Parser a
-> ByteString	Initial input for the parser.
-> m (Result a)

Run a parser with an initial input string, and a monadic action that can supply more input if needed.

parseTest :: Show a => Parser a -> ByteString -> IO ()Source

Run a parser and print its result to standard output.

Result conversion

maybeResult :: Result r -> Maybe rSource

Convert a Result value to a Maybe value. A Partial result is treated as failure.

eitherResult :: Result r -> Either String rSource

Convert a Result value to an Either value. A Partial result is treated as failure.

Combinators

(<?>)Source

Arguments

:: Parser a
-> String	the name to use if parsing fails
-> Parser a

try :: Parser a -> Parser aSource

Attempt a parse, and if it fails, rewind the input so that no input appears to have been consumed.

This combinator is useful in cases where a parser might consume some input before failing, i.e. the parser needs arbitrary lookahead. The downside to using this combinator is that it can retain input for longer than is desirable.

module Data.Attoparsec.Combinator

Parsing individual bytes

word8 :: Word8 -> Parser Word8 Source

Match a specific byte.

anyWord8 :: Parser Word8 Source

Match any byte.

notWord8 :: Word8 -> Parser Word8 Source

Match any byte except the given one.

satisfy :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser Word8 Source

The parser satisfy p succeeds for any byte for which the predicate p returns True. Returns the byte that is actually parsed.

digit = satisfy isDigit
    where isDigit w = w >= 48 && w <= 57

satisfyWith :: (Word8 -> a) -> (a -> Bool) -> Parser aSource

The parser satisfyWith f p transforms a byte, and succeeds if the predicate p returns True on the transformed value. The parser returns the transformed byte that was parsed.

skip :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser ()Source

The parser skip p succeeds for any byte for which the predicate p returns True.

digit = satisfy isDigit
    where isDigit w = w >= 48 && w <= 57

Byte classes

inClass :: String -> Word8 -> Bool Source

Match any byte in a set.

vowel = inClass "aeiou"

Range notation is supported.

halfAlphabet = inClass "a-nA-N"

To add a literal '-' to a set, place it at the beginning or end of the string.

notInClass :: String -> Word8 -> Bool Source

Match any byte not in a set.

Efficient string handling

string :: ByteString -> Parser ByteString Source

string s parses a sequence of bytes that identically match s. Returns the parsed string (i.e. s). This parser consumes no input if it fails (even if a partial match).

Note: The behaviour of this parser is different to that of the similarly-named parser in Parsec, as this one is all-or-nothing. To illustrate the difference, the following parser will fail under Parsec given an input of for:

string "foo" <|> string "for"

The reason for its failure is that that the first branch is a partial match, and will consume the letters 'f' and 'o' before failing. In Attoparsec, the above parser will succeed on that input, because the failed first branch will consume nothing.

skipWhile :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser ()Source

Skip past input for as long as the predicate returns True.

take :: Int -> Parser ByteString Source

Consume exactly n bytes of input.

takeWhile :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser ByteString Source

Consume input as long as the predicate returns True, and return the consumed input.

This parser does not fail. It will return an empty string if the predicate returns False on the first byte of input.

Note: Because this parser does not fail, do not use it with combinators such as many, because such parsers loop until a failure occurs. Careless use will thus result in an infinite loop.

takeWhile1 :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser ByteString Source

Consume input as long as the predicate returns True, and return the consumed input.

This parser requires the predicate to succeed on at least one byte of input: it will fail if the predicate never returns True or if there is no input left.

takeTill :: (Word8 -> Bool) -> Parser ByteString Source

Consume input as long as the predicate returns False (i.e. until it returns True), and return the consumed input.

This parser does not fail. It will return an empty string if the predicate returns True on the first byte of input.

Note: Because this parser does not fail, do not use it with combinators such as many, because such parsers loop until a failure occurs. Careless use will thus result in an infinite loop.

State observation and manipulation functions

endOfInput :: Parser ()Source

Match only if all input has been consumed.

ensure :: Int -> Parser ()Source

Succeed only if at least n bytes of input are available.