Making changes to lexer while parsing - antlr

I'm trying to parse N3 using ANTLR4;
In pseudo-ANTLR:
{plain_is = plain_of = false}
document : (keywords | triple)* ;
keywords : '#keywords' NCNAME (',' NCNAME)* '.'
{plain_is = 'is' in ncnames
plain_of = 'of' in ncnames} ;
triple : value predicate value '.' ;
predicate : value | KW_IS value KW_OF ;
value : QNAME | NCNAME ;
QNAME : [a-z]* ':' [a-z]+
NCNAME : [a-z]+ ;
KW_IS : {plain_is}? 'is' | {!plain_is}? '#is' ;
KW_OF : {plain_of}? 'of' | {!plain_of}? '#of' ;
WS : [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip ;
Ignoring the #keywords semantics for now, this is a valid document:
:x :y :z.
:z is :y of :z.
But if #keywords is used, all keywords not specified in the list must be prefixed with #, which allows using them as NCNAMEs:
#keywords is.
:z is :y #of of.
Is there a way to describe this in ANTLR? i.e. after parsing the keywords production, pass some flags (like plain_is) back to the lexer?
Currently I'm using a permissive grammar and check after parsing, converting the non-listed keywords back to NCNAMEs.

The parser does not have the ability to change the operation of the lexer. Although initiated by the parser, The lexer will process the entire input stream before the parser begins its evaluation of the parser rules.
You may be looking for lexer 'modes', aka lexical modes.

Related

How do I force the the parser to match a content as an ID rather than a token?

I have a grammar as the following (It's a partial view with only the relevant parts):
elem_course : INIT_ABSCISSA '=' expression;
expression
: ID
| INT_VALUE
| '(' expression ')'
| expression OPERATOR1 expression
| expression OPERATOR2 expression
;
OPERATOR1 : '*' | '/' ;
OPERATOR2 : '+' | '-' ;
fragment
WORD : LETTER (LETTER | NUM | '_' )*;
ID : WORD;
fragment
NUM : [0-9];
fragment
LETTER : [a-zA-Z];
BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN : 'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN';
And, I would like to match the following line :
INIT_ABSCISSA = 40 + BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN
But as BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN is a lexer token and even the rule states that I except and ID, the parser matchs the token and raise me the following error when parsing:
line 11:29 mismatched input 'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN' expecting {'(', INT_VALUE, ID}
Is there a way to force the parser that it should match the content as an ID rather than a token?
(Quick note: It's nice to abbreviate content in questions, but it really helps if it is functioning, stand-alone content that demonstrates your issue)
In this case, I've had to add the following lever rules to get this to generate, so I'm making some (probably legitimate) assumptions.
INT_VALUE: [\-+]? NUM+;
INIT_ABSCISSA: 'INIT_ABSCISSA';
WS: [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip;
I'm also going to have to assume that BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN: 'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN'; appears before your ID rule. As posted your token stream is as follows and could not generate the error you show)
[#0,0:12='INIT_ABSCISSA',<ID>,1:0]
[#1,14:14='=',<'='>,1:14]
[#2,16:17='40',<INT_VALUE>,1:16]
[#3,19:19='+',<OPERATOR2>,1:19]
[#4,21:40='BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN',<ID>,1:21]
[#5,41:40='<EOF>',<EOF>,1:41]
If I reorder the lexer rules like this:
INIT_ABSCISSA: 'INIT_ABSCISSA';
BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN: 'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN';
OPERATOR1: '*' | '/';
OPERATOR2: '+' | '-';
fragment WORD: LETTER (LETTER | NUM | '_')*;
ID: WORD;
fragment NUM: [0-9];
fragment LETTER: [a-zA-Z];
INT_VALUE: [\-+]? NUM+;
WS: [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip;
I can get your error message.
The lexer looks at you input stream of characters and attempts to match all lexer rules. To choose the token type, ANTLR will:
select the rule that matches the longest stream of input characters
If multiple Lever rules match the same sequence of input characters, then the rule that appears first will be used (that's why I had to re-order the rules to get your error.
With those assumptions, now to your question.
The short answer is "you can't". The Lexer processes input and determines token types before the parser is involved in any way. There is nothing you can do in parser rules to influence Token Type.
The parser, on the other hand starts with the start rule and then uses a recursive descent algorithm to attempt to match your token stream to parser rules.
You don't really give any idea what really guides whether BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN should be a BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN or an ID, so I'll put an example together that assumes that it's an ID if it's on the right hand side (rhs) of the elemen_course rule.
Then this grammar:
grammar IDG
;
elem_course: INIT_ABSCISSA '=' rhs_expression;
rhs_expression
: id = (ID | BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN | INIT_ABSCISSA)
| INT_VALUE
| '(' rhs_expression ')'
| rhs_expression OPERATOR1 rhs_expression
| rhs_expression OPERATOR2 rhs_expression
;
INIT_ABSCISSA: 'INIT_ABSCISSA';
BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN: 'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN';
OPERATOR1: '*' | '/';
OPERATOR2: '+' | '-';
fragment WORD: LETTER (LETTER | NUM | '_')*;
ID: WORD;
fragment NUM: [0-9];
fragment LETTER: [a-zA-Z];
INT_VALUE: [\-+]? NUM+;
WS: [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip;
produces this token stream and parse tree:
$ grun IDG elem_course -tokens -tree IDG.txt
[#0,0:12='INIT_ABSCISSA',<'INIT_ABSCISSA'>,1:0]
[#1,14:14='=',<'='>,1:14]
[#2,16:17='40',<INT_VALUE>,1:16]
[#3,19:19='+',<OPERATOR2>,1:19]
[#4,21:40='BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN',<'BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN'>,1:21]
[#5,41:40='<EOF>',<EOF>,1:41]
(elem_course INIT_ABSCISSA = (rhs_expression (rhs_expression 40) + (rhs_expression BEACON_ANTENNA_TRAIN)))
As a side note: It's possible that, depending on what drives your decision, you might be able to leverage Lexer modes, but there's not anything in your example to leaves that impression.
This is the well known keyword-as-identifier problem and Mike Cargal gave you a working solution. I just want to add that the general approach for this problem is to add all keywords to a parser id rule that should be matched as an id. To restrict which keyword is allowed in certain grammar positions, you can use multiple id rules. For example the MySQL grammar uses this approach to a large extend to define keywords that can go as identifier in general or only as a label, for role names etc.

What's wrong with this ANTLR grammar?

I want to parse query expressions that look like this:
Person Name=%John%
(Person Name=John% and Address=%Ontario%)
Person Fullname_3="John C. Smith"
But I'm totally new to Antlr4 and can't even figure out how to parse one single TABLE FIELD=QUERY clause. When I run the grammar below in Go as target, I get
line 1:7 mismatched input 'Name' expecting {'not', '(', FIELDNAME}
for a simple query like
Person Name=John
Why can't the Grammar parse FIELDNAME via parsing fieldsearch->field EQ searchterm->FIELDNAME?
I guess I'm misunderstanding something very fundamental here about how Antlr Grammars work, but what?
/* ANTLR Grammar for Minidb Query Language */
grammar Mdb;
start : searchclause EOF ;
searchclause
: table expr
;
expr
: fieldsearch
| unop fieldsearch
| LPAREN expr relop expr RPAREN
;
unop
: NOT
;
relop
: AND
| OR
;
fieldsearch
: field EQ searchterm
;
field
: FIELDNAME
;
table
: TABLENAME
;
searchterm
: STRING
;
AND
: 'and'
;
OR
: 'or'
;
NOT
: 'not'
;
EQ
: '='
;
LPAREN
: '('
;
RPAREN
: ')'
;
fragment VALID_ID_START
: ('a' .. 'z') | ('A' .. 'Z') | '_'
;
fragment VALID_ID_CHAR
: VALID_ID_START | ('0' .. '9')
;
TABLENAME
: VALID_ID_START VALID_ID_CHAR*
;
FIELDNAME
: VALID_ID_START VALID_ID_CHAR*
;
STRING: '"' ~('\n'|'"')* ('"' | { panic("syntax-error - unterminated string literal") } ) ;
WS
: [ \r\n\t] + -> skip
;
Try looking at the tokens produced for that input using grun Mdb tokens -tokens. It will tell you that the input consists of two table names, an equals sign and then another table name. To match your grammar it would have needed to be a table name, a field name, an equals sign and a string.
The first problem is that TABLENAME and FIELDNAME have the exact same definition. In cases where two lexer rules would produce a match of the same length on the current input, ANTLR prefers the one that comes first in the grammar. So it will never produce a FIELDNAME token. To fix that just replace both of those rules with a single ID rule. If you want to, you can then introduce parser rules tableName : ID ; and fieldName : ID ; if you want to keep the names.
The other problem is more straight forward: John simply does not match your rules for a string since it's not in quotes. If you do want to allow John as a valid search term, you might want to define it as searchterm : STRING | ID ; instead of only allowing STRINGs.

Simple ANTLR grammar behaves different than expected [duplicate]

I have a Hello.g4 grammar file with a grammar definition:
definition : wordsWithPunctuation ;
words : (WORD)+ ;
wordsWithPunctuation : word ( word | punctuation word | word punctuation | '(' wordsWithPunctuation ')' | '"' wordsWithPunctuation '"' )* ;
NUMBER : [0-9]+ ;
word : WORD ;
WORD : [A-Za-z-]+ ;
punctuation : PUNCTUATION ;
PUNCTUATION : (','|'!'|'?'|'\''|':'|'.') ;
WS : [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip ; // skip spaces, tabs, newlines
Now, if I am trying to build a parse tree from the following input:
a b c d of at of abc bcd of
a b c d at abc, bcd
a b c d of at of abc, bcd of
it returns errors:
Hello::definition:1:31: extraneous input 'of' expecting {<EOF>, '(', '"', WORD, PUNCTUATION}
though the:
a b c d at: abc bcd!
works correct.
What is wrong with the grammar or input or interpreter?
If I modify the wordsWithPunctuation rule, by adding (... | 'of' | ',' word | ...) then it matches the input completely, but it looks suspicious for me - how the word of is different from the word a or abc? Or why the , is different from other punctuation characters (i.e., why does it match the : or !, but not ,?)?
Update1:
I am working with ANTLR4 plugin for Eclipse, so the project build happens with the following output:
ANTLR Tool v4.2.2 (/var/folders/.../antlr-4.2.2-complete.jar)
Hello.g4 -o /Users/.../eclipse_workspace/antlr_test_project/target/generated-sources/antlr4 -listener -no-visitor -encoding UTF-8
Update2:
the presented above grammar is just a partial from:
grammar Hello;
text : (entry)+ ;
entry : blub 'abrr' '-' ('1')? '.' ('(' NUMBER ')')? sims '-' '(' definitionAndExamples ')' 'Hello' 'all' 'the' 'people' 'of' 'the' 'world';
blub : WORD ;
sims : sim (',' sim)* ;
sim : words ;
definitionAndExamples : definitions (';' examples)? ;
definitions : definition (';' definition )* ;
definition : wordsWithPunctuation ;
examples : example (';' example )* ;
example : '"' wordsWithPunctuation '"' ;
words : (WORD)+ ;
wordsWithPunctuation : word ( word | punctuation word | word punctuation | '(' wordsWithPunctuation ')' | '"' wordsWithPunctuation '"' )* ;
NUMBER : [0-9]+ ;
word : WORD ;
WORD : [A-Za-z-]+ ;
punctuation : PUNCTUATION ;
PUNCTUATION : (','|'!'|'?'|'\''|':'|'.') ;
WS : [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip ; // skip spaces, tabs, newlines
It looks now for me, that the words from the entry rule somehow breaking the other rules within the entry rule. But why? Is it a kind an anti-pattern in the grammar?
By including 'of' in a parser rule, ANTLR is creating an implicit anonymous token to represent that input. The word of will always have that special token type, so it will never have the type WORD. The only place it may appear in your parse tree is at a location where 'of' appears in a parser rule.
You can prevent ANTLR from creating these anonymous token types by separating your grammar into a separate lexer grammar HelloLexer in HelloLexer.g4 and parser grammar HelloParser in HelloParser.g4. I highly recommend you always use this form for the following reasons:
Lexer modes only work if you do this.
Implicitly-defined tokens are one of the most common sources of bugs in a grammar, and separating the grammar prevents it from ever happening.
Once you have the grammar separated, you can update your word parser rule to allow the special token of to be treated as a word.
word
: WORD
| 'of'
| ... other keywords which are also "words"
;

Antlr3 .Net how to build a simple grammar

I'm trying to build a simple grammar to parse a .Net type name string, supporting generics. I admit to being completely new to building grammars in any language. A type string might look like the following.
Foo.Bar.Blah(Mom.Dad, Son.Daughter(Frank.Bob), Dog)
Basically, it's recursive. Ya'll should understand this.
I'm completely out in the woods with this one. Not sure how to begin. What I've built currently, which doesn't actually work, is this:
tree grammar XmlTypeName;
options {
language=CSharp2;
}
RPAREN
: '('
;
LPAREN
: ')'
;
SEP
: ','
;
TYPE
: ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'0'..'9'|'_')+
;
prog
: type;
type
: TYPE (RPAREN type (SEP type)? LPAREN)? (EOF)?
;
This doesn't even get close to working. Antlr3.exe throws errors saying that RPARAM and LPARAM aren't allowed in a tree parser. Is a tree parser even what I need?
I'd like to produce a simple AST that lets me navigate down the types.
No, you shouldn't use a tree grammar. A tree grammar is used after a parser has created an AST. Simply remove the keyword tree from it.
A couple of other remarks:
you want to match one or more comma separated types inside parenthesis, but you used type (SEP type)?, which matches one or two types. You'll need type (SEP type)* instead;
you didn't account for the . inside the types;
you should discard literal spaces in the lexer.
Something like this will do the trick, most probably:
grammar XmlTypeName;
options {
language=CSharp2;
}
prog
: type EOF
;
type
: name (RPAREN type (SEP type)* LPAREN)?
;
name
: ID (DOT ID)*
;
RPAREN
: '('
;
LPAREN
: ')'
;
SEP
: ','
;
DOT
: '.'
;
ID
: ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'0'..'9'|'_')+
;
SPACE
: (' '|'\t')+ {Skip();} // if 'Skip()' doesn't work, try 'skip()'
;
However, the above just creates a flat list of tokens. If you want to create a proper AST, you need to "tell" ANTLR which nodes/tokens are root tokens, and which ones to discard (like the comma's, parenthesis, ...).
grammar XmlTypeName;
options {
output=AST;
language=CSharp2;
}
tokens {
TYPE;
NAME;
}
prog
: type EOF -> type
;
type
: name (RPAREN type (SEP type)* LPAREN)? -> ^(TYPE name type*)
;
name
: ID (DOT ID)* -> ^(NAME ID+)
;
RPAREN
: '('
;
LPAREN
: ')'
;
SEP
: ','
;
DOT
: '.'
;
ID
: ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'0'..'9'|'_')+
;
SPACE
: (' '|'\t')+ {skip();}
;
which creates the following AST:
More info about creating AST's with ANTLR: How to output the AST built using ANTLR?

Left-factoring grammar of coffeescript expressions

I'm writing an Antlr/Xtext parser for coffeescript grammar. It's at the beginning yet, I just moved a subset of the original grammar, and I am stuck with expressions. It's the dreaded "rule expression has non-LL(*) decision" error. I found some related questions here, Help with left factoring a grammar to remove left recursion and ANTLR Grammar for expressions. I also tried How to remove global backtracking from your grammar, but it just demonstrates a very simple case which I cannot use in real life. The post about ANTLR Grammar Tip: LL() and Left Factoring gave me more insights, but I still can't get a handle.
My question is how to fix the following grammar (sorry, I couldn't simplify it and still keep the error). I guess the trouble maker is the term rule, so I'd appreciate a local fix to it, rather than changing the whole thing (I'm trying to stay close to the rules of the original grammar). Pointers are also welcome to tips how to "debug" this kind of erroneous grammar in your head.
grammar CoffeeScript;
options {
output=AST;
}
tokens {
AT_SIGIL; BOOL; BOUND_FUNC_ARROW; BY; CALL_END; CALL_START; CATCH; CLASS; COLON; COLON_SLASH; COMMA; COMPARE; COMPOUND_ASSIGN; DOT; DOT_DOT; DOUBLE_COLON; ELLIPSIS; ELSE; EQUAL; EXTENDS; FINALLY; FOR; FORIN; FOROF; FUNC_ARROW; FUNC_EXIST; HERECOMMENT; IDENTIFIER; IF; INDENT; INDEX_END; INDEX_PROTO; INDEX_SOAK; INDEX_START; JS; LBRACKET; LCURLY; LEADING_WHEN; LOGIC; LOOP; LPAREN; MATH; MINUS; MINUS; MINUS_MINUS; NEW; NUMBER; OUTDENT; OWN; PARAM_END; PARAM_START; PLUS; PLUS_PLUS; POST_IF; QUESTION; QUESTION_DOT; RBRACKET; RCURLY; REGEX; RELATION; RETURN; RPAREN; SHIFT; STATEMENT; STRING; SUPER; SWITCH; TERMINATOR; THEN; THIS; THROW; TRY; UNARY; UNTIL; WHEN; WHILE;
}
COMPARE : '<' | '==' | '>';
COMPOUND_ASSIGN : '+=' | '-=';
EQUAL : '=';
LOGIC : '&&' | '||';
LPAREN : '(';
MATH : '*' | '/';
MINUS : '-';
MINUS_MINUS : '--';
NEW : 'new';
NUMBER : ('0'..'9')+;
PLUS : '+';
PLUS_PLUS : '++';
QUESTION : '?';
RELATION : 'in' | 'of' | 'instanceof';
RPAREN : ')';
SHIFT : '<<' | '>>';
STRING : '"' (('a'..'z') | ' ')* '"';
TERMINATOR : '\n';
UNARY : '!' | '~' | NEW;
// Put it at the end, so keywords will be matched earlier
IDENTIFIER : ('a'..'z' | 'A'..'Z')+;
WS : (' ')+ {skip();} ;
root
: body
;
body
: line
;
line
: expression
;
assign
: assignable EQUAL expression
;
expression
: value
| assign
| operation
;
identifier
: IDENTIFIER
;
simpleAssignable
: identifier
;
assignable
: simpleAssignable
;
value
: assignable
| literal
| parenthetical
;
literal
: alphaNumeric
;
alphaNumeric
: NUMBER
| STRING;
parenthetical
: LPAREN body RPAREN
;
// term should be the same as expression except operation to avoid left-recursion
term
: value
| assign
;
questionOp
: term QUESTION?
;
mathOp
: questionOp (MATH questionOp)*
;
additiveOp
: mathOp ((PLUS | MINUS) mathOp)*
;
shiftOp
: additiveOp (SHIFT additiveOp)*
;
relationOp
: shiftOp (RELATION shiftOp)*
;
compareOp
: relationOp (COMPARE relationOp)*
;
logicOp
: compareOp (LOGIC compareOp)*
;
operation
: UNARY expression
| MINUS expression
| PLUS expression
| MINUS_MINUS simpleAssignable
| PLUS_PLUS simpleAssignable
| simpleAssignable PLUS_PLUS
| simpleAssignable MINUS_MINUS
| simpleAssignable COMPOUND_ASSIGN expression
| logicOp
;
UPDATE:
The final solution will use Xtext with an external lexer to avoid to intricacies of handling significant whitespace. Here is a snippet from my Xtext version:
CompareOp returns Operation:
AdditiveOp ({CompareOp.left=current} operator=COMPARE right=AdditiveOp)*;
My strategy is to make a working Antlr parser first without a usable AST. (Well, it would deserve a separates question if this is a feasible approach.) So I don't care about tokens at the moment, they are included to make development easier.
I am aware that the original grammar is LR. I don't know how close I can stay to it when transforming to LL.
UPDATE2 and SOLUTION:
I could simplify my problem with the insights gained from Bart's answer. Here is a working toy grammar to handle simple expressions with function calls to illustrate it. The comment before expression shows my insight.
grammar FunExp;
ID: ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'_') ('a'..'z'|'A'..'Z'|'0'..'9'|'_')*;
NUMBER: '0'..'9'+;
WS: (' ')+ {skip();};
root
: expression
;
// atom and functionCall would go here,
// but they are reachable via operation -> term
// so they are omitted here
expression
: operation
;
atom
: NUMBER
| ID
;
functionCall
: ID '(' expression (',' expression)* ')'
;
operation
: multiOp
;
multiOp
: additiveOp (('*' | '/') additiveOp)*
;
additiveOp
: term (('+' | '-') term)*
;
term
: atom
| functionCall
| '(' expression ')'
;
When you generate a lexer and parser from your grammar, you see the following error printed to your console:
error(211): CoffeeScript.g:52:3: [fatal] rule expression has non-LL(*) decision due to recursive rule invocations reachable from alts 1,3. Resolve by left-factoring or using syntactic predicates or using backtrack=true option.
warning(200): CoffeeScript.g:52:3: Decision can match input such as "{NUMBER, STRING}" using multiple alternatives: 1, 3
As a result, alternative(s) 3 were disabled for that input
(I've emphasized the important bits)
This is only the first error, but you start with the first and with a bit of luck, the errors below that first one will also disappear when you fix the first one.
The error posted above means that when you're trying to parse either a NUMBER or a STRING with the parser generated from your grammar, the parser can go two ways when it ends up in the expression rule:
expression
: value // choice 1
| assign // choice 2
| operation // choice 3
;
Namely, choice 1 and choice 3 both can parse a NUMBER or a STRING, as you can see by the "paths" the parser can follow to match these 2 choices:
choice 1:
expression
value
literal
alphaNumeric : {NUMBER, STRING}
choice 3:
expression
operation
logicOp
relationOp
shiftOp
additiveOp
mathOp
questionOp
term
value
literal
alphaNumeric : {NUMBER, STRING}
In the last part of the warning, ANTLR informs you that it ignores choice 3 whenever either a NUMBER or a STRING will be parsed, causing choice 1 to match such input (since it is defined before choice 3).
So, either the CoffeeScript grammar is ambiguous in this respect (and handles this ambiguity somehow), or your implementation of it is wrong (I'm guessing the latter :)). You need to fix this ambiguity in your grammar: i.e. don't let the expression's choices 1 and 3 both match the same input.
I noticed 3 other things in your grammar:
1
Take the following lexer rules:
NEW : 'new';
...
UNARY : '!' | '~' | NEW;
Be aware that the token UNARY can never match the text 'new' since the token NEW is defined before it. If you want to let UNARY macth this, remove the NEW rule and do:
UNARY : '!' | '~' | 'new';
2
In may occasions, you're collecting multiple types of tokens in a single one, like LOGIC:
LOGIC : '&&' | '||';
and then you use that token in a parser rules like this:
logicOp
: compareOp (LOGIC compareOp)*
;
But if you're going to evaluate such an expression at a later stage, you don't know what this LOGIC token matched ('&&' or '||') and you'll have to inspect the token's inner text to find that out. You'd better do something like this (at least, if you're doing some sort of evaluating at a later stage):
AND : '&&';
OR : '||';
...
logicOp
: compareOp ( AND compareOp // easier to evaluate, you know it's an AND expression
| OR compareOp // easier to evaluate, you know it's an OR expression
)*
;
3
You're skipping white spaces (and no tabs?) with:
WS : (' ')+ {skip();} ;
but doesn't CoffeeScript indent it's code block with spaces (and tabs) just like Python? But perhaps you're going to do that in a later stage?
I just saw that the grammar you're looking at is a jison grammar (which is more or less a bison implementation in JavaScript). But bison, and therefor jison, generates LR parsers while ANTLR generates LL parsers. So trying to stay close to the rules of the original grammar will only result in more problems.