1 PLY (Python Lex-Yacc) Version 3.4
3 Copyright (C) 2001-2011,
4 David M. Beazley (Dabeaz LLC)
7 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
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12 this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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14 this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
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16 * Neither the name of the David Beazley or Dabeaz LLC may be used to
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35 PLY is a 100% Python implementation of the common parsing tools lex
36 and yacc. Here are a few highlights:
38 - PLY is very closely modeled after traditional lex/yacc.
39 If you know how to use these tools in C, you will find PLY
42 - PLY provides *very* extensive error reporting and diagnostic
43 information to assist in parser construction. The original
44 implementation was developed for instructional purposes. As
45 a result, the system tries to identify the most common types
46 of errors made by novice users.
48 - PLY provides full support for empty productions, error recovery,
49 precedence specifiers, and moderately ambiguous grammars.
51 - Parsing is based on LR-parsing which is fast, memory efficient,
52 better suited to large grammars, and which has a number of nice
53 properties when dealing with syntax errors and other parsing problems.
54 Currently, PLY builds its parsing tables using the LALR(1)
55 algorithm used in yacc.
57 - PLY uses Python introspection features to build lexers and parsers.
58 This greatly simplifies the task of parser construction since it reduces
59 the number of files and eliminates the need to run a separate lex/yacc
60 tool before running your program.
62 - PLY can be used to build parsers for "real" programming languages.
63 Although it is not ultra-fast due to its Python implementation,
64 PLY can be used to parse grammars consisting of several hundred
65 rules (as might be found for a language like C). The lexer and LR
66 parser are also reasonably efficient when parsing typically
67 sized programs. People have used PLY to build parsers for
68 C, C++, ADA, and other real programming languages.
73 PLY consists of two files : lex.py and yacc.py. These are contained
74 within the 'ply' directory which may also be used as a Python package.
75 To use PLY, simply copy the 'ply' directory to your project and import
76 lex and yacc from the associated 'ply' package. For example:
79 import ply.yacc as yacc
81 Alternatively, you can copy just the files lex.py and yacc.py
82 individually and use them as modules. For example:
87 The file setup.py can be used to install ply using distutils.
89 The file doc/ply.html contains complete documentation on how to use
92 The example directory contains several different examples including a
93 PLY specification for ANSI C as given in K&R 2nd Ed.
95 A simple example is found at the end of this document
99 PLY requires the use of Python 2.2 or greater. However, you should
100 use the latest Python release if possible. It should work on just
101 about any platform. PLY has been tested with both CPython and Jython.
102 It also seems to work with IronPython.
106 More information about PLY can be obtained on the PLY webpage at:
108 http://www.dabeaz.com/ply
110 For a detailed overview of parsing theory, consult the excellent
111 book "Compilers : Principles, Techniques, and Tools" by Aho, Sethi, and
112 Ullman. The topics found in "Lex & Yacc" by Levine, Mason, and Brown
115 A Google group for PLY can be found at
117 http://groups.google.com/group/ply-hack
121 A special thanks is in order for all of the students in CS326 who
122 suffered through about 25 different versions of these tools :-).
124 The CHANGES file acknowledges those who have contributed patches.
126 Elias Ioup did the first implementation of LALR(1) parsing in PLY-1.x.
127 Andrew Waters and Markus Schoepflin were instrumental in reporting bugs
128 and testing a revised LALR(1) implementation for PLY-2.0.
130 Special Note for PLY-3.0
131 ========================
132 PLY-3.0 the first PLY release to support Python 3. However, backwards
133 compatibility with Python 2.2 is still preserved. PLY provides dual
134 Python 2/3 compatibility by restricting its implementation to a common
135 subset of basic language features. You should not convert PLY using
136 2to3--it is not necessary and may in fact break the implementation.
141 Here is a simple example showing a PLY implementation of a calculator
144 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
147 # A simple calculator with variables.
148 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
152 'PLUS','MINUS','TIMES','DIVIDE','EQUALS',
165 t_NAME = r'[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*'
169 t.value = int(t.value)
177 t.lexer.lineno += t.value.count("\n")
180 print("Illegal character '%s'" % t.value[0])
184 import ply.lex as lex
187 # Precedence rules for the arithmetic operators
189 ('left','PLUS','MINUS'),
190 ('left','TIMES','DIVIDE'),
194 # dictionary of names (for storing variables)
197 def p_statement_assign(p):
198 'statement : NAME EQUALS expression'
201 def p_statement_expr(p):
202 'statement : expression'
205 def p_expression_binop(p):
206 '''expression : expression PLUS expression
207 | expression MINUS expression
208 | expression TIMES expression
209 | expression DIVIDE expression'''
210 if p[2] == '+' : p[0] = p[1] + p[3]
211 elif p[2] == '-': p[0] = p[1] - p[3]
212 elif p[2] == '*': p[0] = p[1] * p[3]
213 elif p[2] == '/': p[0] = p[1] / p[3]
215 def p_expression_uminus(p):
216 'expression : MINUS expression %prec UMINUS'
219 def p_expression_group(p):
220 'expression : LPAREN expression RPAREN'
223 def p_expression_number(p):
224 'expression : NUMBER'
227 def p_expression_name(p):
232 print("Undefined name '%s'" % p[1])
236 print("Syntax error at '%s'" % p.value)
238 import ply.yacc as yacc
243 s = raw_input('calc > ') # use input() on Python 3
249 Bug Reports and Patches
250 =======================
251 My goal with PLY is to simply have a decent lex/yacc implementation
252 for Python. As a general rule, I don't spend huge amounts of time
253 working on it unless I receive very specific bug reports and/or
254 patches to fix problems. I also try to incorporate submitted feature
255 requests and enhancements into each new version. To contact me about
256 bugs and/or new features, please send email to dave@dabeaz.com.
258 In addition there is a Google group for discussing PLY related issues at
260 http://groups.google.com/group/ply-hack