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parsinggrammarpegpegjs

Parsing boolean expression without left hand recursion


I'm trying to match this

f(some_thing) == 'something else'
  • f(some_thing) is a function call, which is an expression
  • == is a boolean operator
  • 'something else' is a string, which also is an expression

so the boolean expression should be

expression operator expression

The problem is I can't figure out how to do that without left recursion These are my rules

expression 
  = 
  bool_expression
  / function_call
  / string
  / real_number
  / integer
  / identifier

bool_expression
  = l:expression space* op:bool_operator space* r:expression 
  { return ... }

Using grammar notation, I have

O := ==|<=|>=|<|>|!=  // operators
E := B|....           // expression, many non terminals
B := EOE

Because my grammar is EOE I don't know how to use the left hand algorithm which is

A := Ab|B
transforms into
A := BA'
A':= e|bA

Where e is empty and b is a terminal


Solution

  • Something like this ought to do it:

    expression
     = bool_expression
    
    bool_expression
     = add_expression "==" bool_expression
     / add_expression "!=" bool_expression
     / add_expression
    
    add_expression
     = mult_expression "+" add_expression
     / mult_expression "-" add_expression
     / mult_expression
    
    mult_expression
     = atom "*" mult_expression
     / atom "/" mult_expression
     / atom
    
    atom
     = function_call 
     / string
     / real_number
     / integer
     / identifier
    
    function_call
     = identifier "(" (expression ("," expression)*)? ")"
    
    string
     = "'" [^']* "'"
    
    identifier
     = [a-zA-Z_]+
    
    integer
     = [0-9]+
    
    real_number
     = integer "." integer?
     / "." integer