Have you ever effectively used lexer/parser in real world application?

Question

Recently, I've started learning ANTLR. I know that lexers/parsers together can be used to construct programming languages.

Other than DSLs or programming languages, have you ever directly or indirectly used lexer/parser tools (and knowledge) to solve real world problems? Is it possible for the average programmer to solve those problems without knowledge of lexers or parsers?

Answer 1

Yes, I've used them. Yes, you can do things with out them--but any time you choose the wrong tool for the job, you'll be making needless pain for yourself.

Some example of the non-standard uses I've personally put the technology to:

• scraping data from reports generated by legacy systems
• picking out patterns in data too complex for a regexp
• protocol analysis
• text based adventure games
• the metaprograming API that ate Toledo (not it's real name)
• code analysis / log analysis
• picking apart "freeform" fields in a database
• and scads more I"m forgetting (I'm old)