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| 54 | |
| 55 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION0020100000000000000000"> |
| 56 | 18.1 <tt class="module">parser</tt> -- |
| 57 | Access Python parse trees</A> |
| 58 | </H1> |
| 59 | |
| 60 | <P> |
| 61 | <A NAME="module-parser"></A> |
| 62 | |
| 63 | <P> |
| 64 | <a id='l2h-4937' xml:id='l2h-4937'></a> |
| 65 | |
| 66 | <P> |
| 67 | The <tt class="module">parser</tt> module provides an interface to Python's internal |
| 68 | parser and byte-code compiler. The primary purpose for this interface |
| 69 | is to allow Python code to edit the parse tree of a Python expression |
| 70 | and create executable code from this. This is better than trying |
| 71 | to parse and modify an arbitrary Python code fragment as a string |
| 72 | because parsing is performed in a manner identical to the code |
| 73 | forming the application. It is also faster. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | <P> |
| 76 | There are a few things to note about this module which are important |
| 77 | to making use of the data structures created. This is not a tutorial |
| 78 | on editing the parse trees for Python code, but some examples of using |
| 79 | the <tt class="module">parser</tt> module are presented. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | <P> |
| 82 | Most importantly, a good understanding of the Python grammar processed |
| 83 | by the internal parser is required. For full information on the |
| 84 | language syntax, refer to the <em class="citetitle"><a |
| 85 | href="../ref/ref.html" |
| 86 | title="Python |
| 87 | Language Reference" |
| 88 | >Python |
| 89 | Language Reference</a></em>. The parser itself is created from a grammar |
| 90 | specification defined in the file <span class="file">Grammar/Grammar</span> in the |
| 91 | standard Python distribution. The parse trees stored in the AST |
| 92 | objects created by this module are the actual output from the internal |
| 93 | parser when created by the <tt class="function">expr()</tt> or <tt class="function">suite()</tt> |
| 94 | functions, described below. The AST objects created by |
| 95 | <tt class="function">sequence2ast()</tt> faithfully simulate those structures. Be |
| 96 | aware that the values of the sequences which are considered |
| 97 | ``correct'' will vary from one version of Python to another as the |
| 98 | formal grammar for the language is revised. However, transporting |
| 99 | code from one Python version to another as source text will always |
| 100 | allow correct parse trees to be created in the target version, with |
| 101 | the only restriction being that migrating to an older version of the |
| 102 | interpreter will not support more recent language constructs. The |
| 103 | parse trees are not typically compatible from one version to another, |
| 104 | whereas source code has always been forward-compatible. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | <P> |
| 107 | Each element of the sequences returned by <tt class="function">ast2list()</tt> or |
| 108 | <tt class="function">ast2tuple()</tt> has a simple form. Sequences representing |
| 109 | non-terminal elements in the grammar always have a length greater than |
| 110 | one. The first element is an integer which identifies a production in |
| 111 | the grammar. These integers are given symbolic names in the C header |
| 112 | file <span class="file">Include/graminit.h</span> and the Python module |
| 113 | <tt class="module"><a href="module-symbol.html">symbol</a></tt>. Each additional element of the sequence represents |
| 114 | a component of the production as recognized in the input string: these |
| 115 | are always sequences which have the same form as the parent. An |
| 116 | important aspect of this structure which should be noted is that |
| 117 | keywords used to identify the parent node type, such as the keyword |
| 118 | <tt class="keyword">if</tt> in an <tt class="constant">if_stmt</tt>, are included in the node tree without |
| 119 | any special treatment. For example, the <tt class="keyword">if</tt> keyword is |
| 120 | represented by the tuple <code>(1, 'if')</code>, where <code>1</code> is the |
| 121 | numeric value associated with all <tt class="constant">NAME</tt> tokens, including |
| 122 | variable and function names defined by the user. In an alternate form |
| 123 | returned when line number information is requested, the same token |
| 124 | might be represented as <code>(1, 'if', 12)</code>, where the <code>12</code> |
| 125 | represents the line number at which the terminal symbol was found. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | <P> |
| 128 | Terminal elements are represented in much the same way, but without |
| 129 | any child elements and the addition of the source text which was |
| 130 | identified. The example of the <tt class="keyword">if</tt> keyword above is |
| 131 | representative. The various types of terminal symbols are defined in |
| 132 | the C header file <span class="file">Include/token.h</span> and the Python module |
| 133 | <tt class="module"><a href="module-token.html">token</a></tt>. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | <P> |
| 136 | The AST objects are not required to support the functionality of this |
| 137 | module, but are provided for three purposes: to allow an application |
| 138 | to amortize the cost of processing complex parse trees, to provide a |
| 139 | parse tree representation which conserves memory space when compared |
| 140 | to the Python list or tuple representation, and to ease the creation |
| 141 | of additional modules in C which manipulate parse trees. A simple |
| 142 | ``wrapper'' class may be created in Python to hide the use of AST |
| 143 | objects. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | <P> |
| 146 | The <tt class="module">parser</tt> module defines functions for a few distinct |
| 147 | purposes. The most important purposes are to create AST objects and |
| 148 | to convert AST objects to other representations such as parse trees |
| 149 | and compiled code objects, but there are also functions which serve to |
| 150 | query the type of parse tree represented by an AST object. |
| 151 | |
| 152 | <P> |
| 153 | <div class="seealso"> |
| 154 | <p class="heading">See Also:</p> |
| 155 | |
| 156 | <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule"> |
| 157 | <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-symbol.html">symbol</a></tt>:</b> |
| 158 | <dd>Useful constants representing internal nodes of |
| 159 | the parse tree. |
| 160 | </dl> |
| 161 | <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule"> |
| 162 | <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-token.html">token</a></tt>:</b> |
| 163 | <dd>Useful constants representing leaf nodes of the |
| 164 | parse tree and functions for testing node values. |
| 165 | </dl> |
| 166 | </div> |
| 167 | |
| 168 | <P> |
| 169 | |
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| 172 | <!--Table of Child-Links--> |
| 173 | <A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a> |
| 174 | |
| 175 | <UL CLASS="ChildLinks"> |
| 176 | <LI><A href="node767.html">18.1.1 Creating AST Objects</a> |
| 177 | <LI><A href="node768.html">18.1.2 Converting AST Objects</a> |
| 178 | <LI><A href="node769.html">18.1.3 Queries on AST Objects</a> |
| 179 | <LI><A href="node770.html">18.1.4 Exceptions and Error Handling</a> |
| 180 | <LI><A href="node771.html">18.1.5 AST Objects</a> |
| 181 | <LI><A href="node772.html">18.1.6 Examples</a> |
| 182 | <UL> |
| 183 | <LI><A href="node773.html">18.1.6.1 Emulation of <tt class="function">compile()</tt></a> |
| 184 | <LI><A href="node774.html">18.1.6.2 Information Discovery</a> |
| 185 | </ul></ul> |
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| 223 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> |
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