Replace.Attoparsec.ByteString

Replace.Attoparsec is for finding text patterns, and also editing and replacing the found patterns. This activity is traditionally done with regular expressions, but Replace.Attoparsec uses Data.Attoparsec parsers instead for the pattern matching.

Replace.Attoparsec can be used in the same sort of “pattern capture” or “find all” situations in which one would use Python re.findall, or Perl m//, or Unix grep.

Replace.Attoparsec can be used in the same sort of “stream editing” or “search-and-replace” situations in which one would use Python re.sub, or Perl s///, or Unix sed, or awk.

See the replace-attoparsec package README for usage examples.

Parser combinator

sepCap

Arguments

:: Parser a

The pattern matching parser sep

-> Parser [Either ByteString a]

Separate and capture

Parser combinator to find all of the non-overlapping ocurrences of the pattern sep in a text stream. Separate the stream into sections:

• sections which can parsed by the pattern sep will be captured as matching sections in Right
• non-matching sections of the stream will be captured in Left.

This parser will always consume its entire input and can never fail. If there are no pattern matches, then the entire input stream will be returned as a non-matching Left section.

The pattern matching parser sep will not be allowed to succeed without consuming any input. If we allow the parser to match a zero-width pattern, then it can match the same zero-width pattern again at the same position on the next iteration, which would result in an infinite number of overlapping pattern matches. So, for example, the pattern many digit, which can match zero occurences of a digit, will be treated by sepCap as many1 digit, and required to match at least one digit.

This sepCap parser combinator is the basis for all of the other features of this module. It is similar to the sep* family of functions found in parser-combinators and parsers but, importantly, it returns the parsed result of the sep parser instead of throwing it away.

findAll

Arguments

:: Parser a

The pattern matching parser sep

-> Parser [Either ByteString ByteString]

Find all occurences

Parser combinator for finding all occurences of a pattern in a stream.

Will call sepCap with the match combinator and return the text which matched the pattern parser sep in the Right sections.

Definition:

findAll sep = (fmap.fmap) (second fst) $ sepCap (match sep)

findAllCap

Arguments

:: Parser a

The pattern matching parser sep

-> Parser [Either ByteString (ByteString, a)]

Find all occurences, parse and capture pattern matches

Parser combinator for finding all occurences of a pattern in a stream.

Will call sepCap with the match combinator so that the text which matched the pattern parser sep will be returned in the Right sections, along with the result of the parse of sep.

Definition:

findAllCap sep = sepCap (match sep)

Running parser

streamEdit

Arguments

:: Parser a

The parser sep for the pattern of interest.

-> (a -> ByteString)

The editor function. Takes a parsed result of sep and returns a new stream section for the replacement.

-> ByteString

The input stream of text to be edited.

-> ByteString

Stream editor

Also known as “find-and-replace”, or “match-and-substitute”. Finds all of the sections of the stream which match the pattern sep, and replaces them with the result of the editor function.

This function is not a “parser combinator,” it is a “way to run a parser”, like parse or parseOnly.

Access the matched section of text in the editor

If you want access to the matched string in the editor function, then combine the pattern parser sep with match. This will effectively change the type of the editor function to (ByteString,a) -> ByteString.

This allows us to write an editor function which can choose to not edit the match and just leave it as it is. If the editor function always returns the first item in the tuple, then streamEdit changes nothing.

So, for all sep:

streamEdit (match sep) fst ≡ id

streamEditT

Arguments

:: Monad m

=> Parser a

The parser sep for the pattern of interest.

-> (a -> m ByteString)

The editor function. Takes a parsed result of sep and returns a new stream section for the replacement.

-> ByteString

The input stream of text to be edited.

-> m ByteString

Stream editor transformer

Monad transformer version of streamEdit.

The editor function will run in the underlying monad context.

If you want to do IO operations in the editor function then run this in IO.

If you want the editor function to remember some state, then run this in a stateful monad.

Parser

getOffset :: Parser Int

Get the Parser ’s current offset position in the stream.

“… you know you're in an uncomfortable state of sin :-)” — bos