Crazy Scala Combinator Parser

Updates

• 2012-06-?? Add Chris Hodapp version to the post.
• 2012-06-23 Fix word is now in the second sample no method anymore its a val

Create my first parser with the Scala combinator library. I really like the concept to have simple way to compose simple parsers via high-level functions to a complex parser. But I think the syntax for the internal Scala parser DSL is a little bit crazy. I’m not sure why the method names in Scala always must be as short as possible e.g. rep. For me this makes the source of my simple parser really crazy. Here my first simple key value parser to show how the source of Scala parser looks like.


The concept behind the Scala combinator parsers are great, try it and you will learn a lot about how to create a parser in functional language. But I don’t understand why always the shortest and cryptic methods names are used in Scala. This type of naming makes the source hard to read and understand and it makes the Scala source so crazy. But when you know the cryptic names it makes a lot of fun to write such crazy Scala source.

Try it more details about regex parsers please see the Scala doc. The demo parser is not perfect and I’m not a Scala professional, if there are any comments feel free write me how to make it better.

A better Scala version of the parser by Chris Hodapp here: Links

• http://www.scala-lang.org/api/current/index.html#scala.util.parsing.combinator.RegexParsers