Resolve ambiguous boost::spirit::qi grammar with lookahead - c++

Question

I want to a list of name-value pairs. Each list is terminated by a '.' and EOL. Each name-value pair is separated by a ':'. Each pair is separated by a ';' in the list. E.g.
NAME1: VALUE1; NAME2: VALUE2; NAME3: VALUE3.<EOL>
The problem I have is that the values contain '.' and the last value always consumes the '.' at the EOL. Can I use some sort of lookahead to ensure the last '.' before the EOL is treated differently?

Answer 1

I have created a sample, that presumably looks like what you have. The tweak is in the following line:
value = lexeme [ *(char_ - ';' - ("." >> (eol|eoi))) ];
Note how - ("." >> (eol|eoi))) means: exclude any . that is immediately followed by end-of-line or end-of-input.
Test case (also live on http://liveworkspace.org/code/949b1d711772828606ddc507acf4fb4b):
const std::string input =
"name1: value 1; other name : value #2.\n"
"name.sub1: value.with.periods; other.sub2: \"more fun!\"....\n";
bool ok = doParse(input, qi::blank);
Output:
parse success
data: name1 : value 1 ; other name : value #2 .
data: name.sub1 : value.with.periods ; other.sub2 : "more fun!"... .
Full code:
#include <boost/fusion/adapted.hpp>
#include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp>
#include <boost/spirit/include/karma.hpp>
#include <map>
#include <vector>
namespace qi = boost::spirit::qi;
namespace karma = boost::spirit::karma;
namespace phx = boost::phoenix;
typedef std::map<std::string, std::string> map_t;
typedef std::vector<map_t> maps_t;
template <typename It, typename Skipper = qi::space_type>
struct parser : qi::grammar<It, maps_t(), Skipper>
{
parser() : parser::base_type(start)
{
using namespace qi;
name = lexeme [ +~char_(':') ];
value = lexeme [ *(char_ - ';' - ('.' >> (eol|eoi))) ];
line = ((name >> ':' >> value) % ';') >> '.';
start = line % eol;
}
private:
qi::rule<It, std::string(), Skipper> name, value;
qi::rule<It, map_t(), Skipper> line;
qi::rule<It, maps_t(), Skipper> start;
};
template <typename C, typename Skipper>
bool doParse(const C& input, const Skipper& skipper)
{
auto f(std::begin(input)), l(std::end(input));
parser<decltype(f), Skipper> p;
maps_t data;
try
{
bool ok = qi::phrase_parse(f,l,p,skipper,data);
if (ok)
{
std::cout << "parse success\n";
for (auto& line : data)
std::cout << "data: " << karma::format_delimited((karma::string << ':' << karma::string) % ';' << '.', ' ', line) << '\n';
}
else std::cerr << "parse failed: '" << std::string(f,l) << "'\n";
//if (f!=l) std::cerr << "trailing unparsed: '" << std::string(f,l) << "'\n";
return ok;
} catch(const qi::expectation_failure<decltype(f)>& e)
{
std::string frag(e.first, e.last);
std::cerr << e.what() << "'" << frag << "'\n";
}
return false;
}
int main()
{
const std::string input =
"name1: value 1; other name : value #2.\n"
"name.sub1: value.with.periods; other.sub2: \"more fun!\"....\n";
bool ok = doParse(input, qi::blank);
return ok? 0 : 255;
}