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Simple command parser?
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How would I implement a simple command parser? I was planning on starting out simple by just implementing commands and then later adding things like parameters. How would I do this? Would I have a list of commands that execute when the parser matches the command to something user types? Does that mean I'd have to treat parameters as separate commands?
Well, if you were using Python, you could just take strings from the user with something like raw_input() and dumping them in eval(). If not using Python, then please specify what language you are using, and possibly other pertinent information like how you want user input to occur with your application.
Sorry, I always forget to mention which language I'm using. I'm going to be using C++. For the time being the user will be using a console window, like a DOS prompt.
Boost Spirit, or older, battle-tested Lex/Yacc and descendants (Flex/Bison, etc.).
Another option more aimed at actually solving the task rather than exploring techniques is exposing your functions via Lua, possibly by using a choice of wrapper/interface libraries.
There's also Boost program options, which is specifically aimed at GNU-like command-line parsing.
For trivial parsing, simple string tokenization might work as well.
Another option more aimed at actually solving the task rather than exploring techniques is exposing your functions via Lua, possibly by using a choice of wrapper/interface libraries.
There's also Boost program options, which is specifically aimed at GNU-like command-line parsing.
For trivial parsing, simple string tokenization might work as well.
It really depends on how simple of commands you're want to use. I have one application with a main loop that looks like:
Hardly award winning code, but it works fine for the very simple commands the program was supposed to work with.
for (;;) { std::cout << ">>> " << std::flush; std::string command_line; getline(std::cin, command_line); std::stringstream sstr(command_line); std::string command; sstr >> command; if (command == "scan") { std::string name; int value; sstr >> name >> value; // do stuff for scan } else if (command == "filter") { std::string name; int value; sstr >> name >> value; // do stuff for filter } else if (command == "display") { std::string name; sstr >> name; // do stuff for display } // and more commandsHardly award winning code, but it works fine for the very simple commands the program was supposed to work with.
If I may, what exactly is all of this?
Pardon the very novice question, but why not just use cin >> command? (I'm sure there's a good reason, I'm just curious.)
std::cout << ">>> " << std::flush;std::string command_line;getline(std::cin, command_line); std::stringstream sstr(command_line);std::string command;sstr >> command;Pardon the very novice question, but why not just use cin >> command? (I'm sure there's a good reason, I'm just curious.)
What if I'm just messing around with a console-based text game? I won't be doing anything with GUIs, networking, or reading commands from files.
Im not to sure if this is what you want, but in my systems parser I have a base class declared like this (A little modified to better suit C++ library) :
You can store a list of all of the commands in an std::vector<> or std::list<> and create them dynamically (i.e., internal_cmd* cmd = new specific_cmd). Create a class for a new command and execute the command like this (Not tested) :
This allows your command parser to treat each command as the same base class and execute the command by calling the commands callback method. This also provides a separation between your command parser and the actual commands themselves.
//! internal commandclass internal_cmd {public: std::string m_name; int m_flags; virtual void desc () = 0; virtual char* desc_short () = 0; virtual int callback (char*) = 0;};You can store a list of all of the commands in an std::vector<> or std::list<> and create them dynamically (i.e., internal_cmd* cmd = new specific_cmd). Create a class for a new command and execute the command like this (Not tested) :
//! this is command to teststd::string inputbuf;std::vector <internal_cmd*>::iterator it = cmds.begin();for (; it != cmds.end(); it++) if (*it) if ((*it)->m_name == inputbuf) { (*it)->callback (command_parms); break; }This allows your command parser to treat each command as the same base class and execute the command by calling the commands callback method. This also provides a separation between your command parser and the actual commands themselves.
Quote:
Original post by codemonkey423
Pardon the very novice question, but why not just use cin >> command? (I'm sure there's a good reason, I'm just curious.)
The primary reason is that it makes error handling easier. Take a look at the "scan" command. It's syntax is "scan [string] [number]". So a valid command would be "scan fred 5". Now what happens if the user entered "scan fred 5t"? If I had just std::cin >> command >> name >> value;, the "t" at the end would be left in the buffer and would get interpreted as the next command. The user would probably then be rather confused why entering his next command didn't work. Similarly if the user entered "scan fred barney" the std::cin object would be put into an error state on the barney input, which would then require that std::cin be cleared and probably the buffer flushed to the next newline so the next command would be read properly. By reading a line at a time and dumping into a stringstream, I get a lot of error handling without explicitly needing to write error handling code.
I have command parsing in my 2d engine also. It can execute single lines (so that user can implement a console) and whole script files (used mainly for simple initialization scripting and GUI scripting, as conditionals and loops are not supported).
The code is too large to include in this post in its entirety, but you can download my source code here and look at ThunderCommand.h/ThunderCommand.cpp:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=206665
Here are all the main parts:
The code is too large to include in this post in its entirety, but you can download my source code here and look at ThunderCommand.h/ThunderCommand.cpp:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=206665
Here are all the main parts:
BOOL CThunderCommandMap::ExecuteScript(LPCWSTR pszText, LPCWSTR pszLabel){ int nLabelLen = (pszLabel && *pszLabel) ? wcslen(pszLabel) : 0; while(pszText) { // Skip any white space and comments while(EatWhiteSpaceNewline(&pszText) || EatComment(&pszText)); // If we're out of text, break out if(!*pszText) break; // Execute the current statement if(nLabelLen) { // If looking for label and we found it, mark it as found if(*pszText == L':' && !wcsncmp(pszText + 1, pszLabel, nLabelLen)) nLabelLen = 0; } else { if(*pszText != L':') { // Ignore all labels when we are not looking for one if(!wcsncmp(L"return", pszText, 6)) { // This is a return statement - return immediately break; } else { // This is a command call or a variable get/set ExecuteStatement(pszText); } } } // Go to the next line pszText = wcschr(pszText, L'\n'); } return TRUE;}int CThunderCommandMap::ExecuteStatement(LPCWSTR pszLine){ // Echo this action if so specified if(m_rEngine.GetOption(THU_OPTION_ENABLEECHO)) { LPCWSTR pszEndLine = wcschr(pszLine, L'\n'); if(!pszEndLine) { pszEndLine = pszLine + wcslen(pszLine); } else { if(L'\r' == *pszEndLine) pszEndLine--; } if(L'\n' == *pszEndLine) pszEndLine--; int nLineLen = pszEndLine - pszLine; CThunderString strEcho; if(!strEcho.Allocate(nLineLen)) { m_rEngine.GetErrors().Push(THU_ERR_MEMALLOC, __FUNCTIONW__, nLineLen); return -1; } strEcho.CopyToBuffer(nLineLen, pszLine, nLineLen); m_rEngine.Print(strEcho, THU_PRINT_ECHO); } // Find the end of name string LPCWSTR pszNameEnd = pszLine; while(IsValidNameChar(*pszNameEnd)) pszNameEnd++; // Copy the name string int nNameLen = pszNameEnd - pszLine; // If name string length is invalid, exit if(!nNameLen) return -1; CThunderString strName; if(!strName.Allocate(nNameLen)) { m_rEngine.GetErrors().Push(THU_ERR_MEMALLOC, __FUNCTIONW__, nNameLen); return -1; } strName.CopyToBuffer(nNameLen, pszLine, nNameLen); // Start looking for the first param after the end of name string LPCWSTR pszFirstParam = pszNameEnd; // If what follows is end of string, execute command without params and exit if(!*pszFirstParam) return ExecuteStatement(strName, NULL); // Otherwise, skip any white space EatWhiteSpace(&pszFirstParam); // If we encounter a comment, execute command without params and exit if(EatComment(&pszFirstParam)) return ExecuteStatement(strName, NULL); // Execute with this name and the parameter string return ExecuteStatement(strName, pszFirstParam);}int CThunderCommandMap::ExecuteStatement(LPCWSTR pszName, LPCWSTR pszParams){ // First, find a command by this name CThunderCommand* pCmd = Find(pszName); if(pCmd) { // Execute command if found return pCmd->Execute(m_rEngine, pszParams); } else { // If can't find the command, try to find a global (engine) variable CThunderVariable* pVar = m_rEngine.GetVariables().Find(pszName); if(pszParams) { // If variable is not found in global scope, try searching current map if(!pVar && m_rEngine.GetCurrentMapConst()) { pVar = m_rEngine.GetCurrentMap()->GetVariables().Find(pszName); } // If variable is not found and parameters are specified, create and set a global one from parameters if(!pVar) { pVar = m_rEngine.GetVariables().Add(pszName, THU_VAR_UNDEFINED); if(!pVar) return -1; } pVar->FromString(pszParams); } else { // If variable not found and no parameters specified, exit with failure if(!pVar) { m_rEngine.Print(L"variable or command not found.", THU_PRINT_ERROR); return -1; } // If variable is found, print its value CThunderString str; pVar->ToString(str); m_rEngine.Print(str); } } return 0;}int CThunderCommand::Execute(CThunderEngine& rEngine, LPCWSTR pszParams){ vector<CThunderVariable> arParams; // If no params, just execute without them if(!pszParams) return (*m_pfnCallback)(rEngine, arParams); // Allow 8 params before having to resize arParams.reserve(8); // Start reading parameters for(;;) { // Attempt to read this param CThunderVariable varCurParam; int nReadLen = varCurParam.FromString(pszParams); // If invalid, stop reading params if(!nReadLen) break; // Otherwise, add this param to the param list arParams.push_back(varCurParam); // Skip the data for the param just read pszParams += nReadLen; // Skip any white space EatWhiteSpace(&pszParams); // Examine what follows if(L',' == *pszParams) { // If parameter separator follows, skip it and any space that follows pszParams++; EatWhiteSpace(&pszParams); } else if(L'\r' == *pszParams || L'\n' == *pszParams) { // If this is the end of line, break out break; } else if(L'\0' == *pszParams) { // If this is the end of string, break out break; } else if(EatComment(&pszParams)) { // If this is a comment, break out break; } } // Call the command return (*m_pfnCallback)(rEngine, arParams);}Topic Locked
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