Product Description
No programming language can solve every problem, but Java can be extended to solve a far wider range of problems through the use of parsers -- "mini-languages" that bridge the gap between humans and computers, and offer targeted solutions for specific problem domains. In Building Parsers with Java™, Steven John Metsker presents the first complete, start-to-finish guide to building parsers with Java. Metsker first explains what a parser is, introduces the building blocks of applied parsers, shows how to compose new parsers from existing ones; and walks step-by-step through designing, coding, and testing a working parser. Next, he presents in-depth coverage of creating Java-based parsers for a wide range of problem domains. You'll learn how to create parsers that can read elements of a data language; how to transform a grammar, ensuring the correct behavior of operators in a language; how to build arithmetic and regular expression parsers, and more. Metsker shows how to extend existing parser toolkits, and introduces a logic engine that can be used in a wide range of parsers, including both logic and query languages.
From the Back Cover
Parser building is a powerful programming technique that opens a world of opportunity for designing how users interact with applications. By creating mini-languages, you can precisely address the requirements of your application development domain. Writing your own parsers empowers you to access a database more effectively than SQL to efficiently control the movement of an order through its workflow, to command the actions of a robot, and to control access privileges to transactions in a system. The repertoire of today's professional programmer should include the know-how to create custom languages.
Building Parsers with Java™ shows how to create parsers that recognize custom programming languages. This book and its accompanying CD provide an in-depth explanation and clearly written tutorial on writing parsers, following the Interpreter Design Pattern. An easy-to-follow demonstration on how to apply parsers to vital development tasks is included, using more than a hundred short examples, numerous UML diagrams, and a pure Java parser toolkit to illustrate key points.
You will learn
- How to design, code, and test a working parser
- How to create a parser to read a data language, and how to create new computer languages with XML
- How to translate the design of a language into code
- How to accept an arithmetic formula and compute its result
- How to accept and apply matching expressions like th* one
- How to use tokenizers to define a parser in terms of logical nuggets instead of individual characters
- How to build parsers for a custom logic language like Prolog
- How to build parsers for a custom query language that goes beyond SQL
- How to construct an imperative language that translates text into commands that direct a sequence of actions
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