path: root/lib/stdlib/doc/src/erl_scan.xml

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<erlref>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year><year>2016</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
      you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
      You may obtain a copy of the License at
 
          http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

      Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
      distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
      See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
      limitations under the License.

    </legalnotice>

    <title>erl_scan</title>
    <prepared>Robert Virding</prepared>
    <responsible>Bjarne D&auml;cker</responsible>
    <docno>1</docno>
    <approved>Bjarne D&auml;cker</approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date>1997-01-24</date>
    <rev>B</rev>
    <file>erl_scan.xml</file>
  </header>
  <module>erl_scan</module>
  <modulesummary>The Erlang token scanner.</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>This module contains functions for tokenizing (scanning) characters into
      Erlang tokens.</p>
  </description>

  <datatypes>
    <datatype>
      <name name="category"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="error_description"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="error_info"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="option"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="options"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="symbol"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="resword_fun"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="token"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="tokens"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="tokens_result"></name>
    </datatype>
  </datatypes>
 
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name name="category" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the category.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the category of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="column" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the column.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the column of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>'s
          collection of annotations.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="end_location" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the end location of the text.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the end location of the text of
          <c><anno>Token</anno></c>'s collection of annotations. If
            there is no text, <c>undefined</c> is returned.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="format_error" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Format an error descriptor.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Uses an <c><anno>ErrorDescriptor</anno></c> and returns a string 
          that describes the error or warning. This function is usually
          called implicitly when an <c>ErrorInfo</c> structure is
          processed (see section
          <seealso marker="#errorinfo">Error Information</seealso>).</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="line" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the line.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the line of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>'s collection
          of annotations.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="location" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the location.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the location of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>'s
          collection of annotations.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="reserved_word" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Test for a reserved word.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c><anno>Atom</anno></c> is an
         Erlang reserved word, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="string" arity="1"/>
      <name name="string" arity="2"/>
      <name name="string" arity="3"/>
      <fsummary>Scan a string and return the Erlang tokens.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Takes the list of characters <c><anno>String</anno></c> and tries to
          scan (tokenize) them. Returns one of the following:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>{ok, <anno>Tokens</anno>, <anno>EndLocation</anno>}</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p><c><anno>Tokens</anno></c> are the Erlang tokens from
            <c><anno>String</anno></c>. <c><anno>EndLocation</anno></c>
            is the first location after the last token.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>{error, <anno>ErrorInfo</anno>,
            <anno>ErrorLocation</anno>}</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>An error occurred. <c><anno>ErrorLocation</anno></c> is the
              first location after the erroneous token.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
        <p><c>string(<anno>String</anno>)</c> is equivalent to
          <c>string(<anno>String</anno>, 1)</c>, and
          <c>string(<anno>String</anno>,
          <anno>StartLocation</anno>)</c> is equivalent to
          <c>string(<anno>String</anno>,
          <anno>StartLocation</anno>, [])</c>.</p>
        <p><c><anno>StartLocation</anno></c> indicates the initial location
          when scanning starts. If <c><anno>StartLocation</anno></c> is a line,
          <c>Anno</c>, <c><anno>EndLocation</anno></c>, and
          <c><anno>ErrorLocation</anno></c> are lines. If
          <c><anno>StartLocation</anno></c> is a pair of a line and a column,
          <c>Anno</c> takes the form of an opaque compound
          data type, and <c><anno>EndLocation</anno></c> and
          <c><anno>ErrorLocation</anno></c>
          are pairs of a line and a column. The <em>token
          annotations</em> contain information about the column and the
          line where the token begins, as well as the text of the
          token (if option <c>text</c> is specified), all of which can
          be accessed by calling
          <seealso marker="#column/1"><c>column/1</c></seealso>,
          <seealso marker="#line/1"><c>line/1</c></seealso>,
          <seealso marker="#location/1"><c>location/1</c></seealso>, and
          <seealso marker="#text/1"><c>text/1</c></seealso>.</p>
        <p>A <em>token</em> is a tuple containing information about
          syntactic category, the token annotations, and the
          terminal symbol. For punctuation characters (such as <c>;</c> and 
          <c>|</c>) and reserved words, the category and the symbol
          coincide, and the token is represented by a two-tuple.
          Three-tuples have one of the following forms:</p>
        <list type="bulleted">
          <item><c>{atom, Anno, atom()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{char, Anno, char()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{comment, Anno, string()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{float, Anno, float()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{integer, Anno, integer()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{var, Anno, atom()}</c></item>
          <item><c>{white_space, Anno, string()}</c></item>
        </list>
        <p>Valid options:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>{reserved_word_fun, reserved_word_fun()}</c></tag>
          <item><p>A callback function that is called when the scanner
            has found an unquoted atom. If the function returns
            <c>true</c>, the unquoted atom itself becomes the category
            of the token. If the function returns <c>false</c>,
            <c>atom</c> becomes the category of the unquoted atom.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>return_comments</c></tag>
          <item><p>Return comment tokens.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>return_white_spaces</c></tag>
          <item><p>Return white space tokens. By convention, a newline
            character, if present, is always the first character of the
            text (there cannot be more than one newline in a white space
            token).</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>return</c></tag>
          <item><p>Short for <c>[return_comments, return_white_spaces]</c>.</p>
          </item>
          <tag><c>text</c></tag>
          <item><p>Include the token text in the token annotation. The
            text is the part of the input corresponding to the token.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="symbol" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the symbol.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the symbol of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="text" arity="1" since="OTP 18.0"/>
      <fsummary>Return the text.</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the text of <c><anno>Token</anno></c>'s collection
          of annotations. If there is no text, <c>undefined</c> is
          returned.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>

    <func>
      <name name="tokens" arity="3"/>
      <name name="tokens" arity="4"/>
      <fsummary>Re-entrant scanner.</fsummary>
      <type name="char_spec"/>
      <type name="return_cont"/>
      <type_desc name="return_cont">An opaque continuation.</type_desc>
      <desc>
        <p>This is the re-entrant scanner, which scans characters until
          either a <em>dot</em> ('.' followed by a white space) or
          <c>eof</c> is reached. It returns:</p>
        <taglist>
          <tag><c>{done, <anno>Result</anno>, <anno>LeftOverChars</anno>}</c>
          </tag>
          <item>
            <p>Indicates that there is sufficient input
              data to get a result. <c><anno>Result</anno></c> is:</p>
            <taglist>
              <tag><c>{ok, Tokens, EndLocation}</c></tag>
              <item>
                <p>The scanning was successful. <c>Tokens</c>
                  is the list of tokens including <em>dot</em>.</p>
              </item>
              <tag><c>{eof, EndLocation}</c></tag>
              <item>
                <p>End of file was encountered before any more tokens.</p>
              </item>
              <tag><c>{error, ErrorInfo, EndLocation}</c></tag>
              <item>
                <p>An error occurred. <c><anno>LeftOverChars</anno></c>
                  is the remaining characters of the input data,
                  starting from <c>EndLocation</c>.</p>
              </item>
            </taglist>
          </item>
          <tag><c>{more, <anno>Continuation1</anno>}</c></tag>
          <item>
            <p>More data is required for building a term.
              <c><anno>Continuation1</anno></c> must be passed in a new call to
              <c>tokens/3,4</c> when more data is available.</p>
          </item>
        </taglist>
        <p>The <c><anno>CharSpec</anno></c> <c>eof</c> signals end of file.
        <c><anno>LeftOverChars</anno></c> then takes the value <c>eof</c>
          as well.</p>
        <p><c>tokens(<anno>Continuation</anno>, <anno>CharSpec</anno>,
          <anno>StartLocation</anno>)</c> is equivalent to
          <c>tokens(<anno>Continuation</anno>, <anno>CharSpec</anno>,
          <anno>StartLocation</anno>, [])</c>.</p>
        <p>For a description of the options, see
          <seealso marker="#string/3"><c>string/3</c></seealso>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>

  <section>
    <marker id="errorinfo"/>
    <title>Error Information</title>
    <p><c>ErrorInfo</c> is the standard <c>ErrorInfo</c> structure that is
      returned from all I/O modules. The format is as follows:</p>
    <code type="none">
{ErrorLocation, Module, ErrorDescriptor}</code>
    <p>A string describing the error is obtained with the following call:</p>
    <code type="none">
Module:format_error(ErrorDescriptor)</code>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Notes</title>
    <p>The continuation of the first call to the re-entrant input
      functions must be <c>[]</c>. For a complete description of how the
      re-entrant input scheme works, see Armstrong, Virding and
      Williams: 'Concurrent Programming in Erlang', Chapter 13.</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <p><seealso marker="erl_anno"><c>erl_anno(3)</c></seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse"><c>erl_parse(3)</c></seealso>,
      <seealso marker="io"><c>io(3)</c></seealso></p>
  </section>
</erlref>