# Parsing Expression Grammars in Rust
`rust-peg` is a simple yet flexible parser generator that makes it easy to write robust parsers. Based on the [Parsing Expression Grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing_expression_grammar) formalism, it provides a Rust macro that builds a recursive descent parser from a concise definition of the grammar.
## Features
* Parse input from `&str`, `&[u8]`, `&[T]` or custom types implementing traits
* Customizable reporting of parse errors
* Rules can accept arguments to create reusable rule templates
* Precedence climbing for prefix/postfix/infix expressions
* Helpful `rustc` error messages for errors in the grammar definition or the Rust
code embedded within it
* Rule-level tracing to debug grammars
## Example
Parse a comma-separated list of numbers surrounded by brackets into a `Vec<u32>`:
```rust
peg::parser!{
grammar list_parser() for str {
rule number() -> u32
= n:$(['0'..='9']+) {? n.parse().or(Err("u32")) }
pub rule list() -> Vec<u32>
= "[" l:(number() ** ",") "]" { l }
}
}
pub fn main() {
assert_eq!(list_parser::list("[1,1,2,3,5,8]"), Ok(vec![1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8]));
}
```
[See the tests for more examples](./tests/run-pass/)
[Grammar rule syntax reference in rustdoc](https://docs.rs/peg)
## Comparison with similar parser generators
| peg | PEG | in grammar | proc macro (block) | `&str`, `&[T]`, custom | Yes | Yes | No |
| [pest] | PEG | external | proc macro (file) | `&str` | Yes | No | No |
| [nom] | combinators | in source | library | `&[u8]`, custom | No | Yes | Yes |
| [lalrpop] | LR(1) | in grammar | build script | `&str` | No | Yes | No |
[pest]: https://github.com/pest-parser/pest
[nom]: https://github.com/geal/nom
[lalrpop]: https://github.com/lalrpop/lalrpop
## See also
* [pegviz] is a UI for visualizing rust-peg's trace output to debug parsers.
* There exist several crates to format diagnostic messages on source code snippets in the terminal, including [chic], [annotate-snippets], [codespan-reporting], and [codemap-diagnostic].
[pegviz]: https://github.com/fasterthanlime/pegviz
[chic]: https://crates.io/crates/chic
[annotate-snippets]: https://crates.io/crates/annotate-snippets
[codespan-reporting]: https://crates.io/crates/codespan-reporting
[codemap-diagnostic]: https://crates.io/crates/codemap-diagnostic
## Development
The `rust-peg` grammar is written in `rust-peg`: `peg-macros/grammar.rustpeg`. To avoid the circular dependency, a precompiled grammar is checked in as `peg-macros/grammar.rs`. To regenerate this, run the `./bootstrap.sh` script.
There is a large test suite which uses [`trybuild`](https://crates.io/crates/trybuild) to test both functionality (`tests/run-pass`) and error messages for incorrect grammars (`tests/compile-fail`). Because `rustc` error messages change, the `compile-fail` tests are only run on the minimum supported Rust version to avoid spurious failures.
Use `cargo test` to run the entire suite,
or `cargo test -- trybuild trybuild=lifetimes.rs` to test just the indicated file.
Add `--features trace` to trace these tests.