PPC

A parser combinator library for PHP

Simple to use & extend • Fast & lightweight • Reliable

Introduction

PPC stands for PHP Parser Combinator. What an obvious name for such a library!

As its name tells us, PPC is just another parser combinator library with a clear goal: make writing efficient parsers a breeze. Writing parser with PPC does not require you to know how parser combinators works internally nor it requires you to learn a complex object-oriented API.

PPC is a set of functions which you will love to compose to build complex parsers!

Installation

PPC requires you to have at least PHP 7.4.0 and the Multibyte String (mbstring) extension enabled. You may want to check if your setup is correct using the following script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo "PHP version: $(php -v | head -n1 | grep -qE '7.([4-9]|1[0-9]).(0|[1-9][0-9]*)' && echo '✅' || echo '❌')"
echo "Multibyte String extension: $(php -m | grep -qE 'mbstring' && echo '✅' || echo '❌')"

Once everything is correct, choose the installation method that best feets your needs:

Composer (CLI)

composer require "jubianchi/ppc" "dev-master"

Composer (JSON)

{
    "require": {
        "jubianchi/ppc": "dev-master"
    }
}

Git

git clone "https://github.com/jubianchi/ppc.git"
git checkout "master"

Example parser

Here is a quick example demonstrating how easy it is to write a parser:

<?php

use jubianchi\PPC\Parser\Result;
use jubianchi\PPC\CharStream;
use function jubianchi\PPC\Combinators\{opt, separated, seq};
use function jubianchi\PPC\Parsers\{char, eos, regex};

$separator = seq(char(','), opt(char(' ')));
$list = seq(
    char('['),
    seq(
        separated(
            $separator,
            opt(regex('/[0-9]/'))
        ),
        opt($separator)
    ),
    char(']'),
    eos()
);

$stream = new CharStream('[0, 1, 2, , 4, 5,, 7, 8, 9,]');
$result = $list($stream);

assert($result instanceof Result\Success);

Easy, right? Be sure to read the documentation to understand how it works.