Question

I’m new to ANTLR, and I’m attempting to write a simple parser using C language target (antler3C). The grammar is simple enough that I’d like to have each rule return a value, eg:

number returns [long value]
 :
 ( INT {$value = $INT.ivalue;}
 | HEX {$value = $HEX.hvalue;}
 ) 
 ; 

HEX returns [long hvalue] 
    : '0' 'x' ('0'..'9'|'a'..'f'|'A'..'F')+  {$hvalue = strtol((char*)$text->chars,NULL,16);}
    ;

INT returns [long ivalue] 
    : '0'..'9'+    {$ivalue = strtol((char*)$text->chars,NULL,10);}
    ;

Each rule collects the return value of it’s child rules until the topmost rule returns a nice struct full of my data.

As far as I can tell, ANTLR allows lexer rules (tokens, eg ‘INT’ & ‘HEX’) to return values just like parser rules (eg ‘number’). However, the generated C code will not compile:

error C2228: left of '.ivalue' must have class/struct/union
error C2228: left of '.hvalue' must have class/struct/union

I did some poking around, and the errors make sense – the tokens end up as generic ANTLR3_COMMON_TOKEN_struct, which doesn’t allow for a return value. So maybe the C target just doesn’t support this feature. But like I said, I’m new to this, and before I go haring off to find another approach I want to confirm that I can’t do it this way.

So the question is this: ‘Does antler3C support return values for lexer rules, and if so what is the proper way to use them?’

Answer 1

Not really any new information, just some details on what @bemace already mentioned.

No, lexer rules cannot have return values. See 4.3 Rules from The Definitive ANTLR reference:

---

Rule Arguments and Return Values

Just like function calls, ANTLR parser and tree parser rules can have
arguments and return values. ANTLR lexer rules cannot have return
values […]

---

There are two options:

Option 1

You can do the transforming to a long in the parser rule number:

number returns [long value]
  :  INT {$value = Long.parseLong($INT.text);}
  |  HEX {$value = Long.parseLong($HEX.text.substring(2), 16);}
  ;

Option 2

Or create your own token that has, say, a toLong(): long method:

import org.antlr.runtime.*;

public class YourToken extends CommonToken {

  public YourToken(CharStream input, int type, int channel, int start, int stop) {
    super(input, type, channel, start, stop);
  }

  // your custom method
  public long toLong() {
    String text = super.getText();
    int radix = text.startsWith("0x") ? 16 : 10;
    if(radix == 16) text = text.substring(2);
    return Long.parseLong(text, radix);
  }
}

and define in the options {...} header in your grammar to use this token and override the emit(): Token method in your lexer class:

grammar Foo;

options{
  TokenLabelType=YourToken;
}

@lexer::members {
  public Token emit() {
    YourToken t = new YourToken(input, state.type, state.channel, 
        state.tokenStartCharIndex, getCharIndex()-1);
    t.setLine(state.tokenStartLine);
    t.setText(state.text);
    t.setCharPositionInLine(state.tokenStartCharPositionInLine);
    emit(t);
    return t;
  }
}

parse
  :  number {System.out.println("parsed: "+$number.value);} EOF
  ;

number returns [long value]
  :  INT {$value = $INT.toLong();}
  |  HEX {$value = $HEX.toLong();}
  ;

HEX
  :  '0' 'x' ('0'..'9'|'a'..'f'|'A'..'F')+
  ;

INT
  :  '0'..'9'+
  ;

When you generate a parser and lexer, and run this test class:

import org.antlr.runtime.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        ANTLRStringStream in = new ANTLRStringStream("0xCafE");
        FooLexer lexer = new FooLexer(in);
        CommonTokenStream tokens = new CommonTokenStream(lexer);
        FooParser parser = new FooParser(tokens);
        parser.parse();
    }
}

it will produce the following output:

parsed: 51966

The first options seems the more practical in your case.

Note that, as you can see, the examples given are in Java. I have no idea if option 2 is supported in the C target/runtime. I decided to still post it to be able to use it as a future reference here on SO.