boost spirit semantic action parameters

This a really good question (and also a can of worms) because it gets at the interface of qi and phoenix. I haven't seen an example either, so I'll extend the article a little in this direction.

As you say, functions for semantic actions can take up to three parameters

Matched attribute - covered in the article
Context - contains the qi-phoenix interface
Match flag - manipulate the match state

Match flag

As the article states, the second parameter is not meaningful unless the expression is part of a rule, so lets start with the third. A placeholder for the second parameter is still needed though and for this use boost::fusion::unused_type. So a modified function from the article to use the third parameter is:

#include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

void f(int attribute, const boost::fusion::unused_type& it, bool& mFlag){
    //output parameters
    std::cout << "matched integer: '" << attribute << "'" << std::endl
              << "match flag: " << mFlag << std::endl;

    //fiddle with match flag
    mFlag = false;
}

namespace qi = boost::spirit::qi;

int main(void){
   std::string input("1234 6543");
   std::string::const_iterator begin = input.begin(), end = input.end();

   bool returnVal = qi::phrase_parse(begin, end, qi::int_[f], qi::space);

   std::cout << "return: " << returnVal << std::endl;
   return 0;
}

which outputs:

matched integer: '1234'
match flag: 1
return: 0

All this example does is switch the match to a non-match, which is reflected in the parser output. According to hkaiser, in boost 1.44 and up setting the match flag to false will cause the match to fail in the normal way. If alternatives are defined, the parser will backtrack and attempt to match them as one would expect. However, in boost<=1.43 a Spirit bug prevents backtracking, which causes strange behavior. To see this, add phoenix include boost/spirit/include/phoenix.hpp and change the expression to

qi::int_[f] | qi::digit[std::cout << qi::_1 << "\n"]

You'd expect that, when the qi::int parser fails, the alternative qi::digit to match the beginning of the input at "1", but the output is:

matched integer: '1234'
match flag: 1
6
return: 1

The 6 is the first digit of the second int in the input which indicates the alternative is taken using the skipper and without backtracking. Notice also that the match is considered succesful, based on the alternative.

Once boost 1.44 is out, the match flag will be useful for applying match criteria that might be otherwise difficult to express in a parser sequence. Note that the match flag can be manipulated in phoenix expressions using the _pass placeholder.

Context parameter

The more interesting parameter is the second one, which contains the qi-phoenix interface, or in qi parlance, the context of the semantic action. To illustrate this, first examine a rule:

rule<Iterator, Attribute(Arg1,Arg2,...), qi::locals<Loc1,Loc2,...>, Skipper>

The context parameter embodies the Attribute, Arg1, ... ArgN, and qi::locals template paramters, wrapped in a boost::spirit::context template type. This attribute differs from the function parameter: the function parameter attribute is the parsed value, while this attribute is the value of the rule itself. A semantic action must map the former to the latter. Here's an example of a possible context type (phoenix expression equivalents indicated):

using namespace boost;
spirit::context<              //context template
    fusion::cons<             
        int&,                 //return int attribute (phoenix: _val)
        fusion::cons<
            char&,            //char argument1       (phoenix: _r1)
            fusion::cons<
                float&,       //float argument2      (phoenix: _r2) 
                fusion::nil   //end of cons list
            >,
        >,
    >,
    fusion::vector2<          //locals container
        char,                 //char local           (phoenix: _a)
        unsigned int          //unsigned int local   (phoenix: _b)
    > 
>

Note the return attribute and argument list take the form of a lisp-style list (a cons list). To access these variables within a function, access the attribute or locals members of the context struct template with fusion::at<>(). For example, for a context variable con

//assign return attribute
fusion::at_c<0>(con.attributes) = 1;

//get the second rule argument
float arg2 = fusion::at_c<2>(con.attributes);

//assign the first local
fusion::at_c<1>(con.locals) = 42;

To modify the article example to use the second argument, change the function definition and phrase_parse calls:

...
typedef 
    boost::spirit::context<
        boost::fusion::cons<int&, boost::fusion::nil>, 
        boost::fusion::vector0<> 
    > f_context;
void f(int attribute, const f_context& con, bool& mFlag){
   std::cout << "matched integer: '" << attribute << "'" << std::endl
             << "match flag: " << mFlag << std::endl;

   //assign output attribute from parsed value    
   boost::fusion::at_c<0>(con.attributes) = attribute;
}
...
int matchedInt;
qi::rule<std::string::const_iterator,int(void),ascii::space_type> 
    intRule = qi::int_[f];
qi::phrase_parse(begin, end, intRule, ascii::space, matchedInt);
std::cout << "matched: " << matchedInt << std::endl;
....

This is a very simple example that just maps the parsed value to the output attribute value, but extensions should be fairly apparent. Just make the context struct template parameters match the rule output, input, and local types. Note that this type of a direct match between parsed type/value to output type/value can be done automatically using auto rules, with a %= instead of a = when defining the rule:

qi::rule<std::string::const_iterator,int(void),ascii::space_type> 
    intRule %= qi::int_;

IMHO, writing a function for each action would be rather tedious, compared to the brief and readable phoenix expression equivalents. I sympathize with the voodoo viewpoint, but once you work with phoenix for a little while, the semantics and syntax aren't terribly difficult.

Edit: Accessing rule context w/ Phoenix

The context variable is only defined when the parser is part of a rule. Think of a parser as being any expression that consumes input, where a rule translates the parser values (qi::_1) into a rule value (qi::_val). The difference is often non-trivial, for example when qi::val has a Class type that needs to be constructed from POD parsed values. Below is a simple example.

Let's say part of our input is a sequence of three CSV integers (x1, x2, x3), and we only care out an arithmetic function of these three integers (f = x0 + (x1+x2)*x3 ), where x0 is a value obtained elsewhere. One option is to read in the integers and calculate the function, or alternatively use phoenix to do both.

For this example, use one rule with an output attribute (the function value), and input (x0), and a local (to pass information between individual parsers with the rule). Here's the full example.

#include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp>
#include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix.hpp>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

namespace qi = boost::spirit::qi;
namespace ascii = boost::spirit::ascii;

int main(void){
   std::string input("1234, 6543, 42");
   std::string::const_iterator begin = input.begin(), end = input.end();

   qi::rule<
      std::string::const_iterator,
      int(int),                    //output (_val) and input (_r1)
      qi::locals<int>,             //local int (_a)
      ascii::space_type
   >
      intRule =
            qi::int_[qi::_a = qi::_1]             //local = x1
         >> ","
         >> qi::int_[qi::_a += qi::_1]            //local = x1 + x2
         >> ","
         >> qi::int_
            [
               qi::_val = qi::_a*qi::_1 + qi::_r1 //output = local*x3 + x0
            ];

   int ruleValue, x0 = 10;
   qi::phrase_parse(begin, end, intRule(x0), ascii::space, ruleValue);
   std::cout << "rule value: " << ruleValue << std::endl;
   return 0;
}

Alternatively, all the ints could be parsed as a vector, and the function evaluated with a single semantic action (the % below is the list operator and elements of the vector are accessed with phoenix::at):

namespace ph = boost::phoenix;
...
    qi::rule<
        std::string::const_iterator,
        int(int),
        ascii::space_type
    >
    intRule =
        (qi::int_ % ",")
        [
            qi::_val = (ph::at(qi::_1,0) + ph::at(qi::_1,1))
                      * ph::at(qi::_1,2) + qi::_r1
        ];
....

For the above, if the input is incorrect (two ints instead of three), bad thing could happen at run time, so it would be better to specify the number of parsed values explicitly, so parsing will fail for a bad input. The below uses _1, _2, and _3 to reference the first, second, and third match value:

(qi::int_ >> "," >> qi::int_ >> "," >> qi::int_)
[
    qi::_val = (qi::_1 + qi::_2) * qi::_3 + qi::_r1
];

This is a contrived example, but should give you the idea. I've found phoenix semantic actions really helpful in constructing complex objects directly from input; this is possible because you can call constructors and member functions within semantic actions.

boost spirit semantic action parameters

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