Parsec try : should try to go to next option - parsing

Question

Currently, I have the following code:
import Control.Applicative ((<|>))
import Text.Parsec (ParseError, endBy, sepBy, try)
import Text.Parsec.String (Parser)
import qualified Data.Char as Char
import qualified Text.Parsec as Parsec
data Operation = Lt | Gt deriving (Show)
data Value =
Raw String
| Op Operation
deriving (Show)
sampleStr :: String
sampleStr = unlines
[ "#BEGIN#"
, "x <- 3.14 + 2.72;"
, "x < 10;"
]
gtParser :: Parser Value
gtParser = do
Parsec.string "<"
return $ Op Gt
ltParser :: Parser Value
ltParser = do
Parsec.string ">"
return $ Op Lt
opParser :: Parser Value
opParser = gtParser <|> ltParser
rawParser :: Parser Value
rawParser = do
str <- Parsec.many1 $ Parsec.satisfy $ not . Char.isSpace
return $ Raw str
valueParser :: Parser Value
valueParser = try opParser <|> rawParser
eolParser :: Parser Char
eolParser = try (Parsec.char ';' >> Parsec.endOfLine)
<|> Parsec.endOfLine
lineParser :: Parser [Value]
lineParser = sepBy valueParser $ Parsec.many1 $ Parsec.char ' '
fileParser :: Parser [[Value]]
fileParser = endBy lineParser eolParser
parse :: String -> Either ParseError [[Value]]
parse = Parsec.parse fileParser "fail..."
main :: IO ()
main = print $ parse sampleStr
This will fail with the message
Left "fail..." (line 2, column 4):
unexpected "-"
expecting " ", ";" or new-line
To my understanding, since I have try opParser, after Parsec sees that the token <- cannot be parsed by opParser, it should go to rawParser. (It is essentially a lookahead).
What is my misunderstanding, and how do I fix this error?

Answer 1

You can replicate the problem with the smaller test case:
> Parsec.parse fileParser "foo" "x <- 3.14"
The problem is that fileParser first calls lineParser, which successfully parses "x <" into [Raw "x", Op Gt] and leaves "- 3.14" yet to be parsed. Unfortunately, fileParser now expects to parse something with eolParser, but eolParser can't parse "- 3.14" because it starts with neither a semicolon nor an endOfLine.
Your try opParser has no effect here because opParser successfully parses <, so there's nothing to backtrack from.
There are many ways you might fix the problem. If <- is the only case where a < might be misparsed, you could exclude this case with notFollowedBy:
gtParser :: Parser Value
gtParser = do
Parsec.string "<"
notFollowedBy $ Parsec.string "-"
return $ Op Gt