fparsec - limit number of characters that a parser is applied to - f#

Question

I have a problem where during the parsing of a stream I get to point where the next N characters need to be parsed by applying a specfic parser multiple times (in sequence).
(stripped down toy) Example:
17<tag><anothertag><a42...
^
|- I'm here
Let's say the 17 indicates that the next N=17 characters make up tags, so I need to repetetively apply my "tagParser" but stop after 17 chars and not consume the rest even if it looks like a tag because that has a different meaning and will be parsed by another parser.
I cannot use many or many1 because that would eat the stream beyond those N characters.
Nor can I use parray because I do not know how many successful applications of that parser are there within the N characters.
I was looking into manyMinMaxSatisfy but could not figure out how to make use of it in this case.
Is there a way to cut N chars of a stream and feed them to some parser? Or is there a way to invoke many applications but up to N chars?
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use getPosition to make sure you don't go past the specified number of characters. I threw this together (using F# 6) and it seems to work, although simpler/faster solutions may be possible:
let manyLimit nChars p =
parse {
let! startPos = getPosition
let rec loop values =
parse {
let! curPos = getPosition
let nRemain = (startPos.Index + nChars) - curPos.Index
if nRemain = 0 then
return values
elif nRemain > 0 then
let! value = p
return! loop (value :: values)
else
return! fail $"limit exceeded by {-nRemain} chars"
}
let! values = loop []
return values |> List.rev
}
Test code:
let ptag =
between
(skipChar '<')
(skipChar '>')
(manySatisfy (fun c -> c <> '>'))
let parser =
parse {
let! nChars = pint64
let! tags = manyLimit nChars ptag
let! rest = restOfLine true
return tags, rest
}
run parser "17<tag><anothertag><a42..."
|> printfn "%A"
Output is:
Success: (["tag"; "anothertag"], "<a42...")

Answer 2

Quite low-level parser, that operates on raw Reply objects. It reads count of chars, creates substring to feed to tags parser and consumes rest. There's should be an easier way, but I don't have much experience with FParsec
open FParsec
type Tag = Tag of string
let pTag = // parses tag string and constructs 'Tag' object
skipChar '<' >>. many1Satisfy isLetter .>> skipChar '>'
|>> Tag
let pCountPrefixedTags stream =
let count = pint32 stream // read chars count
if count.Status = Ok then
let count = count.Result
// take exactly 'count' chars
let tags = manyMinMaxSatisfy count count (fun _ -> true) stream
if tags.Status = Ok then
// parse substring with tags
let res = run (many1 pTag) tags.Result
match res with
| Success (res, _, _) -> Reply(res)
| Failure (_, error, _) -> Reply(ReplyStatus.Error, error.Messages)
else
Reply(tags.Status, tags.Error)
else
Reply(count.Status, count.Error)
let consumeStream =
many1Satisfy (fun _ -> true)
run (pCountPrefixedTags .>>. consumeStream) "17<tag><anothertag><notTag..."
|> printfn "%A" // Success: ([Tag "tag"; Tag "anothertag"], "<notTag...")

Answer 3

You also can do this without going down to stream level.
open FParsec
let ptag =
between
(skipChar '<')
(skipChar '>')
(manySatisfy (fun c -> c <> '>'))
let tagsFromChars (l: char[]) =
let s = new System.String(l)
match run (many ptag) s with
| Success(result, _, _) -> result
| Failure(errorMsg, _, _) -> []
let parser =
parse {
let! nChars = pint32
let! tags = parray nChars anyChar |>> tagsFromChars
let! rest = restOfLine true
return tags, rest
}
run parser "17<tag><anothertag><a42..."
|> printfn "%A"