How to parse simple imperative language using Parsec? - parsing

Question

I have a simple language with following grammar
Expr -> Var | Int | Expr Op Expr
Op -> + | - | * | / | % | == | != | < | > | <= | >= | && | ||
Stmt -> Skip | Var := Expr | Stmt ; Stmt | write Expr | read Expr | while Expr do Stmt | if Expr then Stmt else Stmt
I am writing simple parser for this language using Haskell's Parsec library and i am stuck with some things
When i try to parse statement skip ; skip i get only first Skip, however i want go get something like Colon Skip Skip
Also when i try to parse the assignment, i get an infinite recursion. For example, when i try to parse x := 1 my computer hangs up for long time.
Here is full source code of my parser. Thanks for any help!
module Parser where
import Control.Monad
import Text.Parsec.Language
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Expr
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Language
import qualified Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Token as Token
type Id = String
data Op = Add
| Sub
| Mul
| Div
| Mod
| Eq
| Neq
| Gt
| Geq
| Lt
| Leq
| And
| Or deriving (Eq, Show)
data Expr = Var Id
| Num Integer
| BinOp Op Expr Expr deriving (Eq, Show)
data Stmt = Skip
| Assign Expr Expr
| Colon Stmt Stmt
| Write Expr
| Read Expr
| WhileLoop Expr Stmt
| IfCond Expr Stmt Stmt deriving (Eq, Show)
languageDef =
emptyDef { Token.commentStart = ""
, Token.commentEnd = ""
, Token.commentLine = ""
, Token.nestedComments = False
, Token.caseSensitive = True
, Token.identStart = letter
, Token.identLetter = alphaNum
, Token.reservedNames = [ "skip"
, ";"
, "write"
, "read"
, "while"
, "do"
, "if"
, "then"
, "else"
]
, Token.reservedOpNames = [ "+"
, "-"
, "*"
, "/"
, ":="
, "%"
, "=="
, "!="
, ">"
, ">="
, "<"
, "<="
, "&&"
, "||"
]
}
lexer = Token.makeTokenParser languageDef
identifier = Token.identifier lexer
reserved = Token.reserved lexer
reservedOp = Token.reservedOp lexer
semi = Token.semi lexer
parens = Token.parens lexer
integer = Token.integer lexer
whiteSpace = Token.whiteSpace lexer
ifStmt :: Parser Stmt
ifStmt = do
reserved "if"
cond <- expression
reserved "then"
action1 <- statement
reserved "else"
action2 <- statement
return $ IfCond cond action1 action2
whileStmt :: Parser Stmt
whileStmt = do
reserved "while"
cond <- expression
reserved "do"
action <- statement
return $ WhileLoop cond action
assignStmt :: Parser Stmt
assignStmt = do
var <- expression
reservedOp ":="
expr <- expression
return $ Assign var expr
skipStmt :: Parser Stmt
skipStmt = do
reserved "skip"
return Skip
colonStmt :: Parser Stmt
colonStmt = do
s1 <- statement
reserved ";"
s2 <- statement
return $ Colon s1 s2
readStmt :: Parser Stmt
readStmt = do
reserved "read"
e <- expression
return $ Read e
writeStmt :: Parser Stmt
writeStmt = do
reserved "write"
e <- expression
return $ Write e
statement :: Parser Stmt
statement = colonStmt
<|> assignStmt
<|> writeStmt
<|> readStmt
<|> whileStmt
<|> ifStmt
<|> skipStmt
expression :: Parser Expr
expression = buildExpressionParser operators term
term = fmap Var identifier
<|> fmap Num integer
<|> parens expression
operators = [ [Infix (reservedOp "==" >> return (BinOp Eq)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp "!=" >> return (BinOp Neq)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp ">" >> return (BinOp Gt)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp ">=" >> return (BinOp Geq)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp "<" >> return (BinOp Lt)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp "<=" >> return (BinOp Leq)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp "&&" >> return (BinOp And)) AssocNone,
Infix (reservedOp "||" >> return (BinOp Or)) AssocNone]
, [Infix (reservedOp "*" >> return (BinOp Mul)) AssocLeft,
Infix (reservedOp "/" >> return (BinOp Div)) AssocLeft,
Infix (reservedOp "%" >> return (BinOp Mod)) AssocLeft]
, [Infix (reservedOp "+" >> return (BinOp Add)) AssocLeft,
Infix (reservedOp "-" >> return (BinOp Sub)) AssocLeft]
]
parser :: Parser Stmt
parser = whiteSpace >> statement
parseString :: String -> Stmt
parseString str =
case parse parser "" str of
Left e -> error $ show e
Right r -> r`

Answer 1

It's a common problem of parsers based on parser combinator: statement is left-recursive as its first pattern is colonStmt, and the first thing colonStmt will do is try parsing a statement again. Parser combinators are well-known won't terminate in this case.
Removed the colonStmt pattern from statement parser and the other parts worked appropriately:
> parseString "if (1 == 1) then skip else skip"
< IfCond (BinOp Eq (Num 1) (Num 1)) Skip Skip
> parseString "x := 1"
< Assign (Var "x") (Num 1)
The solution is fully described in this repo, there's no license file so I don't really know if it's safe to refer to the code, the general idea is to add another layer of parser when parsing any statement:
statement :: Parser Stmt
statement = do
ss <- sepBy1 statement' (reserved ";")
if length ss == 1
then return $ head ss
else return $ foldr1 Colon ss
statement' :: Parser Stmt
statement' = assignStmt
<|> writeStmt
<|> readStmt
<|> whileStmt
<|> ifStmt
<|> skipStmt