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How to use Cling in my app via API to interpret C++ code?
I expect it to provide terminal-like way of interaction without need to compile/run executable. Let's say i have hello world program:
void main() {
cout << "Hello world!" << endl;
}
I expect to have API to execute char* = (program code) and get char *output = "Hello world!". Thanks.
PS. Something similar to ch interpeter example:
/* File: embedch.c */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <embedch.h>
char *code = "\
int func(double x, int *a) { \
printf(\"x = %f\\n\", x); \
printf(\"a[1] in func=%d\\n\", a[1]);\
a[1] = 20; \
return 30; \
}";
int main () {
ChInterp_t interp;
double x = 10;
int a[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, retval;
Ch_Initialize(&interp, NULL);
Ch_AppendRunScript(interp,code);
Ch_CallFuncByName(interp, "func", &retval, x, a);
printf("a[1] in main=%d\n", a[1]);
printf("retval = %d\n", retval);
Ch_End(interp);
}
}
There is finally a better answer: example code! See https://github.com/root-project/cling/blob/master/tools/demo/cling-demo.cpp
And the answer to your question is: no. cling takes code and returns C++ values or objects, across compiled and interpreted code. It's not a "string in / string out" kinda thing. There's perl for that ;-) This is what code in, value out looks like:
// We could use a header, too...
interp.declare("int aGlobal;\n");
cling::Value res; // Will hold the result of the expression evaluation.
interp.process("aGlobal;", &res);
std::cout << "aGlobal is " << res.getAs<long long>() << '\n';
Apologies for the late reply!
Usually the way one does it is:
[cling$] #include "cling/Interpreter/Interpreter.h"
[cling$] const char* someCode = "int i = 123;"
[cling$] gCling->declare(someCode);
[cling$] i // You will have i declared:
(int) 123
The API is documented in: http://cling.web.cern.ch/cling/doxygen/classcling_1_1Interpreter.html
Of course you can create your own 'nested' interpreter in cling's runtime too. (See the doxygen link above)
I hope it helps and answers the question, more usage examples you can find under the test/ folder.
Vassil
I am trying to learn the Dart language, by transposing the exercices given by my school for C programming.
The very first exercice in our C pool is to write a function print_alphabet() that prints the alphabet in lowercase; it is forbidden to print the alphabet directly.
In POSIX C, the straightforward solution would be:
#include <unistd.h>
void print_alphabet(void)
{
char c;
c = 'a';
while (c <= 'z')
{
write(STDOUT_FILENO, &c, 1);
c++;
}
}
int main(void)
{
print_alphabet();
return (0);
}
However, as far as I know, the current version of Dart (1.1.1) does not have an easy way of dealing with characters. The farthest I came up with (for my very first version) is this:
void print_alphabet()
{
var c = "a".codeUnits.first;
var i = 0;
while (++i <= 26)
{
print(c.toString());
c++;
}
}
void main() {
print_alphabet();
}
Which prints the ASCII value of each character, one per line, as a string ("97" ... "122"). Not really what I intended…
I am trying to search for a proper way of doing this. But the lack of a char type like the one in C is giving me a bit of a hard time, as a beginner!
Dart does not have character types.
To convert a code point to a string, you use the String constructor String.fromCharCode:
int c = "a".codeUnitAt(0);
int end = "z".codeUnitAt(0);
while (c <= end) {
print(String.fromCharCode(c));
c++;
}
For simple stuff like this, I'd use "print" instead of "stdout", if you don't mind the newlines.
There is also:
int char_a = 'a'.codeUnitAt(0);
print(String.fromCharCodes(new Iterable.generate(26, (x) => char_a + x)));
or, using newer list literal syntax:
int char_a = 'a'.codeUnitAt(0);
int char_z = 'z'.codeUnitAt(0);
print(String.fromCharCodes([for (var i = char_a; i <= char_z; i++) i]));
As I was finalizing my post and rephrasing my question’s title, I am no longer barking up the wrong tree thanks to this question about stdout.
It seems that one proper way of writing characters is to use stdout.writeCharCode from the dart:io library.
import 'dart:io';
void ft_print_alphabet()
{
var c = "a".codeUnits.first;
while (c <= "z".codeUnits.first)
stdout.writeCharCode(c++);
}
void main() {
ft_print_alphabet();
}
I still have no clue about how to manipulate character types, but at least I can print them.
I've been trying to implement a BASIC language interpreter (in C/C++) but I haven't found any book or (thorough) article which explains the process of parsing the language constructs. Some commands are rather complex and hard to parse, especially conditionals and loops, such as IF-THEN-ELSE and FOR-STEP-NEXT, because they can mix variables with constants and entire expressions and code and everything else, for example:
10 IF X = Y + Z THEN GOTO 20 ELSE GOSUB P
20 FOR A = 10 TO B STEP -C : PRINT C$ : PRINT WHATEVER
30 NEXT A
It seems like a nightmare to be able to parse something like that and make it work. And to make things worse, programs written in BASIC can easily be a tangled mess. That's why I need some advice, read some book or whatever to make my mind clear about this subject. What can you suggest?
You've picked a great project - writing interpreters can be lots of fun!
But first, what do we even mean by an interpreter? There are different types of interpreters.
There is the pure interpreter, where you simply interpret each language element as you find it. These are the easiest to write, and the slowest.
A step up, would be to convert each language element into some sort of internal form, and then interpret that. Still pretty easy to write.
The next step, would be to actually parse the language, and generate a syntax tree, and then interpret that. This is somewhat harder to write, but once you've done it a few times, it becomes pretty easy.
Once you have a syntax tree, you can fairly easily generate code for a custom stack virtual machine. A much harder project is to generate code for an existing virtual machine, such as the JVM or CLR.
In programming, like most engineering endeavors, careful planning greatly helps, especially with complicated projects.
So the first step is to decide which type of interpreter you wish to write. If you have not read any of a number of compiler books (e.g., I always recommend Niklaus Wirth's "Compiler Construction" as one of the best introductions to the subject, and is now freely available on the web in PDF form), I would recommend that you go with the pure interpreter.
But you still need to do some additional planning. You need to rigorously define what it is you are going to be interpreting. EBNF is great for this. For a gentile introduction EBNF, read the first three parts of a Simple Compiler at http://www.semware.com/html/compiler.html It is written at the high school level, and should be easy to digest. Yes, I tried it on my kids first :-)
Once you have defined what it is you want to be interpreting, you are ready to write your interpreter.
Abstractly, you're simple interpreter will be divided into a scanner (technically, a lexical analyzer), a parser, and an evaluator. In the simple pure interpolator case, the parser and evaluator will be combined.
Scanners are easy to write, and easy to test, so we won't spend any time on them. See the aforementioned link for info on crafting a simple scanner.
Lets (for example) define your goto statement:
gotostmt -> 'goto' integer
integer -> [0-9]+
This tells us that when we see the token 'goto' (as delivered by the scanner), the only thing that can follow is an integer. And an integer is simply a string a digits.
In pseudo code, we might handle this as so:
(token - is the current token, which is the current element just returned via the scanner)
loop
if token == "goto"
goto_stmt()
elseif token == "gosub"
gosub_stmt()
elseif token == .....
endloop
proc goto_stmt()
expect("goto") -- redundant, but used to skip over goto
if is_numeric(token)
--now, somehow set the instruction pointer at the requested line
else
error("expecting a line number, found '%s'\n", token)
end
end
proc expect(s)
if s == token
getsym()
return true
end
error("Expecting '%s', found: '%s'\n", curr_token, s)
end
See how simple it is? Really, the only hard thing to figure out in a simple interpreter is the handling of expressions. A good recipe for handling those is at: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~theo/Misc/exp_parsing.htm Combined with the aforementioned references, you should have enough to handle the sort of expressions you would encounter in BASIC.
Ok, time for a concrete example. This is from a larger 'pure interpreter', that handles a enhanced version of Tiny BASIC (but big enough to run Tiny Star Trek :-) )
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simple example, pure interpreter, only supports 'goto'
------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <setjmp.h>
#include <ctype.h>
enum {False=0, True=1, Max_Lines=300, Max_Len=130};
char *text[Max_Lines+1]; /* array of program lines */
int textp; /* used by scanner - ptr in current line */
char tok[Max_Len+1]; /* the current token */
int cur_line; /* the current line number */
int ch; /* current character */
int num; /* populated if token is an integer */
jmp_buf restart;
int error(const char *fmt, ...) {
va_list ap;
char buf[200];
va_start(ap, fmt);
vsprintf(buf, fmt, ap);
va_end(ap);
printf("%s\n", buf);
longjmp(restart, 1);
return 0;
}
int is_eol(void) {
return ch == '\0' || ch == '\n';
}
void get_ch(void) {
ch = text[cur_line][textp];
if (!is_eol())
textp++;
}
void getsym(void) {
char *cp = tok;
while (ch <= ' ') {
if (is_eol()) {
*cp = '\0';
return;
}
get_ch();
}
if (isalpha(ch)) {
for (; !is_eol() && isalpha(ch); get_ch()) {
*cp++ = (char)ch;
}
*cp = '\0';
} else if (isdigit(ch)) {
for (; !is_eol() && isdigit(ch); get_ch()) {
*cp++ = (char)ch;
}
*cp = '\0';
num = atoi(tok);
} else
error("What? '%c'", ch);
}
void init_getsym(const int n) {
cur_line = n;
textp = 0;
ch = ' ';
getsym();
}
void skip_to_eol(void) {
tok[0] = '\0';
while (!is_eol())
get_ch();
}
int accept(const char s[]) {
if (strcmp(tok, s) == 0) {
getsym();
return True;
}
return False;
}
int expect(const char s[]) {
return accept(s) ? True : error("Expecting '%s', found: %s", s, tok);
}
int valid_line_num(void) {
if (num > 0 && num <= Max_Lines)
return True;
return error("Line number must be between 1 and %d", Max_Lines);
}
void goto_line(void) {
if (valid_line_num())
init_getsym(num);
}
void goto_stmt(void) {
if (isdigit(tok[0]))
goto_line();
else
error("Expecting line number, found: '%s'", tok);
}
void do_cmd(void) {
for (;;) {
while (tok[0] == '\0') {
if (cur_line == 0 || cur_line >= Max_Lines)
return;
init_getsym(cur_line + 1);
}
if (accept("bye")) {
printf("That's all folks!\n");
exit(0);
} else if (accept("run")) {
init_getsym(1);
} else if (accept("goto")) {
goto_stmt();
} else {
error("Unknown token '%s' at line %d", tok, cur_line); return;
}
}
}
int main() {
int i;
for (i = 0; i <= Max_Lines; i++) {
text[i] = calloc(sizeof(char), (Max_Len + 1));
}
setjmp(restart);
for (;;) {
printf("> ");
while (fgets(text[0], Max_Len, stdin) == NULL)
;
if (text[0][0] != '\0') {
init_getsym(0);
if (isdigit(tok[0])) {
if (valid_line_num())
strcpy(text[num], &text[0][textp]);
} else
do_cmd();
}
}
}
Hopefully, that will be enough to get you started. Have fun!
I will certainly get beaten by telling this ...but...:
First, I am actually working on a standalone library ( as a hobby ) that is made of:
a tokenizer, building linear (flat list) of tokens from the source text and following the same sequence as the text ( lexems created from the text flow ).
A parser by hands (syntax analyse; pseudo-compiler )
There is no "pseudo-code" nor "virtual CPU/machine".
Instructions(such as 'return', 'if' 'for' 'while'... then arithemtic expressions ) are represented by a base c++-struct/class and is the object itself. The base object, I name it atom, have a virtual method called "eval", among other common members, that is the "execution/branch" also by itself. So no matter I have an 'if' statement with its possible branchings ( single statement or bloc of statements/instructions ) as true or false condition, it will be called from the base virtual atom::eval() ... and so on for everything that is an atom.
Even 'objects' such as variables are 'atom'. 'eval()' will simply return its value from a variant container held by the atom itself ( pointer, refering to the 'local' variant instance (the instance variant iself) held the 'atom' or to another variant held by an atom that is created in a given 'bloc/stack'. So 'atom' are 'inplace' instructions/objects.
As of now, as an example, chunk of not really meaningful 'code' as below just works:
r = 5!; // 5! : (factorial of 5 )
Response = 1 + 4 - 6 * --r * ((3+5)*(3-4) * 78);
if (Response != 1){ /* '<>' also is not equal op. */
return r^3;
}
else{
return 0;
}
Expressions ( arithemtics ) are built into binary tree expression:
A = b+c; =>
=
/ \
A +
/ \
b c
So the 'instruction'/statement for expression like above is the tree-entry atom that in the above case, is the '=' (binary) operator.
The tree is built with atom::r0,r1,r2 :
atom 'A' :
r0
|
A
/ \
r1 r2
Regarding 'full-duplex' mecanism between c++ runtime and the 'script' library, I've made class_adaptor and adaptor<> :
ex.:
template<typename R, typename ...Args> adaptor_t<T,R, Args...>& import_method(const lstring& mname, R (T::*prop)(Args...)) { ... }
template<typename R, typename ...Args> adaptor_t<T,R, Args...>& import_property(const lstring& mname, R (T::*prop)(Args...)) { ... }
Second: I know there are plenty of tools and libs out there such as lua, boost::bind<*>, QML, JSON, etc... But in my situation, I need to create my very own [edit] 'independant' [/edit] lib for "live scripting". I was scared that my 'interpreter' could take a huge amount of RAM, but I am surprised that it is not as big as using QML,jscript or even lua :-)
Thank you :-)
Don't bother with hacking a parser together by hand. Use a parser generator. lex + yacc is the classic lexer/parser generator combination, but a Google search will reveal plenty of others.
I am writing code to ingest the IOR file generated by the team responsible for the server and use it to bind my client to their object. Sounds easy, right?
For some reason a bit beyond my grasp (having to do with firewalls, DMZs, etc.), the value for the server inside the IOR file is not something we can use. We have to modify it. However, the IOR string is encoded.
What does Visibroker provide that will let me decode the IOR string, change one or more values, then re-encode it and continue on as normal?
I've already looked into IORInterceptors and URL Naming but I don't think either will do the trick.
Thanks in advance!
When you feel like you need to hack an IOR, resist the urge to do so by writing code and whatnot to mangle it to your liking. IORs are meant to be created and dictated by the server that contains the referenced objects, so the moment you start mucking around in there, you're kinda "voiding your warranty".
Instead, spend your time finding the right way to make the IOR usable in your environment by having the server use an alternative hostname when it generates them. Most ORBs offer such a feature. I don't know Visibroker's particular configuration options at all, but a quick Google search revealed this page that shows a promising value:
vbroker.se.iiop_ts.host
Specifies the host name used by this server engine.
The default value, null, means use the host name from the system.
Hope that helps.
Long time ago I wrote IorParser for GNU Classpath, the code is available. It is a normal parser written being aware about the format, should not "void a warranty" I think. IOR contains multiple tagged profiles that are encapsulated very much like XML so we could parse/modify profiles that we need and understand and leave the rest untouched.
The profile we need to parse is TAG_INTERNET_IOP. It contains version number, host, port and object key. Code that reads and writes this profile can be found in gnu.IOR class. I am sorry this is part of the system library and not a nice piece of code to copy paste here but it should not be very difficult to rip it out with a couple of dependent classes.
This question has been repeatedly asked as CORBA :: Get the client ORB address and port with use of IIOP
Use the FixIOR tool (binary) from jacORB to patch the address and port of an IOR. Download the binary (unzip it) and run:
fixior <new-address> <new-port> <ior-file>
The tool will override the content of the IOR file with the 'patched' IOR
You can use IOR Parser to check the resulting IOR and compare it to your original IOR
Use this function to change the IOR. pass stringified IOR as first argument.
void hackIOR(const char* str, char* newIOR )
{
size_t s = (str ? strlen(str) : 0);
char temp[1000];
strcpy(newIOR,"IOR:");
const char *p = str;
s = (s-4)/2; // how many octets are there in the string
p += 4;
int i;
for (i=0; i<(int)s; i++) {
int j = i*2;
char v=0;
if (p[j] >= '0' && p[j] <= '9') {
v = ((p[j] - '0') << 4);
}
else if (p[j] >= 'a' && p[j] <= 'f') {
v = ((p[j] - 'a' + 10) << 4);
}
else if (p[j] >= 'A' && p[j] <= 'F') {
v = ((p[j] - 'A' + 10) << 4);
}
else
cout <<"invalid octet"<<endl;
if (p[j+1] >= '0' && p[j+1] <= '9') {
v += (p[j+1] - '0');
}
else if (p[j+1] >= 'a' && p[j+1] <= 'f') {
v += (p[j+1] - 'a' + 10);
}
else if (p[j+1] >= 'A' && p[j+1] <= 'F') {
v += (p[j+1] - 'A' + 10);
}
else
cout <<"invalid octet"<<endl;
temp[i]=v;
}
temp[i] = 0;
// Now temp has decoded IOR string. print it.
// Replace the object ID in temp.
// Encoded it back, with following code.
int temp1,temp2;
int l,k;
for(k = 0, l = 4 ; k < s ; k++)
{
temp1=temp2=temp[k];
temp1 &= 0x0F;
temp2 = temp2 & 0xF0;
temp2 = temp2 >> 4;
if(temp2 >=0 && temp2 <=9)
{
newIOR[l++] = temp2+'0';
}
else if(temp2 >=10 && temp2 <=15)
{
newIOR[l++] = temp2+'A'-10;
}
if(temp1 >=0 && temp1 <=9)
{
newIOR[l++] = temp1+'0';
}
else if(temp1 >=10 && temp1 <=15)
{
newIOR[l++] = temp1+'A'-10;
}
}
newIOR[l] = 0;
//new IOR is present in new variable newIOR.
}
Hope this works for you.
In my previous question I was looking for a way of evaulating complex mathematical expressions in C, most of the suggestions required implementing some type of parser.
However one answer, suggested using Lua for evaluating the expression. I am interested in this approach but I don't know anything about Lua.
Can some one with experience in Lua shed some light?
Specifically what I'd like to know is
Which API if any does Lua provide that can evaluate mathematical expressions passed in as a string? If there is no API to do such a thing, may be some one can shed some light on the linked answer as it seemed like a good approach :)
Thanks
The type of expression I'd like to evaluate is given some user input such as
y = x^2 + 1/x - cos(x)
evaluate y for a range of values of x
It is straightforward to set up a Lua interpreter instance, and pass it expressions to be evaluated, getting back a function to call that evaluates the expression. You can even let the user have variables...
Here's the sample code I cooked up and edited into my other answer. It is probably better placed on a question tagged Lua in any case, so I'm adding it here as well. I compiled this and tried it for a few cases, but it certainly should not be trusted in production code without some attention to error handling and so forth. All the usual caveats apply here.
I compiled and tested this on Windows using Lua 5.1.4 from Lua for Windows. On other platforms, you'll have to find Lua from your usual source, or from www.lua.org.
Update: This sample uses simple and direct techniques to hide the full power and complexity of the Lua API behind as simple as possible an interface. It is probably useful as-is, but could be improved in a number of ways.
I would encourage readers to look into the much more production-ready ae library by lhf for code that takes advantage of the API to avoid some of the quick and dirty string manipulation I've used. His library also promotes the math library into the global name space so that the user can say sin(x) or 2 * pi without having to say math.sin and so forth.
Public interface to LE
Here is the file le.h:
/* Public API for the LE library.
*/
int le_init();
int le_loadexpr(char *expr, char **pmsg);
double le_eval(int cookie, char **pmsg);
void le_unref(int cookie);
void le_setvar(char *name, double value);
double le_getvar(char *name);
Sample code using LE
Here is the file t-le.c, demonstrating a simple use of this library. It takes its single command-line argument, loads it as an expression, and evaluates it with the global variable x changing from 0.0 to 1.0 in 11 steps:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "le.h"
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int cookie;
int i;
char *msg = NULL;
if (!le_init()) {
printf("can't init LE\n");
return 1;
}
if (argc<2) {
printf("Usage: t-le \"expression\"\n");
return 1;
}
cookie = le_loadexpr(argv[1], &msg);
if (msg) {
printf("can't load: %s\n", msg);
free(msg);
return 1;
}
printf(" x %s\n"
"------ --------\n", argv[1]);
for (i=0; i<11; ++i) {
double x = i/10.;
double y;
le_setvar("x",x);
y = le_eval(cookie, &msg);
if (msg) {
printf("can't eval: %s\n", msg);
free(msg);
return 1;
}
printf("%6.2f %.3f\n", x,y);
}
}
Here is some output from t-le:
E:...>t-le "math.sin(math.pi * x)"
x math.sin(math.pi * x)
------ --------
0.00 0.000
0.10 0.309
0.20 0.588
0.30 0.809
0.40 0.951
0.50 1.000
0.60 0.951
0.70 0.809
0.80 0.588
0.90 0.309
1.00 0.000
E:...>
Implementation of LE
Here is le.c, implementing the Lua Expression evaluator:
#include <lua.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
static lua_State *L = NULL;
/* Initialize the LE library by creating a Lua state.
*
* The new Lua interpreter state has the "usual" standard libraries
* open.
*/
int le_init()
{
L = luaL_newstate();
if (L)
luaL_openlibs(L);
return !!L;
}
/* Load an expression, returning a cookie that can be used later to
* select this expression for evaluation by le_eval(). Note that
* le_unref() must eventually be called to free the expression.
*
* The cookie is a lua_ref() reference to a function that evaluates the
* expression when called. Any variables in the expression are assumed
* to refer to the global environment, which is _G in the interpreter.
* A refinement might be to isolate the function envioronment from the
* globals.
*
* The implementation rewrites the expr as "return "..expr so that the
* anonymous function actually produced by lua_load() looks like:
*
* function() return expr end
*
*
* If there is an error and the pmsg parameter is non-NULL, the char *
* it points to is filled with an error message. The message is
* allocated by strdup() so the caller is responsible for freeing the
* storage.
*
* Returns a valid cookie or the constant LUA_NOREF (-2).
*/
int le_loadexpr(char *expr, char **pmsg)
{
int err;
char *buf;
if (!L) {
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = strdup("LE library not initialized");
return LUA_NOREF;
}
buf = malloc(strlen(expr)+8);
if (!buf) {
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = strdup("Insufficient memory");
return LUA_NOREF;
}
strcpy(buf, "return ");
strcat(buf, expr);
err = luaL_loadstring(L,buf);
free(buf);
if (err) {
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = strdup(lua_tostring(L,-1));
lua_pop(L,1);
return LUA_NOREF;
}
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = NULL;
return luaL_ref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX);
}
/* Evaluate the loaded expression.
*
* If there is an error and the pmsg parameter is non-NULL, the char *
* it points to is filled with an error message. The message is
* allocated by strdup() so the caller is responsible for freeing the
* storage.
*
* Returns the result or 0 on error.
*/
double le_eval(int cookie, char **pmsg)
{
int err;
double ret;
if (!L) {
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = strdup("LE library not initialized");
return 0;
}
lua_rawgeti(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, cookie);
err = lua_pcall(L,0,1,0);
if (err) {
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = strdup(lua_tostring(L,-1));
lua_pop(L,1);
return 0;
}
if (pmsg)
*pmsg = NULL;
ret = (double)lua_tonumber(L,-1);
lua_pop(L,1);
return ret;
}
/* Free the loaded expression.
*/
void le_unref(int cookie)
{
if (!L)
return;
luaL_unref(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, cookie);
}
/* Set a variable for use in an expression.
*/
void le_setvar(char *name, double value)
{
if (!L)
return;
lua_pushnumber(L,value);
lua_setglobal(L,name);
}
/* Retrieve the current value of a variable.
*/
double le_getvar(char *name)
{
double ret;
if (!L)
return 0;
lua_getglobal(L,name);
ret = (double)lua_tonumber(L,-1);
lua_pop(L,1);
return ret;
}
Remarks
The above sample consists of 189 lines of code total, including a spattering of comments, blank lines, and the demonstration. Not bad for a quick function evaluator that knows how to evaluate reasonably arbitrary expressions of one variable, and has rich library of standard math functions at its beck and call.
You have a Turing-complete language underneath it all, and it would be an easy extension to allow the user to define complete functions as well as to evaluate simple expressions.
Since you're lazy, like most programmers, here's a link to a simple example that you can use to parse some arbitrary code using Lua. From there, it should be simple to create your expression parser.
This is for Lua users that are looking for a Lua equivalent of "eval".
The magic word used to be loadstring but it is now, since Lua 5.2, an upgraded version of load.
i=0
f = load("i = i + 1") -- f is a function
f() ; print(i) -- will produce 1
f() ; print(i) -- will produce 2
Another example, that delivers a value :
f=load('return 2+3')
print(f()) -- print 5
As a quick-and-dirty way to do, you can consider the following equivalent of eval(s), where s is a string to evaluate :
load(s)()
As always, eval mechanisms should be avoided when possible since they are expensive and produce a code difficult to read.
I personally use this mechanism with LuaTex/LuaLatex to make math operations in Latex.
The Lua documentation contains a section titled The Application Programming Interface which describes how to call Lua from your C program. The documentation for Lua is very good and you may even be able to find an example of what you want to do in there.
It's a big world in there, so whether you choose your own parsing solution or an embeddable interpreter like Lua, you're going to have some work to do!
function calc(operation)
return load("return " .. operation)()
end