Parsing function in haskell

Question

I'm new to Haskell and I am trying to parse expressions. I found out about Parsec and I also found some articles but I don't seem to understand what I have to do. My problem is that I want to give an expression like "x^2+2*x+3" and the result to be a function that takes an argument x and returns a value. I am very sorry if this is an easy question but I really need some help. Thanks! The code I inserted is from the article that you can find on this link.

import Control.Monad(liftM)
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec 
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Expr  
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Token  
import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec.Language  

data Expr = Num Int       | Var String    | Add Expr Expr
          | Sub Expr Expr | Mul Expr Expr | Div Expr Expr
          | Pow Expr Expr
          deriving Show

expr :: Parser Expr
expr = buildExpressionParser table factor
    <?> "expression"

table = [[op "^" Pow AssocRight],
         [op "*" Mul AssocLeft, op "/" Div AssocLeft],
         [op "+" Add AssocLeft, op "-" Sub AssocLeft]]
    where
        op s f assoc
            = Infix (do{ string s; return f}) assoc
factor = do{ char '('
        ; x <- expr
        ; char ')'
        ; return x}
    <|> number
    <|> variable
    <?> "simple expression"

number :: Parser Expr
number = do{ ds<- many1 digit
        ; return (Num (read ds))}
    <?> "number"

variable :: Parser Expr
variable = do{ ds<- many1 letter
        ; return (Var ds)}
    <?> "variable"

I have something that I found in some articles but it is ok to post it even if is not my own? — izayoi, Jan 17 '11 at 10:19
please do post it as others may find it useful as well. Be sure to include a link to the original source. — John L, Jan 17 '11 at 10:52

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '11 at 11:36

This is just a parser for expressions with variables. Actually interpreting the expression is an entirely separate matter.

You should create a function that takes an already parsed expression and values for variables, and returns the result of evaluating the expression. Pseudocode:

evaluate :: Expr -> Map String Int -> Int
evaluate (Num n) _ = n
evaluate (Var x) vars = {- Look up the value of x in vars -}
evaluate (Plus e f) vars = {- Evaluate e and f, and return their sum -}
...

I've deliberately omitted some details; hopefully by exploring the missing parts, you learn more about Haskell.

As a next step, you should probably look at the Reader monad for a convenient way to pass the variable map vars around, and using Maybe or Error to signal errors, e.g. referencing a variable that is not bound in vars, or division by zero.

Parsing function in haskell

1 Answers1