| Python 3.6.5 Documentation > "parser" — Access Python parse trees
"parser" — Access Python parse trees
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The "parser" module provides an interface to Python’s internal parser
and byte-code compiler. The primary purpose for this interface is to
allow Python code to edit the parse tree of a Python expression and
create executable code from this. This is better than trying to parse
and modify an arbitrary Python code fragment as a string because
parsing is performed in a manner identical to the code forming the
application. It is also faster.
Note: From Python 2.5 onward, it’s much more convenient to cut in at
the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) generation and compilation stage,
using the "ast" module.
There are a few things to note about this module which are important
to making use of the data structures created. This is not a tutorial
on editing the parse trees for Python code, but some examples of using
the "parser" module are presented.
Most importantly, a good understanding of the Python grammar processed
by the internal parser is required. For full information on the
language syntax, refer to The Python Language Reference. The parser
itself is created from a grammar specification defined in the file
"Grammar/Grammar" in the standard Python distribution. The parse
trees stored in the ST objects created by this module are the actual
output from the internal parser when created by the "expr()" or
"suite()" functions, described below. The ST objects created by
"sequence2st()" faithfully simulate those structures. Be aware that
the values of the sequences which are considered “correct” will vary
from one version of Python to another as the formal grammar for the
language is revised. However, transporting code from one Python
version to another as source text will always allow correct parse
trees to be created in the target version, with the only restriction
being that migrating to an older version of the interpreter will not
support more recent language constructs. The parse trees are not
typically compatible from one version to another, whereas source code
has always been forward-compatible.
Each element of the sequences returned by "st2list()" or "st2tuple()"
has a simple form. Sequences representing non-terminal elements in
the grammar always have a length greater than one. The first element
is an integer which identifies a production in the grammar. These
integers are given symbolic names in the C header file
"Include/graminit.h" and the Python module "symbol". Each additional
element of the sequence represents a component of the production as
recognized in the input string: these are always sequences which have
the same form as the parent. An important aspect of this structure
which should be noted is that keywords used to identify the parent
node type, such as the keyword "if" in an "if_stmt", are included in
the node tree without any special treatment. For example, the "if"
keyword is represented by the tuple "(1, 'if')", where "1" is the
numeric value associated with all "NAME" tokens, including variable
and function names defined by the user. In an alternate form returned
when line number information is requested, the same token might be
represented as "(1, 'if', 12)", where the "12" represents the line
number at which the terminal symbol was found.
Terminal elements are represented in much the same way, but without
any child elements and the addition of the source text which was
identified. The example of the "if" keyword above is representative.
The various types of terminal symbols are defined in the C header file
"Include/token.h" and the Python module "token".
The ST objects are not required to support the functionality of this
module, but are provided for three purposes: to allow an application
to amortize the cost of processing complex parse trees, to provide a
parse tree representation which conserves memory space when compared
to the Python list or tuple representation, and to ease the creation
of additional modules in C which manipulate parse trees. A simple
“wrapper” class may be created in Python to hide the use of ST
objects.
The "parser" module defines functions for a few distinct purposes.
The most important purposes are to create ST objects and to convert ST
objects to other representations such as parse trees and compiled code
objects, but there are also functions which serve to query the type of
parse tree represented by an ST object.
See also:
Module "symbol"
Useful constants representing internal nodes of the parse tree.
Module "token"
Useful constants representing leaf nodes of the parse tree and
functions for testing node values.
Creating ST Objects
===================
ST objects may be created from source code or from a parse tree. When
creating an ST object from source, different functions are used to
create the "'eval'" and "'exec'" forms.
parser.expr(source)
The "expr()" function parses the parameter *source* as if it were
an input to "compile(source, 'file.py', 'eval')". If the parse
succeeds, an ST object is created to hold the internal parse tree
representation, otherwise an appropriate exception is raised.
parser.suite(source)
The "suite()" function parses the parameter *source* as if it were
an input to "compile(source, 'file.py', 'exec')". If the parse
succeeds, an ST object is created to hold the internal parse tree
representation, otherwise an appropriate exception is raised.
parser.sequence2st(sequence)
This function accepts a parse tree represented as a sequence and
builds an internal representation if possible. If it can validate
that the tree conforms to the Python grammar and all nodes are
valid node types in the host version of Python, an ST object is
created from the internal representation and returned to the
called. If there is a problem creating the internal
representation, or if the tree cannot be validated, a "ParserError"
exception is raised. An ST object created this way should not be
assumed to compile correctly; normal exceptions raised by
compilation may still be initiated when the ST object is passed to
"compilest()". This may indicate problems not related to syntax
(such as a "MemoryError" exception), but may also be due to
constructs such as the result of parsing "del f(0)", which escapes
the Python parser but is checked by the bytecode compiler.
Sequences representing terminal tokens may be represented as either
two-element lists of the form "(1, 'name')" or as three-element
lists of the form "(1, 'name', 56)". If the third element is
present, it is assumed to be a valid line number. The line number
may be specified for any subset of the terminal symbols in the
input tree.
parser.tuple2st(sequence)
This is the same function as "sequence2st()". This entry point is
maintained for backward compatibility.
Converting ST Objects
=====================
ST objects, regardless of the input used to create them, may be
converted to parse trees represented as list- or tuple- trees, or may
be compiled into executable code objects. Parse trees may be
extracted with or without line numbering information.
parser.st2list(st, line_info=False, col_info=False)
This function accepts an ST object from the caller in *st* and
returns a Python list representing the equivalent parse tree. The
resulting list representation can be used for inspection or the
creation of a new parse tree in list form. This function does not
fail so long as memory is available to build the list
representation. If the parse tree will only be used for
inspection, "st2tuple()" should be used instead to reduce memory
consumption and fragmentation. When the list representation is
required, this function is significantly faster than retrieving a
tuple representation and converting that to nested lists.
If *line_info* is true, line number information will be included
for all terminal tokens as a third element of the list representing
the token. Note that the line number provided specifies the line
on which the token *ends*. This information is omitted if the flag
is false or omitted.
parser.st2tuple(st, line_info=False, col_info=False)
This function accepts an ST object from the caller in *st* and
returns a Python tuple representing the equivalent parse tree.
Other than returning a tuple instead of a list, this function is
identical to "st2list()".
If *line_info* is true, line number information will be included
for all terminal tokens as a third element of the list representing
the token. This information is omitted if the flag is false or
omitted.
parser.compilest(st, filename='<syntax-tree>')
The Python byte compiler can be invoked on an ST object to produce
code objects which can be used as part of a call to the built-in
"exec()" or "eval()" functions. This function provides the
interface to the compiler, passing the internal parse tree from
*st* to the parser, using the source file name specified by the
*filename* parameter. The default value supplied for *filename*
indicates that the source was an ST object.
Compiling an ST object may result in exceptions related to
compilation; an example would be a "SyntaxError" caused by the
parse tree for "del f(0)": this statement is considered legal
within the formal grammar for Python but is not a legal language
construct. The "SyntaxError" raised for this condition is actually
generated by the Python byte-compiler normally, which is why it can
be raised at this point by the "parser" module. Most causes of
compilation failure can be diagnosed programmatically by inspection
of the parse tree.
Queries on ST Objects
=====================
Two functions are provided which allow an application to determine if
an ST was created as an expression or a suite. Neither of these
functions can be used to determine if an ST was created from source
code via "expr()" or "suite()" or from a parse tree via
"sequence2st()".
parser.isexpr(st)
When *st* represents an "'eval'" form, this function returns true,
otherwise it returns false. This is useful, since code objects
normally cannot be queried for this information using existing
built-in functions. Note that the code objects created by
"compilest()" cannot be queried like this either, and are identical
to those created by the built-in "compile()" function.
parser.issuite(st)
This function mirrors "isexpr()" in that it reports whether an ST
object represents an "'exec'" form, commonly known as a “suite.”
It is not safe to assume that this function is equivalent to "not
isexpr(st)", as additional syntactic fragments may be supported in
the future.
Exceptions and Error Handling
=============================
The parser module defines a single exception, but may also pass other
built-in exceptions from other portions of the Python runtime
environment. See each function for information about the exceptions
it can raise.
exception parser.ParserError
Exception raised when a failure occurs within the parser module.
This is generally produced for validation failures rather than the
built-in "SyntaxError" raised during normal parsing. The exception
argument is either a string describing the reason of the failure or
a tuple containing a sequence causing the failure from a parse tree
passed to "sequence2st()" and an explanatory string. Calls to
"sequence2st()" need to be able to handle either type of exception,
while calls to other functions in the module will only need to be
aware of the simple string values.
Note that the functions "compilest()", "expr()", and "suite()" may
raise exceptions which are normally raised by the parsing and
compilation process. These include the built in exceptions
"MemoryError", "OverflowError", "SyntaxError", and "SystemError". In
these cases, these exceptions carry all the meaning normally
associated with them. Refer to the descriptions of each function for
detailed information.
ST Objects
==========
Ordered and equality comparisons are supported between ST objects.
Pickling of ST objects (using the "pickle" module) is also supported.
parser.STType
The type of the objects returned by "expr()", "suite()" and
"sequence2st()".
ST objects have the following methods:
ST.compile(filename='<syntax-tree>')
Same as "compilest(st, filename)".
ST.isexpr()
Same as "isexpr(st)".
ST.issuite()
Same as "issuite(st)".
ST.tolist(line_info=False, col_info=False)
Same as "st2list(st, line_info, col_info)".
ST.totuple(line_info=False, col_info=False)
Same as "st2tuple(st, line_info, col_info)".
Example: Emulation of "compile()"
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While many useful operations may take place between parsing and
bytecode generation, the simplest operation is to do nothing. For
this purpose, using the "parser" module to produce an intermediate
data structure is equivalent to the code
>>> code = compile('a + 5', 'file.py', 'eval')
>>> a = 5
>>> eval(code)
10
The equivalent operation using the "parser" module is somewhat longer,
and allows the intermediate internal parse tree to be retained as an
ST object:
>>> import parser
>>> st = parser.expr('a + 5')
>>> code = st.compile('file.py')
>>> a = 5
>>> eval(code)
10
An application which needs both ST and code objects can package this
code into readily available functions:
import parser
def load_suite(source_string):
st = parser.suite(source_string)
return st, st.compile()
def load_expression(source_string):
st = parser.expr(source_string)
return st, st.compile()
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