The parser module

(Optional). The parser module provides an interface to Python’s built-in parser and compiler.

The following example compiles a simple expression into an abstract syntax tree (AST), turns the AST into a nested list, dumps the contents of the tree (where each node contains either a grammar symbol or a token), increments all numbers by one, and finally turns the list back into a code object. At least that’s what I think it does.

Example: Using the parser module

# File: parser-example-1.py

import parser
import symbol, token

def dump_and_modify(node):
    name = symbol.sym_name.get(node[0])
    if name is None:
        name = token.tok_name.get(node[0])
    print name,
    for i in range(1, len(node)):
        item = node[i]
        if type(item) is type([]):
            dump_and_modify(item)
        else:
            print repr(item)
            if name == "NUMBER":
                # increment all numbers!
                node[i] = repr(int(item)+1)

ast = parser.expr("1 + 3")

list = ast.tolist()

dump_and_modify(list)

ast = parser.sequence2ast(list)

print eval(parser.compileast(ast))

$ python parser-example-1.py
eval_input testlist test and_test not_test comparison
expr xor_expr and_expr shift_expr arith_expr term factor
power atom NUMBER '1'
PLUS '+'
term factor power atom NUMBER '3'
NEWLINE ''
ENDMARKER ''
6

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