# Tutorial

## 2.2.10. Finite State Filters

#### Finite State Machines

In this section I show how to construct Dual-Use Filters from finite state machines. For purposes of this section, a finite state machine consists of a collection of states, represented as `int`s, a distinguished initial state, a transition table, a collection of event handlers and a stack of characters. These finite state machines were inspired by the finite state machine examples that accompany the `Boost Metaprogamming library`. See, e.g., `<libs/mpl/example/player1.cpp>`

For us, an event is simply a character. A transition table is an MPL Forward Sequence of rows. Each row is a 4-tuple consisting of a current state, a character class, a next state and an event handler. During the operation of a finite state machine, its transition table is consulted to determine how the machine's state should be updated and which event handler to call. When an event `e` occurs, the transition table is searched for the first row whose current state is equal to the current state of the machine, and whose character class matches `e`. The machine's state is then updated to the row's next state, and the event handler is called with `e` as an argument.

A character class is a class type with a `static` member function `test` taking a character and a `std::locale` as arguments. E.g.,

        struct is_any {
            static bool test(char, const std::locale&);
        };

There are several built in character classes. The character class `is_any` matches any character. For any character `c`, the character class `is<c>` only matches `c`. The character classes `alnum`, `is_alpha`, `is_cntrl`, `is_digit`, `is_graph`, `is_lower`, `is_print`, `is_punct`, `is_space`, `is_upper`, `is_xdigit` implement `locale`-sensitive character classification.

Event handlers are member functions of a finite state machine which take a single character as argument and return `void`. The implementation of an event handler typically examines the given character and pushes zero or more characters of filtered data onto the stack. A special event handler `on_eof` takes no arguments and is called automatically after the last character in a sequence is processed.

There are three built-in event handlers, `on_any`, `push` and `skip`. The handler `on_any` is called automatically when an event occurs which is not covered by any row in the transition table. The default behavior of `on_any` is to do nothing. The handler `push` pushes the given character onto the stack. The handler `skip` ignores the current character. The handlers `push` and `skip` are not defined by default; in order to make them available, the macro `BOOST_IOSTREAM_FSM` should be invoked within the class definition of a finite state machine, passing the state machine's name as the macro argument.

Finite state machines must derive from the class template `boost::iostreams::finite_state_machine`, defined in the header `<libs/iostreams/example/finite_state_filter.hpp>`. The first template argument to `finite_state_machine` should be the derived class itself; the second template argument should be the character type.

A finite state machine's transition table should be declared as a member type named `transition_table`. Its event handlers should be implemented as member functions. A finite state machine may define a `static` integral constant named `initial_state`, which will be treated as the machine's initial state. Alternatively, the definition of the initial state can be omitted, in which case it will default to `0`.

Given a finite state machine `my_fsm`, you can define a Dual-Use Filter as follows:

    namespace io = boost::iostreams;

    typedef io::finite_state_filter<my_fsm> my_finite_state_filter;

#### `dos2unix_fsm`

The following state machine can be used to convert line endings from `DOS` to `UNIX`. The constant `initial_state`, the class template `row` and the character classes `is` and `is_any` are members of the base class `boost::iostreams::finite_state_machine`.

    #include <boost/mpl/vector>
    #include <libs/iostreams/example/finite_state_filter.hpp>

    namespace io = boost::iostreams;

    struct dos2unix_fsm : io::finite_state_machine<dos2unix_fsm> {
        BOOST_IOSTREAMS_FSM(dos2unix_fsm) // Define skip and push.
        typedef dos2unix_fsm self;
        typedef boost::mpl::vector<
                    row<initial_state, is<'\r'>, initial_state, &self::skip>,
                    row<initial_state, is_any,   initial_state, &self::push>
                > transition_table;
    };

This machine has just a single state. Its transition table can be understood as follows: if the current character is `'\r'`, ignore it; otherwise, forward it unchanged.

#### `unix2dos_fsm`

The following state machine can be used to convert line endings from `UNIX` to `DOS`:

    #include <boost/mpl/vector>
    #include <libs/iostreams/example/finite_state_filter.hpp>

    namespace io = boost::iostreams;

    struct unix2dos_fsm : io::finite_state_machine<unix2dos_fsm> {
        BOOST_IOSTREAMS_FSM(unix2dos_fsm) // Define skip and push.
        typedef unix2dos_fsm self;

        void on_lf(char) { push('\r'); push('\n'); }

        typedef boost::mpl::vector<
                    row<initial_state, is<'\n'>, initial_state, &self::on_lf>,
                    row<initial_state, is_any,   initial_state, &self::push>
                > transition_table;
    };

This machine also has just a single state. The event handler `on_lf` pushes a `DOS` line-ending sequence onto the stack. The transition table can be understood as follows: if the current character is `'\n'`, write a `DOS` line-ending sequence; otherwise, forward it unchanged.

#### `uncommenting_fsm`

The following state machine removes C-style comments. Although it's not quite sophisticated enough for processing source code, it's a good illustration of a multi-state machine.

    #include <boost/mpl/vector>
    #include <libs/iostreams/example/finite_state_filter.hpp>

    namespace io = boost::iostreams;

    struct uncommenting_fsm : io::finite_state_machine<uncommenting_fsm> {
        BOOST_IOSTREAMS_FSM(uncommenting_fsm) // Define skip and push.
        typedef uncommenting_fsm self;

        static const int no_comment   = initial_state;
        static const int pre_comment  = no_comment + 1;
        static const int comment      = pre_comment + 1;
        static const int post_comment = comment + 1;

        void push_slash(char c) { push('/'); push(c); }

        typedef boost::mpl::vector<
                    row<no_comment,   is<'/'>, pre_comment,  &self::skip>,
                    row<no_comment,   is_any,  no_comment,   &self::push>,
                    row<pre_comment,  is<'*'>, comment,      &self::skip>,
                    row<pre_comment,  is<'/'>, pre_comment,  &self::push>,
                    row<pre_comment,  is_any,  no_comment,   &self::push_slash>,
                    row<comment,      is<'*'>, post_comment, &self::skip>,
                    row<comment,      is_any,  comment,      &self::skip>,
                    row<post_comment, is<'/'>, no_comment,   &self::skip>,
                    row<post_comment, is<'*'>, post_comment, &self::skip>,
                    row<post_comment, is_any,  comment,      &self::skip>
                > transition_table;
    };

This machine has four states and one user-defined event handler. I'll leave it as an exercise to discover how it works.

Revised 02 Feb 2008

© Copyright 2008 CodeRage, LLC
© Copyright 2004-2007 Jonathan Turkanis

Use, modification, and distribution are subject to the Boost Software License, Version 2.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)