Auto

| Home | Libraries | People | FAQ | More

#### Auto

###### Description

This module includes the description of the `auto_` parser. This parser can be used to automatically create a parser based on the supplied attribute type.

###### Header

    // forwards to <boost/spirit/home/qi/auto.hpp>
    #include <boost/spirit/include/qi_auto.hpp>

Also, see Include Structure.

###### Namespace

Name
`boost::spirit::auto_ // alias: boost::spirit::qi::auto_`

###### Model of

> `PrimitiveParser`

###### Expression Semantics

Semantics of an expression is defined only where it differs from, or is not defined in `PrimitiveGenerator`.

Expression | Description
--- | ---
`auto_` | Create a parser instance compatible with the supplied attribute type and use it for input matching.

###### Additional Requirements

The `auto_` parsers can be used to match input for any data type for which a mapping to a parser type is defined (the meta function `traits::create_parser_exists` returns `mpl::true_`). The following table outlines the predefined mapping rules from the attribute type to the parser type. These rules are applied recursively to create the parser type which can be used to match input for the given attribute type.

Attribute type | Parser type
--- | ---
`char`, `wchar_t` | `standard::char_`, `standard_wide::char_`
`short`, `int`, `long` | `short_`, `int_`, `long_`
`unsigned short`, `unsigned int`, `unsigned long` | `ushort_`, `uint_`, `ulong_`
`float`, `double`, `long double` | `float_`, `double_`, `long_double`
`short`, `int`, `long` | `short_`, `int_`, `long_`
`long long`, `unsigned long long` | `long_long`, `ulong_long`
`bool` | `bool_`
Any (STL) container | Kleene Star (unary `'*'`)
Any Fusion sequence | Sequence operator (`'>>'`)
`boost::optional<>` | Optional operator (unary `'-'`)
`boost::variant<>` | Alternative operator (`'|'`)

It is possible to add support for any custom data type by implementing a specialization of the customization point `create_parser`. This customiyation can be used also to redefined anz of the predefined mappings.

###### Attributes

Expression | Attribute
--- | ---
`auto_` | `hold_any`

| Important
The attribute type `hold_any` exposed by the `auto_` parser is semantically and syntactically equivalent to the type implemented by Boost.Any. It has been added to Spirit as it has better a performance and a smaller footprint if compared to Boost.Any.

###### Complexity

[The complexity of the `auto_` parser depends on the supplied attribute type. Each attribute type results in a different parser type to be instantiated which defines the overall complexity.]

###### Example

| Note
The test harness for the example(s) below is presented in the Basics Examples section.

Some includes:

    #include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp>
    #include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix_core.hpp>
    #include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix_operator.hpp>
    #include <iostream>
    #include <string>
    #include <cstdlib>

Some using declarations:

    using boost::spirit::qi::auto_;

And a class definition used in the examples:

    // a simple complex number representation z = a + bi
    struct complex
    {
        complex (double a = 0.0, double b = 0.0)
          : a(a), b(b)
        {}

        double a;
        double b;
    };

The following construct is required to allow the `complex` data structure to be utilized as a Boost.Fusion sequence. This is required as we will emit output for this data structure with a Spirit.Qi sequence: `'{' >> qi::double_ >> ',' >> qi::double_ >> '}'`.

    BOOST_FUSION_ADAPT_STRUCT(
        complex,
        (double, a)
        (double, b)
    )

We add a specialization for the create_parser customization point defining a custom output format for the complex type. Generally, any specialization for create_parser is expected to return the proto expression to be used to match input for the type the customization point has been specialized for.

We need to utilize `proto::deep_copy` as the expression contains literals (the `'{'`, `','`, and `'}'`) which normally get embedded in the proto expression by reference only. The deep copy converts the proto tree to hold this by value. The deep copy operation can be left out for simpler proto expressions (not containing references to temporaries). Alternatively you could use the `proto::make_expr` facility to build the required proto expression.

    namespace boost { namespace spirit { namespace traits
    {
        template <>
        struct create_parser<complex>
        {
            typedef proto::result_of::deep_copy<
                BOOST_TYPEOF('{' >> qi::double_ >> ',' >> qi::double_ >> '}')
            >::type type;

            static type call()
            {
                return proto::deep_copy(
                    '{' >> qi::double_ >> ',' >> qi::double_ >> '}');
            }
        };
    }}}

Some usage examples of `auto_` parsers:

Parse a simple integer using the generated parser component `int_`:

    int i = 0;
    test_parser_attr("123", auto_, i);
    std::cout << i << std::endl;                    // prints: 123

Parse an instance of the `complex` data type as defined above using the parser as generated by the defined customization point:

    complex c;
    test_parser_attr("{1.2,2.4}", auto_, c);
    std::cout << c.a << "," << c.b << std::endl;    // prints: 1.2,2.4