18.5 tokenize -- Tokenizer for Python source
The tokenize module provides a lexical scanner for Python source code, implemented in Python. The scanner in this module returns comments as tokens as well, making it useful for implementing ``pretty-printers,'' including colorizers for on-screen displays.
The primary entry point is a generator:
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The generate_tokens() generator requires one argment,
readline, which must be a callable object which
provides the same interface as the readline() method of
built-in file objects (see section 2.3.9). Each
call to the function should return one line of input as a string.
The generator produces 5-tuples with these members: the token type; the token string; a 2-tuple
(srow, scol)of ints specifying the row and column where the token begins in the source; a 2-tuple(erow, ecol)of ints specifying the row and column where the token ends in the source; and the line on which the token was found. The line passed is the logical line; continuation lines are included. New in version 2.2.
An older entry point is retained for backward compatibility:
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The tokenize() function accepts two parameters: one
representing the input stream, and one providing an output mechanism
for tokenize().
The first parameter, readline, must be a callable object which provides the same interface as the readline() method of built-in file objects (see section 2.3.9). Each call to the function should return one line of input as a string.
The second parameter, tokeneater, must also be a callable object. It is called once for each token, with five arguments, corresponding to the tuples generated by generate_tokens().
All constants from the token module are also exported from tokenize, as are two additional token type values that might be passed to the tokeneater function by tokenize():
- Token value used to indicate a comment.
- Token value used to indicate a non-terminating newline. The NEWLINE token indicates the end of a logical line of Python code; NL tokens are generated when a logical line of code is continued over multiple physical lines.
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Release 2.4.4c1, documentation updated on 11 October 2006.