32.1.1. 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.

32.1.2. 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(ast[, line_info])

This function accepts an ST object from the caller in ast 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(ast[, line_info])

This function accepts an ST object from the caller in ast 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(ast, 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 an exec statement or a call to the built-in eval() function. This function provides the interface to the compiler, passing the internal parse tree from ast 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.

32.1.3. 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(ast)

When ast 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(ast)

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(ast), as additional syntactic fragments may be supported in the future.

32.1.4. 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.

32.1.5. 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])

Same as compilest(st, filename).

ST.isexpr()

Same as isexpr(st).

ST.issuite()

Same as issuite(st).

ST.tolist([line_info])

Same as st2list(st, line_info).

ST.totuple([line_info])

Same as st2tuple(st, line_info).

32.1.6. Example: Emulation of compile()

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()