research-article

Staged parser combinators for efficient data processing

Authors:

Manohar Jonnalagedda,

Thierry Coppey,

Martin OderskyAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 49, Issue 10

Pages 637 - 653

https://doi.org/10.1145/2714064.2660241

Published: 15 October 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Parsers are ubiquitous in computing, and many applications depend on their performance for decoding data efficiently. Parser combinators are an intuitive tool for writing parsers: tight integration with the host language enables grammar specifications to be interleaved with processing of parse results. Unfortunately, parser combinators are typically slow due to the high overhead of the host language abstraction mechanisms that enable composition.

We present a technique for eliminating such overhead. We use staging, a form of runtime code generation, to dissociate input parsing from parser composition, and eliminate intermediate data structures and computations associated with parser composition at staging time. A key challenge is to maintain support for input dependent grammars, which have no clear stage distinction.

Our approach applies to top-down recursive-descent parsers as well as bottom-up non-deterministic parsers with key applications in dynamic programming on sequences, where we auto-generate code for parallel hardware. We achieve performance comparable to specialized, hand-written parsers.

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Cited By

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Willis JWu NSchrijvers TPolikarpova N(2022)Oregano: staging regular expressions with Moore Cayley fusionProceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN International Haskell Symposium10.1145/3546189.3549916(66-80)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2022
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Parreaux LShaikhha AErwig MGray J(2020)Multi-stage programming in the large with staged classesProceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences10.1145/3425898.3426961(35-49)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2020
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Index Terms

Staged parser combinators for efficient data processing
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
      1. Parsers
      2. Source code generation

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 49, Issue 10

OOPSLA '14

October 2014

907 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/2714064

Editor:
Andy Gill
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Issue’s Table of Contents

OOPSLA '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages & Applications
October 2014
946 pages
ISBN:9781450325851
DOI:10.1145/2660193
General Chair:
Andrew Black
Portland State University, USA
,
Program Chair:
Todd Millstein
University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 15 October 2014

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 49, Issue 10

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Cited By

Diatchki IDodds MGoldstein HHarris BHolland DRazet BSchlesinger CWinwood S(2024)Daedalus: Safer Document ParsingProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36564108:PLDI(816-840)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656410
Willis JWu NSchrijvers TPolikarpova N(2022)Oregano: staging regular expressions with Moore Cayley fusionProceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN International Haskell Symposium10.1145/3546189.3549916(66-80)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3546189.3549916
Parreaux LShaikhha AErwig MGray J(2020)Multi-stage programming in the large with staged classesProceedings of the 19th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences10.1145/3425898.3426961(35-49)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3425898.3426961
Willis JWu NPickering M(2020)Staged selective parser combinatorsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34090024:ICFP(1-30)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3409002
Rompf TBiboudis AJonnalagedda MStucki SUreche V(2016)Reflections on LMS: exploring front-end alternativesProceedings of the 2016 7th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Scala10.1145/2998392.2998399(41-50)Online publication date: 30-Oct-2016
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Kurš JVraný JGhafari MLungu MNierstrasz OLaval JEtien A(2016)Optimizing Parser CombinatorsProceedings of the 11th edition of the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies10.1145/2991041.2991042(1-13)Online publication date: 23-Aug-2016
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Yallop JXie NKrishnaswami N(2023)flap: A Deterministic Parser with Fused LexingProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/35912697:PLDI(1194-1217)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2023
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Xie NPickering MLöh AWu NYallop JWang M(2022)Staging with class: a specification for typed template HaskellProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34987236:POPL(1-30)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2022
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Wei GChen YRompf T(2019)Staged abstract interpreters: fast and modular whole-program analysis via meta-programmingProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33605523:OOPSLA(1-32)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2019
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