Simplex

Simplex('name=value').match('foo=bar');
// => { name: 'foo', value: 'bar' }

Simpler than regular expressions

Let's say you have some text like this:

Bob     35 (M)
Suzie   42 (F)
Phil    29 (M)
Marlene 26 (F)

Quick! Can you write code to parse those lines using a regular expression?

var pattern = /(\w+)\s+(\d+)\s+\(([MF])\)/g,
    people  = [],
    match;
 
while (match = pattern.exec(text)) {
  people.push({
    name: match[1],
    age: Number(match[2]),
    gender: match[3]
  });
}
 
console.log(people);
// [ { name: 'Bob', age: 35, gender: 'M' },
//   { name: 'Suzie', age: 42, gender: 'F' },
//   { name: 'Phil', age: 29, gender: 'M' },
//   { name: 'Marlene', age: 26, gender: 'F' } ]

Not too bad. But for such a simple pattern-matching problem, that feels like more code than we ought to need.

This scenario---matching simple patterns---is what Simplex is designed for. Check it out:

var people = Simplex('name age (gender)').matchAll(text);
 
console.log(people);
// [ { name: 'Bob', age: 35, gender: 'M' },
//   { name: 'Suzie', age: 42, gender: 'F' },
//   { name: 'Phil', age: 29, gender: 'M' },
//   { name: 'Marlene', age: 26, gender: 'F' } ]

Way easier!

Usage

The Simplex constructor (which can be called with or without new) takes two arguments: a pattern expression (required) and an optional options object.

var simplex = new Simplex('expression', { /* options */ });

The match method takes a string, matches it against the given pattern, and returns the first result. To return an array of all results, use matchAll.

How it works

A pattern expression consists of fields that will be matched. For example, take this expression:

term (type): def*

The fields are term, type, and def. When you call match, Simplex will look for a word where each field is. The '*' after def tells Simplex to match (potentially) multiple words for that field.

When all fields are matched, the result will be an object whose keys are the names of the fields, and whose values are the matches:

Simplex('term (type): def*').match('coffee (noun): a tasty hot beverage');
// => { term: 'coffee', type: 'noun', def: 'a tasty hot beverage' }

By default Simplex treats every word-like token as a field. This means letters, numbers, and underscores (same as with regular expressions). If you want to represent fields differently, you can use the fieldMarkers option, which is described in more detail further down.

Options

Parsing

By default, Simplex does some very basic type inference for numbers and boolean values.

Simplex('year/month/day').match('2014/02/10');
// => { year: 2014, month: 2, day: 10 }
 
Simplex('--verbose=<verbose>', { fieldMarkers: '<>' })
  .match('--verbose=true');
// => { verbose: true }

You can customize this behavior by specifying the parser option:

var simplex = new Simplex('month/day', {
  parser: function(x) {
    return parseInt(x, 8);
  }
});
 
simplex.match('12/25');
// => { month: 10, day: 21 }

If you want to parse different fields differently, you can pass an object mapping field names to parsing functions:

var simplex = new Simplex('name percentile%', {
  parser: {
    name: function(name) {
      return name.toUpperCase();
    },
    percentile: function(percentile) {
      return Number((percentile / 100).toFixed(2));
    }
  }
});
 
simplex.match('dtao 88%');
// => { name: 'DTAO', percentile: 0.88 }

Whitespace

By default Simplex is lenient with whitespace, meaning every space in a pattern expression matches any number of spaces.

Simplex('salutation valediction').match('hello     goodbye');
// => { salutation: 'hello', valediction: 'goodbye' }

Enable the strictWhitespace option to make it strict, so that whitespace must be matched exactly.

var simplex = new Simplex('first \tlast', { strictWhitespace: true });
 
simplex.match('joe schmoe');   // => null
simplex.match('joe\tschmoe');  // => null
simplex.match('joe \tschmoe'); // => { first: 'joe', last: 'schmoe' }

Field markers

As mentioned earlier, Simplex defaults to treating every word-like token in a pattern expression as a field. This may not be what you want, if:

• There are some words in the pattern itself that are not fields
• You want to give some field(s) a name that is multiple words

Here's an example of the first case:

// The first 'format' below isn't a field; it's actually part of the pattern.
Simplex('--format=<format>', { fieldMarkers: ['<', '>'] })
  .match('--format=html');
// => { format: 'html' }

And here's an example of the second case:

// Without field markers, Simplex will think that 'silly' and 'greeting' below
// name two separate fields. But we actually just want *one* field, called
// 'silly greeting'. Notice that we also add the '*' to indicate that the
// matched value can also consist of multiple words.
Simplex('[silly greeting*], Mark!', { fieldMarkers: '[]' })
  .match('Oh hai, Mark!');
// => { 'silly greeting': 'Oh hai' }

Notice how we specified those field markers in the second example using just a simple string, '[]'. This tells Simplex that placeholders start with '[' and end with ']'. This works with any string; Simplex will take the first half as the left marker, and the second half as the right.

Simplex('<div>{{content*}}</div>', { fieldMarkers: '{{}}' })
  .match('<div>Hello, world!</div>');
// => { content: 'Hello, world!' }

For strings with an odd number of characters, the assumption is that the middle character goes on both sides.

Simplex('Roses are <*rose color*>', { fieldMarkers: '<*>' })
  .match('Roses are red');
// => { 'rose color': 'red' }

Of course, as shown in the '--format' example, you can also specify an array. You'll need to do this if you're using crazy asymmetrical field markers for some ridiculous reason.

Simplex('one %^adjective$&@ example', { fieldMarkers: ['%^', '$&@'] })
  .match('one CRAZY example');
// => { adjective: 'CRAZY' }

Questions? Open a ticket!

This library is a work in progress.