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<p align="center"><font size="7" face="Courier New"><strong>ANTLR<br>
Reference Manual<br>
</strong></font><br>
<big><big><big><font face="Arial">Credits</font></big></big></big></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial">Project Lead and Supreme Dictator<br>
<a href="mailto:parrt@jguru.com"><em>Terence Parr</em></a><br>
University of San Franciso</font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial">Support from<br>
<em><a href="http://www.jguru.com">jGuru.com</a><br>
Your View of the Java Universe</em></font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial">Help with initial coding<br>
<em>John Lilly, <a href="http://www.Empathy.com">Empathy Software</a> </em></font></p>
<p align="center">
<font face="Arial">C++ code generator by<br>
<a href="mailto:ric.klaren@gmail.com">
<em>Ric Klaren</em></a> and<br>
<a href="mailto:pete@yamuna.demon.co.uk">
<em>Peter Wells</em></a>
</font>
</p>
<p align=center>C# code generation by<br>
Micheal Jordan, Kunle Odutola and Anthony Oguntimehin.
<!-- Python credits -->
<p align="center"><a
href="http://www.python.org">Python's</a> universe has been
extended by<br>
<a href="mailto:ora.et.labora at web dot de"><em>Wolfgang Häfelinger</em></a> and
<a href="mailto:marq.kole at xs4all dot nl"><em>Marq Kole</em></a><br>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial">Infrastructure support from <a
href="http://www.perforce.com">Perforce</a>:<br>
The world's best source code control system</font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Arial">Substantial intellectual effort donated by<br>
<em>
<a href="mailto:Loring.Craymer@jpl.nasa.gov">Loring Craymer</a><br>
<a href="mailto:mzukowski@bco.com">Monty Zukowski </a><br>
<a href="mailto:jcoker@magelang.com">Jim Coker</a><br>
<a href="mailto:thetick@magelang.com">Scott Stanchfield</a><br>
<a href="mailto:johnm@magelang.com">John Mitchell</a><br>
<a href="mailto:flack@cs.purdue.edu">Chapman Flack</a> (UNICODE, streams)</em></font></p>
<p align="center">Source changes for Eclipse and NetBeans by<br>
<a href="mailto:marco@mvmsoft.de">Marco van Meegen</a> and <a href="mailto:brian-l-smith@uiowa.edu">Brian Smith</a></font></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<div align="left"><pre><font face="Arial"><i>ANTLR Version 2.7.7
</i><font
face="Arial" size="2"><em>November 1, 2006</em></font></pre>
<h2>What's ANTLR</h2>
<p><font
face="Arial"><strong>ANTLR</strong>, ANother Tool for Language Recognition, (formerly <strong>PCCTS</strong>)
is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, compilers, and
translators from grammatical descriptions containing Java, C++, or C# actions [You can use
PCCTS 1.xx to generate C-based parsers].</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">Computer language translation has become a common task. While
compilers and tools for traditional computer languages (such as C or Java) are still being
built, their number is dwarfed by the thousands of mini-languages for which recognizers
and translators are being developed. Programmers construct translators for database
formats, graphical data files (e.g., PostScript, AutoCAD), text processing files (e.g.,
HTML, SGML). ANTLR is designed to handle all of your translation tasks.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.parr-research.com/~parrt">Terence
Parr</a> has been working on ANTLR since 1989 and, together with his colleagues, has made
a number of fundamental <a href="http://www.antlr.org/contributions.html">contributions</a>
to parsing theory and language tool construction,
leading to the resurgence of LL(k)-based recognition tools.</font>
<p><font face="Arial">Here is a chronological <a href="http://www.antlr.org/history.html">history</a>
and credit list for ANTLR/PCCTS.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">See <a href="http://www.antlr.org/rights.html">ANTLR software rights</a>.</font>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.antlr.org/doc/getting-started.html"><b>Getting started</b></a> for a list of tutorials and get your questions answered at the <a
href="http://www.jguru.com/faq/ANTLR">ANTLR FAQ at jguru.com</a></font></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Arial">See also <a href="http://www.ANTLR.org">http://www.ANTLR.org</a></font> and <a href="glossary.html"><b>glossary</b></a>.
<p><small><font face="Arial"><i>If you are looking for the previous main version (PCCTS
1.33) of ANTLR rather than the new Java-based version, see <a
href="http://www.ANTLR.org/pccts133.html">Getting started with PCCTS</a>.</i></font></small></p>
<hr>
<font face="Arial">
<p>Download <a href="http://www.antlr.org/download.html">ANTLR</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.antlr.org/blog/CHANGES-2.7.7.txt"><big><big>ANTLR 2.7.7 release notes</big></big></a></p>
<p><big><a href="metalang.html#_bb1">ANTLR Meta-Language</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb2">Meta-Language Vocabulary </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb3">Header Section </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb4">Parser Class Definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb5">Lexical Analyzer Class Definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb6">Tree-parser Class Definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb8">Options Section</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#TokensSection">Tokens Section</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb9">Grammar Inheritance </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb10">Rule Definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb11">Atomic Production elements </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb12">Simple Production elements </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb13">Production Element Operators </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb14">Token Classes</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb15">Predicates </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb16">Element Labels</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb17">EBNF Rule Elements</a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb18">Interpretation Of Semantic Actions </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#SemanticPredicates">Semantic Predicates </a></li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#SyntacticPredicates">Syntactic Predicates </a><ul>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb21">Fixed depth lookahead and syntactic predicates</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="metalang.html#_bb22">ANTLR Meta-Language Grammar </a></li>
</ul>
<!--index-->
<p><big><a href="lexer.html#Lexical_Analysis_with_ANTLR">Lexical Analysis with ANTLR</a></big>
<ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#lexicalrules">Lexical Rules</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Skipping_characters">Skipping characters</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Distinguishing_between_lexer_rules">Distinguishing between lexer rules</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Return_values">Return values</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Predicated-LL(k)_Lexing">Predicated-LL(k) Lexing</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Keywords_and_literals">Keywords and literals</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Common_prefixes">Common prefixes</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Token_definition_files">Token definition files</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Character_classes">Character classes</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Token_Attributes">Token Attributes</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#lexicallookahead">Lexical lookahead and the end-of-token symbol</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Scanning_Binary_Files">Scanning Binary Files</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#unicode">Scanning Unicode Characters</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Manipulating_Token_Text_and_Objects">Manipulating Token Text and Objects</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Manipulating_the_Text_of_a_Lexical_Rule">Manipulating the Text of a Lexical Rule</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Heterogeneous_Token_Object_Streams">Heterogeneous Token Object Streams</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Filtering%20Input%20Streams">Filtering Input Streams</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#ANTLR_Masquerading_as_SED">ANTLR Masquerading as SED</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Nongreedy_Subrules">Nongreedy Subrules</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Greedy_Subrules">Greedy Subrules</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Nongreedy_Lexer_Subrules">Nongreedy Lexer Subrules</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Limitations_of_Nongreedy_Subrules">Limitations of Nongreedy Subrules</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Lexical_States">Lexical States</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#The_End_Of_File_Condition">The End Of File Condition</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#Case_sensitivity">Case sensitivity</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#ignoringwhitespace">Ignoring whitespace in the lexer</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#trackingline">Tracking Line Information</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#trackingcolumn">Tracking Column Information</a></li>
<li><a href="lexer.html#dfacompare">But...We've Always Used Automata For Lexical Analysis!</a></li>
</ul>
<!--/index-->
<p><big><a href="sor.html#_bb1">ANTLR Tree Parsers</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb2">What's a tree parser?</a></li>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb3">What kinds of trees can be parsed?</a></li>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb4">Tree grammar rules</a> <ul>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb5">Syntactic predicates</a></li>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb6">Semantic predicates</a></li>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb7">An Example Tree Walker</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb8">Transformations </a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="sor.html#_bb9">An Example Tree Transformation</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="sor.html#Examining_Debugging ASTs">Examining/Debugging ASTs</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="streams.html"><big>Token Streams</big></a><ul>
<li><a href="streams.html#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Pass-Through Token Stream">Pass-Through Token Stream</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Token Stream Filtering">Token Stream Filtering</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Token Stream Splitting">Token Stream Splitting</a><ul>
<li><a href="streams.html#Example">Example</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Filter Implementation">Filter Implementation</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#How To Use This Filter">How To Use This Filter</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Tree Construction">Tree Construction</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Garbage Collection Issues">Garbage Collection Issues</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Notes">Notes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="streams.html#lexerstates">Token Stream Multiplexing (aka "Lexer
states")</a><ul>
<li><a href="streams.html#Multiple Lexers">Multiple Lexers</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Lexers Sharing Same Character Stream">Lexers Sharing Same
Character Stream</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Parsing Multiplexed Token Streams">Parsing Multiplexed Token
Streams</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#The Effect of Lookahead Upon Multiplexed Token Streams">The Effect
of Lookahead Upon Multiplexed Token Streams</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#Multiple Lexers Versus Calling Another Lexer Rule">Multiple Lexers
Versus Calling Another Lexer Rule</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="streams.html#rewriteengine">TokenStreamRewriteEngine Easy Syntax-Directed Translation</a></li>
<li><a href="streams.html#The Future">The Future</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="vocab.html"><big>Token Vocabularies</big></a><ul>
<li><a href="vocab.html#Introduction">Introduction</a><ul>
<li><a href="vocab.html#How does ANTLR decide which vocabulary symbol gets what token type?">How
does ANTLR decide which vocabulary symbol gets what token type?</a></li>
<li><a href="vocab.html#Why do token types start at 4?">Why do token types start at 4?</a></li>
<li><a href="vocab.html#What files associated with vocabulary does ANTLR generate?">What
files associated with vocabulary does ANTLR generate?</a></li>
<li><a
href="vocab.html#How does ANTLR synchronize the symbol-type mappings between grammars in the same file and in different files?">How
does ANTLR synchronize the symbol-type mappings between grammars in the same file and in
different files?</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="vocab.html#Grammar Inheritance and Vocabularies">Grammar Inheritance and
Vocabularies</a></li>
<li><a href="vocab.html#Recognizer Generation Order">Recognizer Generation Order</a></li>
<li><a href="vocab.html#Tricky Vocabulary Stuff">Tricky Vocabulary Stuff</a></li>
</ul>
<p><big><a href="err.html#_bb1">Error Handling and Recovery</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="err.html#ANTLR Exception Hierarchy">ANTLR Exception Hierarchy</a></li>
<li><a href="err.html#_bb2">Modifying Default Error Messages With Paraphrases</a></li>
<li><a href="err.html#ParserExceptionHandling">Parser Exception Handling</a></li>
<li><a href="err.html#SpecifyingParserException-Handlers">Specifying Parser Exception-Handlers</a></li>
<li><a href="err.html#Default Exception Handling in the Lexer">Default Exception Handling in
the Lexer</a></li>
</ul>
<p><big><a href="runtime.html#_bb1">Java Runtime Model</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb2">Programmer's Interface</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb3">What ANTLR generates</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#sharingstate">Multiple Lexers/Parsers With Shared Input State</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb4">Parser Implementation</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb5">Parser Class</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb6">Parser Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb7">EBNF Subrules</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb8">Production Prediction </a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb9">Production Element Recognition </a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb10">Standard Classes</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb11">Lexer Implementation</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb12">Lexer Form</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb13">Creating Your Own Lexer</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb14">Lexical Rules </a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb15">Token Objects</a></li>
<li><a href="runtime.html#_bb16">Token Lookahead Buffer</a></li>
</ul>
<p><big><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_bb1">C++ Runtime model</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_buildruntime">Building the runtime</a></li>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_generatingcpp">Getting C++ output</a></li>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_changingasttype">Changing the AST Type</a></li>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_heteroast">Using Heterogeneous AST types</a></li>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_extras">Extra functionality in C++ mode</a></li>
<li><a href="cpp-runtime.html#_template">A grammar template</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
<p><big><a href="csharp-runtime.html">C# Runtime model</a></big>
<ul>
<li><a href=csharp-runtime.html#t1>Building the ANTLR C# Runtime</a></li>
<li><a href=csharp-runtime.html#t2>Specifying Code Generation</a></li>
<li><a href=csharp-runtime.html#t3>C#-Specific ANTLR Options</a></li>
<li><a href=csharp-runtime.html#t4>A Template C# ANTLR Grammar File</a></li>
</ul>
<!-- Hail Python! -->
<p><big><a href="python-runtime.html">Python Runtime model</a></big>
<ul>
<li><a href="python-runtime.html#t1">Building the ANTLR Python Runtime</a></li>
<li><a href="python-runtime.html#t2">Specifying Code Generation</a></li>
<li><a href="python-runtime.html#t3">Python-Specific ANTLR Options</a></li>
<li><a href="python-runtime.html#t4">A Template Python ANTLR Grammar File</a></li>
</ul>
<p><big><a href="trees.html#_bb1">ANTLR Tree Construction</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb2">Notation</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb3">Controlling AST construction</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb4">Grammar annotations for building ASTs</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb5">Leaf nodes</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb6">Root nodes</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb7">Turning off standard tree construction</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb8">Tree node construction</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb9">AST Action Translation</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb10">Invoking parsers that build trees</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb11">AST Factories</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#Heterogeneous ASTs">Heterogeneous ASTs</a><ul>
<li><a href="trees.html#An Expression Tree Example"><font size="3">An Expression Tree
Example</font></a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#Describing Heterogeneous Trees With Grammars">Describing
Heterogeneous Trees With Grammars</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="trees.html#AST Serialization">AST (XML) Serialization</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb12">AST enumerations</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb13">A few examples</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb14">Labeled subrules</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb15">Reference nodes</a></li>
<li><a href="trees.html#_bb16">Required AST functionality and form</a></li>
</ul>
<p><big><a href="inheritance.html#_bb1">Grammar Inheritance</a></big><ul>
<li><a href="inheritance.html#_bb2">Introduction and motivation</a></li>
<li><a href="inheritance.html#_bb3">Functionality</a></li>
<li><a href="inheritance.html#_bb4">Where Are Those Supergrammars?</a></li>
<li><a href="inheritance.html#_bb7">Error Messages</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="options.html#Options"><big>Options</big></a><ul>
<li><a href="options.html#File, Grammar, and Rule">File, Grammar, and Rule Options </a><ul>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb2">Options supported in ANTLR</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb3">language: Setting the generated language</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb4">k: Setting the lookahead depth </a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#importVocab">importVocab: Initial Grammar Vocabulary</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#exportVocab">exportVocab: Naming Output Vocabulary</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb8">testLiterals: Generate literal-testing code</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb9">defaultErrorHandler: Controlling default exception-handling</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb10">codeGenMakeSwitchThreshold: controlling code generation</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb11">codeGenBitsetTestThreshold: controlling code generation</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb12">buildAST: Automatic AST construction </a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb13">ASTLabelType: Setting label type</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb14">charVocabulary: Setting the lexer character vocabulary</a></li>
<li><a href="options.html#_bb15">warnWhenFollowAmbig</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="options.html#Command Line Options">Command Line Options</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
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