The result Object

The result object contains the phrase matched by the pattern in the input string along with other information. It has the location in the string where the match was found and parsing information. It also has the location and phrase matched for all matches to all pattern syntax rules.

Syntax

var exp    = new apgExp(pattern[, flags]);
var result = exp.exec(input);

Properties

[0]	string/array†	the matched phrase
input	string/array†	a copy of the input string
index	integer	the index or offset from the beginning of the input string to the matched phrase
length	integer	the length of the matched phrase
treeDepth	integer	the actual maximum depth reached in the parse tree by the parser during the match
nodeHits	integer	the actual number of unit steps required by the parser to make the match
rules	object	An object with phrase information for each of the named rules defined in the pattern syntax. The first rule in the pattern defines the entire phrase to be matched. The property, result[0], is just an alias for the first-named phrase.
	rules[name]	null if no match to rule "name" was found
	rules[name]	an array of phrase objects, one item for each phrase
	rules[name][0]	{phrase: string/array†, index: integer}

^† If Unicode mode is true, i.e. flags = "u", phrase is an array of integer character codes, otherwise it is a string.

Methods

• toText()
• displays the result object in text format, suitable for output with console.log()
• toHtml()
• displays the result object in HTML format, suitable for display on a web page
• toHtmlPage()
• displays the result object in HTML format as a complete, stand-alone web page

Example 1

The following set up is used for all three examples. Example 1 is figurative. It illustrates the format of the rules object.

var pattern, str, exp, result;
pattern  = 'word  = 1*(alpha / num)\n';
pattern += 'alpha = %d65-90 / %d97-122\n';
pattern += 'num   = %d48-57\n';
str = "ab12";
exp = new apgExp(pattern);
result = exp.exec(str);
/* result */

item	value
[0]	ab12
input	ab12
index	0
length	4
tree depth	6
node hits	26
rules["word"][0]	{phrase: "ab12", index: 0}
rules["alpha"][0]	{phrase: "a", index: 0}
rules["alpha"][1]	{phrase: "b", index: 1}
rules["num"][0]	{phrase: "1", index: 2}
rules["num"][1]	{phrase: "2", index: 3}

Example 2

Example 2 shows the same result object as example 1, but shows how it is actually displayed with the toText() function.

console.log(result.toText());
/* result */
    result:
       [0]: ab12
     input: ab12
     index: 0
    length: 4
tree depth: 7
 node hits: 26
     rules: word : 0: ab12
          : alpha : 0: a
          : alpha : 1: b
          : num : 2: 1
          : num : 3: 2

Example 3

Example 3 shows the same result object as example 1, but shows how it is actually displayed with the toHtml() function. The toHtmlPage() function would give the same output but wrapped in a complete HTML page header and footer.

$("#this-page").html(result.toHtml());
/* result */

result:

item	value	phrase
[0]	0	ab12
input	0	ab12
index	0
length	4
tree depth	7
node hits	26
rules	index	phrase
word	0	ab12
alpha	0	a
alpha	1	b
num	2	1
num	3	2