parsing question

[carpeliam]

I have a document in this form, and I'm trying to create new objects based on this info.<br><br>(note: this is not Java code, but rather a text file. I'll explain it all after.)<br><br>Class1 {<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;id: 123<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;serialNumber:&nbsp;&nbsp;456<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;name: myClass1Object<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;followers: Class2 {<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;id: 456<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;serialNumber: 789<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name: myClass2Object<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;followers: Class3 {<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;id: 456<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;serialNumber: 789<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name: myClass2Object<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;}<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;followers: Class2 {<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;id: 321<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;serialNumber: 654<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;name: myClass2Object2<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;}<br>}<br><br>This text file is an interpretation of a object heirarchy. I have 3 different classes. For the purposes of the question, they are all seemingly identical. They have 4 different fields; the &quot;followers&quot; field returns a Vector. In this example, the Class1 object has a &quot;followers&quot; vector with two Class2 objects in it; the first Class2 object has one Class3 object in it.<br><br>I need to write a parser; probably recursive. This parser will read the series of brackets and instantiate new objects of whatever type they are (for example, the first line should make the program instantiate a new object of type Class1).<br><br>I can make use of either StreamTokenizer or StringTokenizer (or anything else that fits my needs, but I can't think of anything). I might end up using both.<br><br>I'm feeling hard pressed for where to start- I have a general idea, but my mind is getting fuzzy on implementation. Anybody have any ideas? Hopefully I'll have this settled before any replies come in... but just in case. ) <p>Liam Morley<br><a href=mailto:lmorley@wpi.edu>lmorley@wpi.edu</a><br><a href=

http://www.wpi.edu/~lmorley/>

] :: imotic :: website :: [</a><br>"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>
light the world, and bring depth to the silence."

 

[palbano]

Liam,<br><br>I hope you have a perfectly 'great' reason for not using XML and existing parsing code and/or mechanisms.<br><br>Note: &quot;I like to re-invent wheels&quot; does not qualify as a 'great' reason.<br><br>&quot;But, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong&quot;.<br>-pete

 

[carpeliam]

Yeah, I'd love to use Perl, I really would. But I need to instantiate Java objects with this info, so I'm using Java. <p>Liam Morley<br><a href=mailto:lmorley@wpi.edu>lmorley@wpi.edu</a><br><a href=

http://www.wpi.edu/~lmorley/>

] :: imotic :: website :: [</a><br>"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>
light the world, and bring depth to the silence.

 

[palbano]

Liam,<br><br>That doesn't really answer my question since free Java source is available for parsing XML.<br><br>-pete

 

[carpeliam]

well maybe I'll look into it... where could I find an overview? <p>Liam Morley<br><a href=mailto:lmorley@wpi.edu>lmorley@wpi.edu</a><br><a href=

http://www.wpi.edu/~lmorley/>

] :: imotic :: website :: [</a><br>"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>
light the world, and bring depth to the silence.

 

[palbano]

Liam,<br><br>Check this out:<br><br><A HREF="

http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/1999/05/beyo/"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/1999/05/beyo/</A><br><br>-pete

 

[carpeliam]

thanks, but I changed the format of my text document and StreamTokenizer now throws everything into hashtables in just a few lines of code. For now, I'll go with what I know, and sometime later I'll take a look at that. Thanks. I actually remember that article from looking over my subscription... I'll remember to go back to that one. <p>Liam Morley<br><a href=mailto:lmorley@wpi.edu>lmorley@wpi.edu</a><br><a href=

http://www.wpi.edu/~lmorley/>

] :: imotic :: website :: [</a><br>"light the deep, and bring silence to the world.<br>
light the world, and bring depth to the silence.