Generic API¶

By default re2c operates on input using pointer-like primitives YYCURSOR, YYMARKER, YYCTXMARKER, and YYLIMIT. Normally pointer-like primitives are defined as variables of type YYCTYPE*, but it is possible to use STL iterators or any other abstraction as long as it syntactically fits into the following use cases:

++YYCURSOR;
yych = *YYCURSOR;
yych = *++YYCURSOR;
yych = *(YYMARKER = YYCURSOR);
yych = *(YYMARKER = ++YCURSOR);
YYMARKER = YYCURSOR;
YYMARKER = ++YYCURSOR;
YYCURSOR = YYMARKER;
YYCTXMARKER = YYCURSOR + 1;
YYCURSOR = YYCTXMARKER;
if (YYLIMIT <= YYCURSOR) ...
if ((YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR) < n) ...
YYDEBUG (label, *YYCURSOR);

If this input model is too restrictive, then it is possible to use generic input API enabled with --input custom option. In this mode all input operations are expressed in terms of the primitives below. These primitives can be defined in any suitable way; one doesn’t have to stick to the pointer semantics. For example, it is possible to read input directly from file without any buffering, or to disable YYFILL mechanism and perform end-of-input checking on each input character from inside of YYPEEK or YYSKIP.

YYPEEK ()
YYSKIP ()
YYBACKUP ()
YYBACKUPCTX ()
YYSTAGP (t)
YYSTAGN (t)
YYMTAGP (t)
YYMTAGN (t)
YYRESTORE ()
YYRESTORECTX ()
YYRESTORETAG (t)
YYLESSTHAN (n)

Default input model can be expressed in terms of generic API as follows (except for YMTAGP and YYMTAGN, which have no default implementation):

#define YYPEEK () *YYCURSOR
#define YYSKIP () ++YYCURSOR
#define YYBACKUP () YYMARKER = YYCURSOR
#define YYBACKUPCTX () YYCTXMARKER = YYCURSOR
#define YYRESTORE () YYCURSOR = YYMARKER
#define YYRESTORECTX () YYCURSOR = YYCTXMARKER
#define YYRESTORERAG (t) YYCURSOR = t
#define YYLESSTHAN (n) YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR < n
#define YYSTAGP (t) t = YYCURSOR
#define YYSTAGN (t) t = NULL

This article has more details, and you can find some usage examples here.