I need to parse complex expresion from string to bool.
It can only contain:
* boolean values (true/false),
* parenthesis,
* AND/OR operands (&&, ||)
Eg:
bool.Parse("((true || false) && (false || false)) || (true || false)"
Any idea how to achieve this?
Here's a cunning evaluator class that gives you the JScript.NET Eval function within C# code:
static public class Evaluator
{
private const string _jscriptSource =
@"package Evaluator
{
class Evaluator
{
public function Eval(expr : String) : String
{
return eval(expr);
}
}
}";
static private object _evaluator;
static private Type _evaluatorType;
[SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Performance", "CA1810:InitializeReferenceTypeStaticFieldsInline",
Justification = "Can't be done inline - too complex")]
static Evaluator()
{
InstantiateInternalEvaluator();
}
static private void InstantiateInternalEvaluator()
{
JScriptCodeProvider compiler = new JScriptCodeProvider();
CompilerParameters parameters;
parameters = new CompilerParameters();
parameters.GenerateInMemory = true;
CompilerResults results;
results = compiler.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, _jscriptSource);
Assembly assembly = results.CompiledAssembly;
_evaluatorType = assembly.GetType("Evaluator.Evaluator");
_evaluator = Activator.CreateInstance(_evaluatorType);
}
static public int EvaluateToInteger(string statement)
{
string s = EvaluateToString(statement);
return int.Parse(s);
}
static public double EvaluateToDouble(string statement)
{
string s = EvaluateToString(statement);
return double.Parse(s);
}
static public decimal ForceEvaluateToDecimal(string statement)
{
decimal result;
bool s = Decimal.TryParse(statement, out result);
return result;
}
static public decimal EvaluateToDecimal(string statement)
{
string s = EvaluateToString(statement);
return decimal.Parse(s);
}
static public string EvaluateToString(string statement)
{
object o = EvaluateToObject(statement);
return o.ToString();
}
static public bool EvaluateToBool(string statement)
{
object o = EvaluateToObject(statement);
return (bool)o;
}
static public object EvaluateToObject(string statement)
{
try
{
return _evaluatorType.InvokeMember(
"Eval",
BindingFlags.InvokeMethod,
null,
_evaluator,
new object[] {statement}
);
}
catch (Exception)
{
InstantiateInternalEvaluator();
return null;
}
}
}
You just then call Evaluator.EvaluateToBool(string). Lifted from an existing project, so you may want to tweak!
The string you described is valid C# code, so if you can interpret it at runtime you're done. In many languages this is a built in function. In C# it is not, but you can use a 3rd party library such as this runtime C# interpreter
The standard method is to:
- tokenize the string
- build a tree putting an operator in every node and an operand in every leaf
- visiting the tree evaluating the expression