ANTLR get first production

Question

I'm using ANTLR4 and, in particular, the C grammar available in their repo (grammar). It seems that the grammar hasn't an initial rule, so I was wondering how it's possible to get it. In fact, once initialized the parser, I attach my listener, but I obtain syntax errors since I'm trying to parse two files with different code instructions:

int a;

int foo() { return 0; }

In my example I call the parser with "parser.primaryExpression();" which is the first production of the "g4" file. Is it possible to avoid to call the first production and get it automatically by ANTLR instead?

Answer 1

In addition to @GRosenberg's answer:

Also the rule enum (in the generated parser) contains entries for each rule in the order they appear in the grammar and the first rule has the value 0. However, just because it's the first rule in the grammar doesn't mean that it is the main entry point. Only the grammar author knows what the real entry is and sometimes you might even want to parse only with a subrule, which makes this decision even harder.

Answer 2

ANTLR provides no API to obtain the first rule. However, in the parser as generated, the field

public static final String[] ruleNames = ....;

lists the rulenames in the order of occurrence in the grammar. With reflection, you can access the method.

Beware. Nothing in the Antlr 'spec' defines this ordering. Simply has been true to date.