Best way to parse command-line parameters? [closed

Question

What's the best way to parse command-line parameters in Scala? I personally prefer something lightweight that does not require external jar.

Related:

• Java library for parsing command-line parameters?
• What parameter parser libraries are there for C++?
• Best way to parse command line arguments in C#

Answer 1

Here is mine 1-liner

    def optArg(prefix: String) = args.drop(3).find { _.startsWith(prefix) }.map{_.replaceFirst(prefix, "")}
    def optSpecified(prefix: String) = optArg(prefix) != None
    def optInt(prefix: String, default: Int) = optArg(prefix).map(_.toInt).getOrElse(default)

It drops 3 mandatory arguments and gives out the options. Integers are specified like notorious -Xmx<size> java option, jointly with the prefix. You can parse binaries and integers as simple as

val cacheEnabled = optSpecified("cacheOff")
val memSize = optInt("-Xmx", 1000)

No need to import anything.

Answer 2

For most cases you do not need an external parser. Scala's pattern matching allows consuming args in a functional style. For example:

object MmlAlnApp {
  val usage = """
    Usage: mmlaln [--min-size num] [--max-size num] filename
  """
  def main(args: Array[String]) {
    if (args.length == 0) println(usage)
    val arglist = args.toList
    type OptionMap = Map[Symbol, Any]

    def nextOption(map : OptionMap, list: List[String]) : OptionMap = {
      def isSwitch(s : String) = (s(0) == '-')
      list match {
        case Nil => map
        case "--max-size" :: value :: tail =>
                               nextOption(map ++ Map('maxsize -> value.toInt), tail)
        case "--min-size" :: value :: tail =>
                               nextOption(map ++ Map('minsize -> value.toInt), tail)
        case string :: opt2 :: tail if isSwitch(opt2) => 
                               nextOption(map ++ Map('infile -> string), list.tail)
        case string :: Nil =>  nextOption(map ++ Map('infile -> string), list.tail)
        case option :: tail => println("Unknown option "+option) 
                               exit(1) 
      }
    }
    val options = nextOption(Map(),arglist)
    println(options)
  }
}

will print, for example:

Map('infile -> test/data/paml-aln1.phy, 'maxsize -> 4, 'minsize -> 2)

This version only takes one infile. Easy to improve on (by using a List).

Note also that this approach allows for concatenation of multiple command line arguments - even more than two!

Answer 3

There's also JCommander (disclaimer: I created it):

object Main {
  object Args {
    @Parameter(
      names = Array("-f", "--file"),
      description = "File to load. Can be specified multiple times.")
    var file: java.util.List[String] = null
  }

  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    new JCommander(Args, args.toArray: _*)
    for (filename <- Args.file) {
      val f = new File(filename)
      printf("file: %s\n", f.getName)
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

I liked the slide() approach of joslinm just not the mutable vars ;) So here's an immutable way to that approach:

case class AppArgs(
              seed1: String,
              seed2: String,
              ip: String,
              port: Int
              )
object AppArgs {
  def empty = new AppArgs("", "", "", 0)
}

val args = Array[String](
  "--seed1", "akka.tcp://seed1",
  "--seed2", "akka.tcp://seed2",
  "--nodeip", "192.167.1.1",
  "--nodeport", "2551"
)

val argsInstance = args.sliding(2, 1).toList.foldLeft(AppArgs.empty) { case (accumArgs, currArgs) => currArgs match {
    case Array("--seed1", seed1) => accumArgs.copy(seed1 = seed1)
    case Array("--seed2", seed2) => accumArgs.copy(seed2 = seed2)
    case Array("--nodeip", ip) => accumArgs.copy(ip = ip)
    case Array("--nodeport", port) => accumArgs.copy(port = port.toInt)
    case unknownArg => accumArgs // Do whatever you want for this case
  }
}

Answer 5

I just created my simple enumeration

val args: Array[String] = "-silent -samples 100 -silent".split(" +").toArray
                                              //> args  : Array[String] = Array(-silent, -samples, 100, -silent)
object Opts extends Enumeration {

    class OptVal extends Val {
        override def toString = "-" + super.toString
    }

    val nopar, silent = new OptVal() { // boolean options
        def apply(): Boolean = args.contains(toString)
    }

    val samples, maxgen = new OptVal() { // integer options
        def apply(default: Int) = { val i = args.indexOf(toString) ;  if (i == -1) default else args(i+1).toInt}
        def apply(): Int = apply(-1)
    }
}

Opts.nopar()                              //> res0: Boolean = false
Opts.silent()                             //> res1: Boolean = true
Opts.samples()                            //> res2: Int = 100
Opts.maxgen()                             //> res3: Int = -1

I understand that solution has two major flaws that may distract you: It eliminates the freedom (i.e. the dependence on other libraries, that you value so much) and redundancy (the DRY principle, you do type the option name only once, as Scala program variable and eliminate it second time typed as command line text).

Answer 6

I have never liked ruby like option parsers. Most developers that used them never write a proper man page for their scripts and end up with pages long options not organized in a proper way because of their parser.

I have always preferred Perl's way of doing things with Perl's Getopt::Long.

I am working on a scala implementation of it. The early API looks something like this:

def print_version() = () => println("version is 0.2")

def main(args: Array[String]) {
  val (options, remaining) = OptionParser.getOptions(args,
    Map(
      "-f|--flag"       -> 'flag,
      "-s|--string=s"   -> 'string,
      "-i|--int=i"      -> 'int,
      "-f|--float=f"    -> 'double,
      "-p|-procedure=p" -> { () => println("higher order function" }
      "-h=p"            -> { () => print_synopsis() }
      "--help|--man=p"  -> { () => launch_manpage() },
      "--version=p"     -> print_version,
    ))

So calling script like this:

$ script hello -f --string=mystring -i 7 --float 3.14 --p --version world -- --nothing

Would print:

higher order function
version is 0.2

And return:

remaining = Array("hello", "world", "--nothing")

options = Map('flag   -> true,
              'string -> "mystring",
              'int    -> 7,
              'double -> 3.14)

The project is hosted in github scala-getoptions.