Parser for C#

Question

Which parsers are available for parsing C# code?

I'm looking for a C# parser that can be used in C# and give me access to line and file informations about each artefact of the analysed code.

Answer 1

Works on source code:

• CSParser: From C# 1.0 to 2.0, open-source
• Metaspec C# Parser: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, commercial product (about 5000$)
• #recognize!: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, commercial product (about 900€) (answer by SharpRecognize)
• SharpDevelop Parser (answer by Akselsson)
• NRefactory: From C# 1.0 to 4.0 (+async), open-source, parser used in SharpDevelop. Includes semantic analysis.
• C# Parser and CodeDOM: A complete C# 4.0 Parser, already support the C# 5.0 async feature. Commercial product (49$ to 299$) (answer by Ken Beckett)
• Microsoft Roslyn CTP: Compiler as a service.

Works on assembly:

• System.Reflection
• Microsoft Common Compiler Infrastructure: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, Microsoft Public License. Used by Fxcop and Spec#
• Mono.Cecil: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, open-source

The problem with assembly "parsing" is that we have less informations about line and file (the informations is based on .pdb file, and Pdb contains lines informations only for methods)

I personnaly recommend Mono.Cecil and NRefactory.

Answer 2

If you're familiar with ANTLR, you can use Antlr C# grammar.

Answer 3

Consider to use reflection on a built binary instead of parsing the C# code directly. The reflection API is really easy to use and perhaps you can get all the information you need?

Answer 4

http://www.codeplex.com/csparser

Answer 5

GPPG might be of use, if you are willing to write your own parser (which is fun).

Answer 6

Maybe you could try with Irony on irony.codeplex.com.

It's very fast and a c# grammar already exists.

The grammar itself is written directly in c# in a BNF like way (acheived with some operators overloads)

The best thing with it is that the "grammar" produces the AST directly.