Line lexer...

["Javier Abdul Cordoba Gandara" <cordobaj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	Hi all. I've been using SableCC for quite some time now. Now I'm facing a project where I need to process lines of data that represent transactions in very fixed formats (spaces are showed only for simplicity):

FI 0001a 0104abcde 0209123456789 0302aa SE 0002ab 

	where FI(RST), SE(COND) are headers of so called segments, and fields are marked as 00-01, 00 is the 'id' of the field and 01 is the lenght of the segment, a is the data. So it follows that in 0209123456789, 02 is the 'id', 09 is the length and
123456789 the data, etc.

	Next, I have that segments represent data/operations and there are some constraints on how they can be structured, the same applies to fields (that have real names, numbers are just codes).

	We have processors from plain C to annotated Java with fancy filters and so on, but all are hard coded monsters that you'll hate to meet. I want something simpler and higher level, ¿would you recommend me to implement a scanner for the line oriented thing? I started to change Lexer class to an interface, etc. you know the story, but I also want to evaluate speed and memory issues (millions of transactions you know). Then I stopped and wanted to know your opinion.

	Maybe next step is XML migration but thats why I want to get a real parser involved :) Or maybe this is overkill for such a dumb format and I must settle for good old C. 

	Thank you and good luck with SableCC 4 I really want to play with it >.<


Javier Abdul Córdoba Gándara
Buró de Crédito
Sistemas - Desarrollo
Tel. 54494900 Ext. 5935

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