Nim configparser

this is a pure Ini parser for nim

Nim has advanced parsecfg

Example

let sample1 = """

[general]
appname = configparser
version = 0.1

[author]
name = xmonader
email = notxmonader@gmail.com


"""

var d = parseIni(sample1)

# doAssert(d.sectionsCount() == 2)
doAssert(d.getProperty("general", "appname") == "configparser")
doAssert(d.getProperty("general","version") == "0.1")
doAssert(d.getProperty("author","name") == "xmonader")
doAssert(d.getProperty("author","email") == "notxmonader@gmail.com")

d.setProperty("author", "email", "alsonotxmonader@gmail.com")
doAssert(d.getProperty("author","email") == "alsonotxmonader@gmail.com")
doAssert(d.hasSection("general") == true)
doAssert(d.hasSection("author") == true)
doAssert(d.hasProperty("author", "name") == true)
d.deleteProperty("author", "name")
doAssert(d.hasProperty("author", "name") == false)

echo d.toIniString()
let s = d.getSection("author")
echo $s

How to

You can certainly use regular expressions, like pythons configparser, but we will go for a simpler approach here, also we want to keep it pure so we don't depend on pcre

Ini sample

[general]
appname = configparser
version = 0.1

[author]
name = xmonader
email = notxmonader@gmail.com

Ini file consists of one or more sections and each section consists of one or more key value pairs separated by =

Define your data types

import tables, strutils

We will use tables extensively

type Section = ref object
    properties: Table[string, string]

Section type contains properties table represents key value pairs

proc setProperty*(this: Section, name: string, value: string) =
    this.properties[name] = value

To set property in the underlying properties table

proc newSection*() : Section =
    var s = Section()
    s.properties = initTable[string, string]()
    return s

To create new Section object

proc `$`*(this: Section) : string =
    return "<Section" & $this.properties & " >"

Simple toString proc using $ operator

type Ini = ref object
    sections: Table[string, Section]

Ini type represents the whole document and contains a table section from sectionName to Section object.

proc newIni*() : Ini = 
    var ini = Ini()
    ini.sections = initTable[string, Section]()
    return ini

To craete new Ini object

proc `$`*(this: Ini) : string = 
    return "<Ini " & $this.sections & " >"

define friendly toString proc using $ operator

Define API

proc setSection*(this: Ini, name: string, section: Section) =
    this.sections[name] = section

proc getSection*(this: Ini, name: string): Section =
    return this.sections.getOrDefault(name)

proc hasSection*(this: Ini, name: string): bool =
    return this.sections.contains(name)

proc deleteSection*(this: Ini, name:string) =
    this.sections.del(name)

proc sectionsCount*(this: Ini) : int = 
    echo $this.sections
    return len(this.sections)

Some helper procs around Ini objects for manipulating sections.

proc hasProperty*(this: Ini, sectionName: string, key: string): bool=
    return this.sections.contains(sectionName) and this.sections[sectionName].properties.contains(key)

proc setProperty*(this: Ini, sectionName: string, key: string, value:string) =
    echo $this.sections
    if this.sections.contains(sectionName):
        this.sections[sectionName].setProperty(key, value)
    else:
        raise newException(ValueError, "Ini doesn't have section " & sectionName)

proc getProperty*(this: Ini, sectionName: string, key: string) : string =
    if this.sections.contains(sectionName):
        return this.sections[sectionName].properties.getOrDefault(key)
    else:
        raise newException(ValueError, "Ini doesn't have section " & sectionName)


proc deleteProperty*(this: Ini, sectionName: string, key: string) =
    if this.sections.contains(sectionName) and this.sections[sectionName].properties.contains(key):
        this.sections[sectionName].properties.del(key)
    else:
        raise newException(ValueError, "Ini doesn't have section " & sectionName)

More helpers around properties in the section objects managed by Ini object

proc toIniString*(this: Ini, sep:char='=') : string =
    var output = ""
    for sectName, section in this.sections:
        output &= "[" & sectName & "]" & "\n"
        for k, v in section.properties:
            output &= k & sep & v & "\n" 
        output &= "\n"
    return output

Simple proc toIniString to convert the nim structures into Ini text string

Parse!

OK, here comes the cool part

Parser states

type ParserState = enum
    readSection, readKV

Here we have two states

• readSection: when we are supposed to extract section name from the current line
• readKV: when we are supposed to read the line in key value pair mode

ParseIni proc

proc parseIni*(s: string) : Ini = 

Here we define a proc parseIni that takes a string s and creates an Ini object

    var ini = newIni()
    var state: ParserState = readSection
    let lines = s.splitLines
    
    var currentSectionName: string = ""
    var currentSection = newSection()

• ini is the object to be returned after parsing
• state the current parser state (weather it's readSection or readKV)
• lines input string splitted into lines as we are a lines based parser
• currentSectionName to keep track of what section we are currently in
• currentSection to populate ini.sections with Section object using setSection proc

   for line in lines:

for each line

         if line.strip() == "" or line.startsWith(";") or line.startsWith("#"):
            continue

We continue if line is safe to igore empty line or starts with ; or #

        if line.startsWith("[") and line.endsWith("]"):
            state = readSection

if line startswith [ and ends with ] then we set parser state to readSection

        if state == readSection:
            currentSectionName = line[1..<line.len-1]
            ini.setSection(currentSectionName, currentSection)
            state = readKV
            continue

if parser state is readSection

• extract section name between [ and ]
• add section object to the ini under the current section name
• change state to readKV to read key value pairs
• continue the loop on the nextline as we're done processing the section name.

        if state == readKV:
            let parts = line.split({'='})
            if len(parts) == 2:
                let key = parts[0].strip()
                let val = parts[1].strip()
                ini.setProperty(currentSectionName, key, val)

if state is readKV

• extract key and val by splitting the line on =
• setProperty under the currentSectionName using key and val

    return ini

Here we return the populated ini object.

Thanks

To you for taking the time to read the tutorial and thanks to everyone at #nim on gitter for their valuable reviews. Feel free to send me PRs to make this tutorial/library better :)