Configurable, precise and fast rust string parser to a Duration

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Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
  • Overview
  • Installation
  • Examples
  • Time Units
  • Customization
  • Benchmarks
  • Contributing
  • License

Overview

fundu provides a flexible and fast parser to convert rust strings into a Duration. fundu parses into its own Duration but provides methods to convert into std::time::Duration, chrono::Duration and time::Duration. If not stated otherwise, this README describes the main fundu package. Some examples for valid input strings with the standard feature

• "1.41"
• "42"
• "2e-8", "2e+8" (or likewise "2.0e8")
• ".5" or likewise "0.5"
• "3." or likewise "3.0"
• "inf", "+inf", "infinity", "+infinity"
• "1w" (1 week) or likewise "7d", "168h", "10080m", "604800s", ...

and the custom (or base) feature assuming some defined custom time units s, secs, minutes, , day, days, year, years, century and the time keyword yesterday

• "1.41minutes" or likewise "1.41 minutes" if allow_delimiter is set
• "years" or likewise "1 years", "1years" if number_is_optional is set
• "42 secs ago" or likewise "-42 secs" if allow_ago and allow_negative is set
• "9e-3s", "9e3s" (or likewise "9.0e+3s")
• "yesterday" or likewise "-1day", "-1days" if allow_negative is set
• "9 century" or likewise "900 years"

For more examples of the custom feature see the Customization section. Summary of features provided by this crate:

• Precision: There are no floating point calculations and the input is precisely parsed as it is. So, what you put in you is what you get out within the range of a Duration.
• Performance: The parser is blazingly fast (Benchmarks)
• Customization: TimeUnits, the number format and other aspects are easily configurable (Customization)
• Sound limits: The duration saturates at Duration::MAX if the input number was larger than that maximum or if the input string was positive infinity.
• Negative Durations: The parser can be configured to parse negative durations. Fundu's Duration can represent negative durations but also implements TryFrom for chrono::Duration and time::Duration if the corresponding feature is activated.
• Error handling: The error messages try to be informative on their own but can also be easily adjusted (See also Examples)

fundu aims for good performance and being a lightweight crate. It is purely built on top of the rust stdlib, and there are no additional dependencies required in the standard configuration. The accepted number format is per default the scientific floating point format and compatible with f64::from_str. However, the number format and other aspects can be customized up to formats like systemd time spans or gnu relative times. There are two dedicated, simple to use fundu side-projects:

• fundu-systemd for a fully compatible systemd time span parser
• fundu-gnu for a fully compatible GNU relative time parser.

See also the examples Examples section and the examples folder.

For further details see the Documentation!

Installation

Add this to Cargo.toml for fundu with the standard feature.

[dependencies]
fundu = "2.0.1"

fundu is split into three main features, standard (providing DurationParser and parse_duration) and custom (providing the CustomDurationParser) and base for a more basic approach to the core parser. The first is described here in in detail, the custom feature adds fully customizable identifiers for time units. Most of the time only one of the parsers is needed. For example, to include only the CustomDurationParser add the following to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
fundu = { version = "2.0.1", default-features = false, features = ["custom"] }

Activating the chrono or time feature provides a TryFrom and SaturatingInto implementation for chrono::Duration or time::Duration. Converting to/from std::time::Duration is supported without the need of an additional feature.

Activating the serde feature allows some structs and enums to be serialized or deserialized with serde

Examples

If only the default configuration is required once, the parse_duration method can be used. Note that parse_duration returns a std::time::Duration in contrast to the parse method of the other parsers which return a fundu::Duration.

use std::time::Duration;

use fundu::parse_duration;

let input = "1.0e2s";
assert_eq!(parse_duration(input).unwrap(), Duration::new(100, 0));

When a customization of the accepted TimeUnits is required, then DurationParser::with_time_units can be used.

use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser};

let input = "3m";
assert_eq!(
    DurationParser::with_all_time_units().parse(input).unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(180, 0)
);

When no time units are configured, seconds is assumed.

use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser};

let input = "1.0e2";
assert_eq!(
    DurationParser::without_time_units().parse(input).unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(100, 0)
);

However, the following will return an error because y (Years) is not a default time unit:

use fundu::DurationParser;

let input = "3y";
assert!(DurationParser::new().parse(input).is_err());

The parser is reusable and the set of time units is fully customizable

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser};

let parser = DurationParser::with_time_units(&[NanoSecond, Minute, Hour]);

assert_eq!(parser.parse("9e3ns").unwrap(), Duration::positive(0, 9000));
assert_eq!(parser.parse("10m").unwrap(), Duration::positive(600, 0));
assert_eq!(parser.parse("1.1h").unwrap(), Duration::positive(3960, 0));
assert_eq!(parser.parse("7").unwrap(), Duration::positive(7, 0));

Setting the default time unit (if no time unit is given in the input string) to something different than seconds is also easily possible

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser};

assert_eq!(
    DurationParser::without_time_units()
        .default_unit(MilliSecond)
        .parse("1000")
        .unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(1, 0)
);

The identifiers for time units can be fully customized with any number of valid utf-8 sequences if the custom feature is activated:

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{CustomTimeUnit, CustomDurationParser, Duration};

let parser = CustomDurationParser::with_time_units(&[
    CustomTimeUnit::with_default(MilliSecond, &["χιλιοστό του δευτερολέπτου"]),
    CustomTimeUnit::with_default(Second, &["s", "secs"]),
    CustomTimeUnit::with_default(Hour, &["⏳"]),
]);

assert_eq!(parser.parse(".3χιλιοστό του δευτερολέπτου"), Ok(Duration::positive(0, 300_000)));
assert_eq!(parser.parse("1e3secs"), Ok(Duration::positive(1000, 0)));
assert_eq!(parser.parse("1.1⏳"), Ok(Duration::positive(3960, 0)));

The custom feature can be used to customize a lot more. See the documentation of the exported items of the custom feature (like CustomTimeUnit, TimeKeyword) for more information.

Also, fundu tries to give informative error messages

use fundu::DurationParser;

assert_eq!(
    DurationParser::without_time_units()
        .parse("1y")
        .unwrap_err()
        .to_string(),
    "Time unit error: No time units allowed but found: 'y' at column 1"
);

The number format can be easily adjusted to your needs. For example to allow numbers being optional, allow some ascii whitespace between the number and the time unit and restrict the number format to whole numbers, without fractional part and an exponent (Also note that the DurationParserBuilder can build a DurationParser at compile time in const context):

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser, ParseError};

const PARSER: DurationParser = DurationParser::builder()
    .time_units(&[NanoSecond])
    .allow_time_unit_delimiter()
    .number_is_optional()
    .disable_fraction()
    .disable_exponent()
    .build();

assert_eq!(PARSER.parse("ns").unwrap(), Duration::positive(0, 1));
assert_eq!(
    PARSER.parse("1000\t\n\r ns").unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(0, 1000)
);

assert_eq!(
    PARSER.parse("1.0ns").unwrap_err(),
    ParseError::Syntax(1, "No fraction allowed".to_string())
);
assert_eq!(
    PARSER.parse("1e9ns").unwrap_err(),
    ParseError::Syntax(1, "No exponent allowed".to_string())
);

It's also possible to parse multiple durations at once with parse_multiple. The different durations can be separated by whitespace and an optional conjunction (here: and). If the delimiter is not encountered, a number or sign character can also indicate a new duration.

use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser};

let parser = DurationParser::builder()
    .default_time_units()
    .parse_multiple(Some(&["and"]))
    .build();

assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1.5h 2e+2ns"),
    Ok(Duration::positive(5400, 200))
);
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("55s500ms"),
    Ok(Duration::positive(55, 500_000_000))
);
assert_eq!(parser.parse("1\t1"), Ok(Duration::positive(2, 0)));
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1.   .1"),
    Ok(Duration::positive(1, 100_000_000))
);
assert_eq!(parser.parse("2h"), Ok(Duration::positive(2 * 60 * 60, 0)));
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("300ms20s 5d"),
    Ok(Duration::positive(5 * 60 * 60 * 24 + 20, 300_000_000))
);
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("300.0ms and 5d"),
    Ok(Duration::positive(5 * 60 * 60 * 24, 300_000_000))
);

See also the examples folder for common recipes and integration with other crates. Run an example with

cargo run --example $FILE_NAME_WITHOUT_FILETYPE_SUFFIX

like the systemd time span parser example

# For some of the examples a help is available. To pass arguments to the example itself separate 
# the arguments for cargo and the example with `--`
$ cargo run --example systemd --features custom --no-default-features -- --help
...

# To actually run the example execute
$ cargo run --example systemd --features custom --no-default-features '300ms20s 5day'
Original: 300ms20s 5day
      μs: 432020300000
   Human: 5d 20s 300ms

Time units

Second is the default time unit (if not specified otherwise for example with DurationParser::default_unit) which is applied when no time unit was encountered in the input string. The table below gives an overview of the constructor methods and which time units are available. If a custom set of time units is required, DurationParser::with_time_units can be used.

TimeUnit	Default identifier	Calculation	Default time unit
Nanosecond	ns	1e-9s	☑
Microsecond	Ms	1e-6s	☑
Millisecond	ms	1e-3s	☑
Second	s	SI definition	☑
Minute	m	60s	☑
Hour	h	60m	☑
Day	d	24h	☑
Week	w	7d	☑
Month	M	Year / 12	☐
Year	y	365.25d	☐

Note that Months and Years are not included in the default set of time units. The current implementation uses an approximate calculation of Months and Years in seconds and if they are included in the final configuration, the Julian year based calculation is used. (See table above)

With the CustomDurationParser from the custom feature, the identifiers for time units can be fully customized.

Customization

Unlike other crates, fundu does not try to establish a standard for time units and their identifiers or a specific number format. A lot of these aspects can be adjusted when initializing or building the parser. Here's an incomplete example for possible customizations of the number format:

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{Duration, DurationParser, ParseError};

let parser = DurationParser::builder()
    // Use a custom set of time units. For demonstration purposes just NanoSecond
    .time_units(&[NanoSecond])
    // Allow some whitespace characters as delimiter between the number and the time unit
    .allow_time_unit_delimiter()
    // Makes the number optional. If no number was encountered `1` is assumed
    .number_is_optional()
    // Disable parsing the fractional part of the number => 1.0 will return an error
    .disable_fraction()
    // Disable parsing the exponent => 1e0 will return an error
    .disable_exponent()
    // Finally, build a reusable DurationParser
    .build();

// Some valid input
assert_eq!(parser.parse("ns").unwrap(), Duration::positive(0, 1));
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1000\t\n\r ns").unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(0, 1000)
);

// Some invalid input
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1.0ns").unwrap_err(),
    ParseError::Syntax(1, "No fraction allowed".to_string())
);
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1e9ns").unwrap_err(),
    ParseError::Syntax(1, "No exponent allowed".to_string())
);

Here's an example for fully-customizable time units which uses the CustomDurationParser from the custom feature:

use fundu::TimeUnit::*;
use fundu::{CustomDurationParser, CustomTimeUnit, Duration, Multiplier, TimeKeyword};

// Let's define a custom time unit `fortnight` which is worth 2 weeks. Note the creation 
// of `CustomTimeUnits` and `TimeKeywords` can be `const` and moved to compile time:
const FORTNIGHT: CustomTimeUnit = CustomTimeUnit::new(
    Week,
    &["f", "fortnight", "fortnights"],
    Some(Multiplier(2, 0)),
);

let parser = CustomDurationParser::builder()
    .time_units(&[
        CustomTimeUnit::with_default(Second, &["s", "secs", "seconds"]),
        CustomTimeUnit::with_default(Minute, &["min"]),
        CustomTimeUnit::with_default(Hour, &["ώρα"]),
        FORTNIGHT,
    ])
    // Additionally, define `tomorrow`, a keyword of time which is worth `1 day` in the future.
    // In contrast to a `CustomTimeUnit`, a `TimeKeyword` doesn't accept a number in front of it 
    // in the source string.
    .keyword(TimeKeyword::new(Day, &["tomorrow"], Some(Multiplier(1, 0))))
    .build();

assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("42e-1ώρα").unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(15120, 0)
);
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("tomorrow").unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(60 * 60 * 24, 0)
);
assert_eq!(
    parser.parse("1fortnight").unwrap(),
    Duration::positive(60 * 60 * 24 * 7 * 2, 0)
);

Benchmarks

To run the benchmarks on your machine, clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/fundu-rs/fundu.git
cd fundu

and then run all benchmarks with

cargo bench --all-features

The iai-callgrind (feature = with-iai) and flamegraph (feature = with-flamegraph) benchmarks can only be run on unix. Use the --features option of cargo to run the benchmarks for specific features:

cargo bench --features standard,custom

The above won't run the flamegraph and iai-callgrind benchmarks.

Benchmarks can be further filtered for example with

cargo bench --bench benchmarks_standard
cargo bench --bench benchmarks_standard -- 'parsing speed'
cargo bench --features custom --no-default-features --bench benchmarks_custom

For more infos, see the help with

cargo bench --help # The cargo help for bench
cargo bench --bench benchmarks_standard -- --help # The criterion help

To get a rough idea about the parsing times, here the average parsing speed of some inputs (Quad core 3000Mhz, 8GB DDR3, Linux)

Input	avg parsing time
1	38.705 ns
123456789.123456789	57.974 ns
format!("{0}.{0}e-1022", "1".repeat(1022))	421.56 ns
1s	55.755 ns
1ns	59.842 ns
1y	57.760 ns

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome! Either start with an issue that already exists or open a new issue where we can discuss everything so that no effort is wasted. Do not hesitate to ask questions!

Projects using fundu

• samply/beam: https://github.com/samply/beam
• uutils/coreutils: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils
• jonhteper/minos: https://github.com/jonhteper/minos

License

MIT license (LICENSE or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)