Find¶

{ #feature-find }

Stable ID: FEATURE-FIND

MISC¶

1. Find all functionality
   1. Basic find - "code only" no nested structures
   2. find first, next, all - especially find "aa" in "aaaa" - two matches only
   3. basic nested find - "code only" nested if statements, nested for statements, ...
   4. single placeholder find
   5. multi placeholder find [sublist search] incl. error on illegal patterns (starting / ending with unconstrainted multi placeholder)
   6. multiple assignments find
   7. mixed

Scenario: Find by kind¶

• Example, find if statements
• Nesting: A found match can contain another found match

Scenario: kind of nodes¶

• Support language agnostics kinds
• Definition, statement, expression, ...
• Support parser specific kinds
• e.g. IASTIfStatement
• To be decided: support of kind patterns (like XPath)?

Scenario: Find by AST Pattern matching¶

• Example, find if ($x == MAX) { $$stmts; }
• Nesting: A found match can contain another found match

Scenario: Find All¶

AST Pattern are found consecutive, i.e., the found matches do not overlap

• Find "aa" in "aaa" has only one match
• Find "aa" in "aaaa" has only two non-overlapping matches

Scenario: Find sequence¶

When searching for a sequence, we are not looking for sequences of exactly that length only, we are looking for all (sub)sequences that match the sequence.

So the sequence of arguments 0,3 is found in f(0,3), g(0,3,1), h(1,0,3), and even twice in k(0,3,0,3).

Scenario: Illegal find-patterns¶

As we are already looking for (sub)sequences, starting and/or ending a find pattern with a unconstrainted multi placeholders is considered an error.

We allow for the following kinds of constraints

• Equivalence
• For example, $$args, $$args to find argument lists in f(0,3,0,3), g(3,0,3,0,3), and h().
• Back references
• A back reference in a chained find uses the assigned value from an earlier find or match.