expressive/README.md

# evalexpr

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Evalexpr is an expression evaluator in Rust.
It has a small and easy to use interface and can be easily integrated into any application.
It is very lightweight and comes with no further dependencies.
Evalexpr is [available on crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/evalexpr), and its [API Documentation is available on docs.rs](https://docs.rs/evalexpr).

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## Quickstart

Add `evalexpr` as dependency to your `Cargo.toml`:

```toml
[dependencies]
evalexpr = "1"
```

Add the `extern crate` definition to your `main.rs` or `lib.rs`:

```rust
extern crate evalexpr;
```

Then you can use `evalexpr` to evaluate expressions like this:

```rust
use evalexpr::*;

assert_eq!(eval("1 + 2 + 3"), Ok(Value::from(6)));
assert_eq!(eval("1 - 2 * 3"), Ok(Value::from(-5)));
assert_eq!(eval("1.0 + 2 * 3"), Ok(Value::from(7.0)));
assert_eq!(eval("true && 4 > 2"), Ok(Value::from(true)));
```

And you can use variables and functions in expressions like this:

```rust
use evalexpr::*;
use evalexpr::error::expect_number;

let mut configuration = HashMapConfiguration::new();
configuration.insert_variable("five", 5);
configuration.insert_variable("twelve", 12);
configuration.insert_function("f", Function::new(Some(1) /* argument amount */, Box::new(|arguments| {
    if let Value::Int(int) = arguments[0] {
        Ok(Value::Int(int / 2))
    } else if let Value::Float(float) = arguments[0] {
        Ok(Value::Float(float / 2.0))
    } else {
        Err(Error::expected_number(arguments[0].clone()))
    }
})));
configuration.insert_function("avg", Function::new(Some(2) /* argument amount */, Box::new(|arguments| {
    expect_number(&arguments[0])?;
    expect_number(&arguments[1])?;

    if let (Value::Int(a), Value::Int(b)) = (&arguments[0], &arguments[1]) {
        Ok(Value::Int((a + b) / 2))
    } else {
        Ok(Value::Float((arguments[0].as_float()? + arguments[1].as_float()?) / 2.0))
    }
})));

assert_eq!(eval_with_configuration("five + 8 > f(twelve)", &configuration), Ok(Value::from(true)));
assert_eq!(eval_with_configuration("avg(2, 4) == 3", &configuration), Ok(Value::from(true)));
```

You can also precompile expressions like this:

```rust
use evalexpr::*;

let precompiled = build_operator_tree("a * b - c > 5").unwrap();

let mut configuration = HashMapConfiguration::new();
configuration.insert_variable("a", 6);
configuration.insert_variable("b", 2);
configuration.insert_variable("c", 3);
assert_eq!(precompiled.eval_with_configuration(&configuration), Ok(Value::from(true)));

configuration.insert_variable("c", 8);
assert_eq!(precompiled.eval_with_configuration(&configuration), Ok(Value::from(false)));
```

## Features

### Operators

This crate offers a set of binary and unary operators for building expressions.
Operators have a precedence to determine their order of evaluation.
The precedence should resemble that of most common programming languages, especially Rust.
The precedence of variables and values is 200, and the precedence of function literals is 190.

Supported binary operators:

| Operator | Precedence | Description |   | Operator | Precedence | Description |
|----------|------------|-------------|---|----------|------------|-------------|
| + | 95 | Sum | | < | 80 | Lower than |
| - | 95 | Difference | | \> | 80 | Greater than |
| * | 100 | Product | | <= | 80 | Lower than or equal |
| / | 100 | Division | | \>= | 80 | Greater than or equal |
| % | 100 | Modulo | | == | 80 | Equal |
| ^ | 120 | Exponentiation | | != | 80 | Not equal |
| && | 75 | Logical and | | , | 40 | Aggregation |
| &#124;&#124; | 70 | Logical or | | | | |

Supported unary operators:

| Operator | Precedence | Description |
|----------|------------|-------------|
| - | 110 | Negation |
| ! | 110 | Logical not |

#### The Aggregation Operator

The aggregation operator aggregates two values into a tuple.
If one of the values is a tuple already, the resulting tuple will be flattened.
Example:

```rust
use evalexpr::*;

assert_eq!(eval("1, 2, 3"), Ok(Value::from(vec![Value::from(1), Value::from(2), Value::from(3)])));
```

### Builtin Functions

This crate offers a set of builtin functions.

| Identifier | Argument Amount | Description |
|------------|-----------------|-------------|
| min | >= 1 | Returns the minimum of the arguments |
| max | >= 1 | Returns the maximum of the arguments |

The `min` and `max` functions can deal with a mixture of integer and floating point arguments.
They return the result as the type it was passed into the function.

### Values

Operators take values as arguments and produce values as results.
Values can be boolean, integer or floating point numbers.
Strings are supported as well, but there are no operations defined for them yet.
Values are denoted as displayed in the following table.

| Value type | Example |
|------------|---------|
| `Value::Boolean` | `true`, `false` |
| `Value::Int` | `3`, `-9`, `0`, `135412` |
| `Value::Float` | `3.`, `.35`, `1.00`, `0.5`, `123.554` |

Integers are internally represented as `i64`, and floating point numbers are represented as `f64`.
Operators that take numbers as arguments can either take integers or floating point numbers.
If one of the arguments is a floating point number, all others are converted to floating point numbers as well, and the resulting value is a floating point number as well.
Otherwise, the result is an integer.
An exception to this is the exponentiation operator that always returns a floating point number.

Values have a precedence of 200.

### Variables

This crate allows to compile parameterizable formulas by using variables.
A variable is a literal in the formula, that does not contain whitespace or can be parsed as value.
The user needs to provide bindings to the variables for evaluation.
This is done with the `Configuration` trait.
Two structs implementing this trait are predefined.
There is `EmptyConfiguration`, that returns `None` for each request, and `HashMapConfiguration`, that stores mappings from literals to variables in a hash map.

Variables do not have fixed types in the expression itself, but aer typed by the configuration.
The `Configuration` trait contains a function that takes a string literal and returns a `Value` enum.
The variant of this enum decides the type on evaluation.

Variables have a precedence of 200.

### User-Defined Functions

This crate also allows to define arbitrary functions to be used in parsed expressions.
A function is defined as a `Function` instance.
It contains two properties, the `argument_amount` and the `function`.
The `function` is a boxed `Fn(&[Value]) -> Result<Value, Error>`.
The `argument_amount` determines the length of the slice that is passed to `function` if it is `Some(_)`, otherwise the function is defined to take an arbitrary amount of arguments.
It is verified on execution by the crate and does not need to be verified by the `function`.

Functions with no arguments are not allowed.
Use variables instead.

Be aware that functions need to verify the types of values that are passed to them.
The `error` module contains some shortcuts for verification, and error types for passing a wrong value type.
Also, most numeric functions need to differentiate between being called with integers or floating point numbers, and act accordingly.

Functions are identified by literals, like variables as well.
A literal identifies a function, if it is followed by an opening brace `(`, another literal, or a value.

Same as variables, function bindings are provided by the user via a `Configuration`.
Functions have a precedence of 190.

### Examplary variables and functions in expressions:

| Expression | Valid? | Explanation |
|------------|--------|-------------|
| `a` | yes | |
| `abc` | yes | |
| `a<b` | no | Expression is interpreted as variable `a`, operator `<` and variable `b` |
| `a b` | no | Expression is interpreted as function `a` applied to argument `b` |
| `123` | no | Expression is interpreted as `Value::Int` |
| `true` | no | Expression is interpreted as `Value::Bool` |
| `.34` | no | Expression is interpreted as `Value::Float` |

## License

This crate is primarily distributed under the terms of the MIT license.
See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.


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## No Panicking

This crate makes extensive use of the `Result` pattern and is intended to never panic.
The *exception* are panics caused by *failed allocations*.
But unfortunately, Rust does not provide any features to prove this behavior.
The developer of this crate has not found a good solution to ensure no-panic behavior in any way.
Please report a panic in this crate immediately as issue on [github](https://github.com/ISibboI/evalexpr/issues).

Even if the crate itself is panic free, it allows the user to define custom functions that are executed by the crate.
The user needs to ensure that the function he provides to the crate never panic.

## Closing Notes

If you have any ideas for features or see any problems in the code, architecture, interface, algorithmics or documentation, please open an issue on github.
If there is already an issue describing what you want to say, please add a thumbs up or whatever emoji you think fits to the issue, so I know which ones I should prioritize.