Mathematical expression translator

[wildcard]

It's proving to be a nice challenge for getting back into some coding. My parser is coming along nicely, just need to figure out how to cope with brackets and arrays.

[Frontrunner]

Hi Wildcard,

I am glad to see you are making good progress

Cheers,
Frontrunner

[Ralph]

Frontrunner:

I am going to try to make the code to solve for the simple multiple occurrances of the general type. variable^power, which shouldn't be too difficult. 

Once I succeed, I will try to go one step farther, considering an array*power.

After that, I will publish a list of all the cases I can think of, and ask for input on other cases I will have missed.

As to your good-will post to Wildcard, whom I consider to be an Ace of a wildcard, ha, ha, it makew me think that Wildcard is the true "frontrunner".  Sorry for the lame pun, but I just couln't resist it!

[Ralph]

Frontrunner:

Though I'm not competing, here is my beginning code, with all my thoghts so far.  It seems to work fine for Example1.  If you approve it, I will code for Example2 and, maybe, Example3 :

Code:

'B2C-Tran is a QuickBASIC to C translator for the C "pow" (power) function.
'I have decide to produce the necessary QuickBASIC code for the challenge as
'posted by Frontrunner at:
'http://forum.qbasicnews.com/index.php?topic=13196.0
'on an example-by-example basis, as I am not a professional programmer, just an amateur piddler.
'Example1: x ^ n
'BASIC: a = x ^ n
'    C: a = pow(x, n)

'''TO BE COVERED LATER:
'Example2: b(x) ^ n
'   BASIC: a = b(x) ^ n
'       C: a = pow(v(x), n)

'Example3:
'   BASIC: r1 = (-c + (SQR(b(x) ^ 2 - (4 * a * c)))) / (2 * a)
'       C: r1 = (-c + (sqrt(pow(b(x), 2) - (4 * a * c)))) / (2 * a)

'============================================================================

'Program specifications:
'Program must convert the BASIC Example1 to its equivalent C code.

'============================================================================
'PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
'BASIC expresion in which the power function "r = x ^ n" is to be convert to
'its equivalent C power function, "a = pow(x, n)".

'PROGRAM DEVELOPEMENT:
'1. Search the BASIC string, BAS$, for an instance of a power expression, "^".
'2. Once the "^" is found, proceed to the left, after the first " ":
'   a. If the next character is a not a ")", add it to the empty string, C$.
'   b. Add the C power function letters, "pow", to the front of the above
'      group of characters.
'   c. Proceed to the right, after  the first " "; add those characters to
'      the above expression, C$, until the next " " is found.  Done.
'3. Compare the C$ obtained with the correct expression contained in Ceq$.
'   Once a match is obtained, print it to screen.

'============================================================================

'CODE:
CLS

'for development stage, use "test = 1"
test = 0
'test = 1
'Expressions:
BAS$ = "a = x ^ n"
Ceq$ = "a = pow(x, n)"

'OBTAIN STRINGS TO USE
'leftSide$ = left side of BAS$, including the equals sign and a " ":
FOR i = 1 TO LEN(BAS$)
  a$ = MID$(BAS$, i, 1)
  IF a$ <> "=" THEN
    leftSide$ = leftSide$ + a$
  ELSE
    EXIT FOR
  END IF
NEXT i
leftSide$ = leftSide$ + "= "


'rightSide$ = string to the right of the equals sign:
FOR i = LEN(leftSide$) + 1 TO LEN(BAS$)
  rightSide$ = rightSide$ + MID$(BAS$, i, 1)
NEXT i

'dist = the position of "^" in string rightSide$
FOR i = 1 TO LEN(rightSide$)
  a$ = MID$(rightSide$, i, 1)
  IF a$ = "^" THEN dist = i: EXIT FOR
NEXT i

'leftChr$ = left characters for the C function
FOR i = dist - 2 TO 1 STEP -1
  a$ = MID$(rightSide$, i, 1)
  leftChr$ = a$ + leftChr$
NEXT i
leftChr$ = "pow(" + leftChr$ + ", "

'rightChr$ = right characters for the C function
FOR i = dist + 2 TO LEN(rightSide$)
  a$ = MID$(rightSide$, i, 1)
  rightChr$ = rightChr$ + a$
NEXT i
rightChr$ = rightChr$ + ")"

C$ = leftSide$ + leftChr$ + rightChr$

IF C$ = Ceq$ THEN
  PRINT " The C equivalent for the QB expression, "
  PRINT "    " + BAS$
  PRINT " is "; C$
ELSE
  PRINT " The result generated by the program,"
  PRINT "    "; C$
  PRINT " is wrong!  Program must be corrected. Notify the responsible person."
END IF

'----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'temporary troubleshooting code
  IF test = 1 THEN
PRINT
PRINT " BAS$ = "; CHR$(34); BAS$; CHR$(34)
PRINT " Ceq$ = "; CHR$(34); Ceq$; CHR$(34)
PRINT
PRINT " left side = "; CHR$(34); leftSide$; CHR$(34)
PRINT "right side = "; CHR$(34); rightSide$; CHR$(34)
PRINT "distance to ^ in rightSide$ ="; dist
PRINT " leftChr$ = "; CHR$(34) + leftChr$; CHR$(34)
PRINT "rightChr$ = "; CHR$(34) + rightChr$; CHR$(34)

  END IF
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------




GOSUB pause
SYSTEM

'============================================================================
'SUBROUTINES:

pause:
WHILE INKEY$ = "": WEND
RETURN

[Frontrunner]

whom I consider to be an Ace of a wildcard, ha, ha, it makew me think that Wildcard is the true "frontrunner". 
Lol Ralph!

Thanks for your contribution so far.
The way you are tackling the problem is interesting but you have to consider that the conversion should work in all situations and not only with examples where assignments are included.

So you really need a parse engine to make this work.

But it is good to see you are doing your best!

Cheers,
Frontrunner

[Ralph]

What is a parse engine?

[Frontrunner]

Hi Ralph,

The parser is the main routine you in this challenge and is also called a parse engine.

Have a look at this link which will explain you some more on how a parser works:
http://forums.devshed.com/other-programming-languages-139/how-does-an-interpreter-compiler-work-312483.html

I hope that will help!

Cheers,
Frontrunner

[Ralph]

Thank you, Frontrunner, for your link.  I now have a fair idea of what a parser is.

[LPG]

I tried this from QB > C. i made it do this:

• put spaces between expressions and operators
• find the ^
• search left until it finds a space. if it sees a ) forget spaces until it comes to a (
• put "pow(" in
• do the same going right but add ")"
• put spaces in again

the only error is that it searches from left to right so for:
    (5^5)^5
it returns:
    (pow( 5, 5) )pow( ,5)
but for something like this:
    5^5
it returns:
    pow(5,5)

it should look from the inside brackets to the outside brackets but i don't know how to do that.

    LPG   
     

[Frontrunner]

You are very welcome Ralph, I am glad it helped!

Hi LPG,

If I may give you a tip ?
Use an array to split the whole input string in to tokens.
This makes it easier to keep track of symbols like brackets etc. and once you know where to place the pow statement you can simply change the array.

So (5^5)^5 could look like this:
Token$(1) = "("
Token$(2) = "5"
Token$(3) = "^"
Token$(4) = "5"
Token$(5) = ")"
Token$(6) = "^"
Token$(7) = "5"

To become pow((pow(5,5)),5)

Token$(1) = "pow" + Token$(1)
Token$(2) = "(pow(" + Token$(2)
Token$(3) = ","
Token$(4) = "5"
Token$(5) = ")" + Token$(5)
Token$(6) = ","
Token$(7) = Token$(7) + ")"

Note that all tokens which are ^ simply become a comma.
The trick is to take track of the brackets!

I hope that helps.

And then one more tricky example when it comes to unary operators
If -8 - -5 = 1 - -2 ^ 2 Then
Becomes
If -8 - -5= 1- -pow(2,2) Then

Cheers,
Frontrunner

[wildcard]

Interesting post there Frontrunner, I've not had much time last few days to work on my entry but was stuck at the brackets stage still too anyway, will hopefully get some time to finish it soon.

[Frontrunner]

Hi Wildcard,

I hope it will help you to tackle the brackets.

Have a nice day.
Frontrunner

[LPG]

Thanks Frontrunner

[Frontrunner]

No problem, I hope it helped!

Have a sunny day 
Frontrunner

[Frontrunner]

I am not sure how many of you are working on this challenge but I came along this website which might be interesting for those who use FreeBasic and want to solve this challenge.

http://www.runicsoft.com/fparser.php

Cheers,
Frontrunner