Which parsers are available for parsing C# code?

Question

I'm looking for a C# parser that can be used in C# and give me access to line and file informations about each artefact of the analysed code.

score 121 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

Works on source code:

CSParser: From C# 1.0 to 2.0, open-source
Metaspec C# Parser: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, commercial product (about 5000$)
#recognize!: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, commercial product (about 900€) (answer by SharpRecognize)
SharpDevelop Parser (answer by Akselsson)
NRefactory: From C# 1.0 to 4.0 (+async), open-source, parser used in SharpDevelop. Includes semantic analysis.
C# Parser and CodeDOM: A complete C# 4.0 Parser, already support the C# 5.0 async feature. Commercial product (49$ to 299$) (answer by Ken Beckett)
Microsoft Roslyn CTP: Compiler as a service.

Works on assembly:

System.Reflection
Microsoft Common Compiler Infrastructure: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, Microsoft Public License. Used by Fxcop and Spec#
Mono.Cecil: From C# 1.0 to 3.0, open-source

The problem with assembly "parsing" is that we have less informations about line and file (the informations is based on .pdb file, and Pdb contains lines informations only for methods)

I personnaly recommend Mono.Cecil and NRefactory.

CS-Script(http://www.csscript.net/) - the C# Script Engine may suite this list. Sample of "Introducing the Microsoft “Roslyn” CTP" is very like CS-script can do. — Dzmitry Lahoda, Oct 21 '11 at 08:10
While you're mentioning costs, note that Roslyn requires at least the Pro version of Visual Studio. — kristianp, Nov 28 '12 at 09:01

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:22

7

Mono (open source) includes C# compiler (and of course parser)

answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:22

aku

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What is the advantage of using Mono over other parser? Can i get info of the AST of a C# program using a visitor? If so, can u direct me to the page that shows the page for that? – yeeen Sep 17 '09 at 17:20

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 09 '10 at 11:38

6

If you are going to compile C# v3.5 to .net assemblies:

var cp = new Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider(new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "CompilerVersion", "v3.5" } });

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.csharp.csharpcodeprovider.aspx

answered Mar 09 '10 at 11:38

zproxy

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Particularly look at the [`CodeDomProvider.Parse()`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.codedom.compiler.codedomprovider.parse) method. – Don Kirkby Jun 01 '12 at 20:51
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No, don't look at the CodeDomProvider.Parse() method which throws a NotImplemented exception in public builds! (Visual Studio uses a proprietary internal parser). – Robin Davies May 19 '13 at 19:44

Dinis Cruz · Answer 4 · 2010-02-06T21:52:12.917

I've implemented just what you are asking (AST Parsing of C# code) at the OWASP O2 Platform project using SharpDevelop AST APIs.

In order to make it easier to consume I wrote a quick API that exposes a number of key source code elements (using statements, types, methods, properties, fields, comments) and is able to rewrite the original C# code into C# and into VBNET.

You can see this API in action on this O2 XRule script file: ascx_View_SourceCode_AST.cs.o2 .

For example this is how you process a C# source code text and populate a number of TreeViews & TextBoxes:

    public void updateView(string sourceCode)
    {   
        var ast = new Ast_CSharp(sourceCode);
        ast_TreeView.show_Ast(ast);
        types_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.Types, "Text");
        usingDeclarations_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.UsingDeclarations,"Text");
        methods_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.Methods,"Text");
        fields_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.Fields,"Text");
        properties_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.Properties,"Text");
        comments_TreeView.show_List(ast.astDetails.Comments,"Text");

        rewritenCSharpCode_SourceCodeEditor.setDocumentContents(ast.astDetails.CSharpCode, ".cs");
        rewritenVBNet_SourceCodeEditor.setDocumentContents(ast.astDetails.VBNetCode, ".vb");                                
    }

The example on ascx_View_SourceCode_AST.cs.o2 also shows how you can then use the information gathered from the AST to select on the source code a type, method, comment, etc..

For reference here is the API code that wrote (note that this is my first pass at using SharpDevelop's C# AST parser, and I am still getting my head around how it works):

Yep this seems to be the easiest of the solutions at least based on what I have seen. I was looking for a decent parser and stumbled upon this blog http://svengrand.blogspot.com/2010/10/example-for-parsing-c-code-with.html which also details how to use SharpDevelop's C# parser. — Alex, Sep 10 '13 at 12:43

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 13 '10 at 01:33

5

If you're familiar with ANTLR, you can use Antlr C# grammar.

answered Oct 13 '10 at 01:33

prosseek

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 15 '14 at 02:38

4

You should definitely check out Roslyn since MS just opened (or will soon open) the code with an Apache 2 license here. You can also check out a way to parse this info with this code from GitHub.

answered Apr 15 '14 at 02:38

Jason

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Ken Beckett · Answer 7 · 2011-12-11T23:02:47.760

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We have recently released a C# parser that handles all C# 4.0 features plus the new async feature: C# Parser and CodeDOM

This library generates a semantic object model which retains comments and formatting information and can be modified and saved. It also supports the use of LINQ queries to analyze source code.

edited Dec 11 '11 at 23:02

answered Oct 03 '11 at 05:50

Ken Beckett

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 30 '10 at 09:39

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Maybe you could try with Irony on irony.codeplex.com.

It's very fast and a c# grammar already exists.

The grammar itself is written directly in c# in a BNF like way (acheived with some operators overloads)

The best thing with it is that the "grammar" produces the AST directly.

answered Dec 30 '10 at 09:39

SeeSoft

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The comment in Irony.Samples/CSharp/CSharpGrammar.cs says "NOTE: This grammar is just a demo, and it is a broken demo". So it's not a complete implementation at least. – vladich Feb 14 '14 at 19:46

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:22

2

SharpDevelop, an open source IDE, comes with a visitor-based code parser which works really well. It can be used independently of the IDE.

answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:22

Akselsson

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:32

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Consider to use reflection on a built binary instead of parsing the C# code directly. The reflection API is really easy to use and perhaps you can get all the information you need?

answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:32

Hallgrim

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Reflection is a bad way to do static analysis; it provides only the information that the reflection-logic can extract (e.g., "names of methods in class". It does not provide detail information ("what's the right hand side of this assignment?") and so severely limits that kind of static analysis one can do. – Ira Baxter Aug 25 '09 at 18:20
@Ira Baxter There are some limitations, but remember that you can also get the IL code via reflection. This means you can understand what methods are called, what are assigned to which variables, etc. I cannot think of many cases where it isn't enough. Just look at what all the Reflector plugins can do. – Hallgrim Aug 26 '09 at 11:34
how do you get the actual IL code via Reflection? As far as I'm aware Reflection doesn't provide this and you need to use CCI See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2824086/is-it-possible-to-inspect-an-assemblys-il-instructions-programmatically-using-ma – Ash Jun 17 '10 at 05:26

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Oct 29 '08 at 20:55

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Have a look at Gold Parser. It has a very intuitive IU that lets you interactively test your grammar and generate C# code. There are plenty of examples available with it and it is completely free.

edited Oct 29 '08 at 20:55

John Millikin

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answered Oct 23 '08 at 19:20

sbeskur

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The OP asked for something that can parser C#, not something in C# that parse something else. – Ira Baxter Aug 09 '09 at 07:50

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:19

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http://www.codeplex.com/csparser

answered Sep 17 '08 at 09:19

Galwegian

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Seems to only support C# 1 and 2. – Robert Bratton Jan 24 '17 at 15:11

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 17 '12 at 13:19

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Something that is gaining momentum and very appropriate for the job is Nemerle

you can see how it could solve it in these videos from NDC :

answered Jul 17 '12 at 13:19

Stéphane

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Nemerle is a programming language. A nice programming language, I agree, but the question was how to parse C# code inside C#! – Qwertie Mar 28 '14 at 22:44
you create rules in nemerle, and use it from C#, nothing said the parser has to be in C#, but whatever, downvote away. – Stéphane Mar 31 '14 at 09:12

Ira Baxter · Answer 14 · 2013-10-02T21:50:59.207

Not in C#, but a full C# 2/3/4 parser that builds full ASTs is available with our DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit.

DMS provides a vast infrastructure for parsing, tree building, construction of symbol tables and flow analyses, source-to-source transformation, and regeneration of source code from the (modified) ASTs. (It also handles many other languages than just C#.)

EDIT (September) 2013: This answer hasn't been updated recently. DMS has long handled C# 5.0

score -2 · Answer 15 · answered Oct 09 '08 at 06:26

-2

GPPG might be of use, if you are willing to write your own parser (which is fun).

answered Oct 09 '08 at 06:26

leppie

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Link in answer is dead - *"This site can’t be reached | DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN"*. – Pang Feb 17 '21 at 07:00

Which parsers are available for parsing C# code?

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