What is parsing?

Question

I'm learning about argparse and can't find a good explanation of what parsing means/does/why is it necessary. Stackoverflow can't reach a good definition either:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2933192/what-is-parsing-in-terms-that-a-new-programmer-would-understand

Why do I need to "parse" the arguments?
Please see this code:

https://code.sololearn.com/cOHTRv83X8aM/?ref=app

Answer 1

👍🤣
I'm thinking maybe I don't really need to understand this to use the argparse module, but I would like to anyway, otherwise it becomes a "black box" in my code... 🤷‍♀️

Answer 2

Thank you Sahand Jalali for your answer.
I'm not mixing the 2 words, I'm asking what's the computer doing when it runs parse_argument

Maybe I should edit my question to: What does parse mean/do in the context of argparse module?

When you pass 355 to scripy.py, why do you say "parse" and not "assign (a value to a parameter)"?

Answer 3

Hope this helps:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing

Answer 4

I think you're using argsparse and parsing intercheangeably which are truly different , parsing (in your stackoverflow link ) means you have string and you want to do something with it (parsing). for example :

"Hey I'm Panda" to :
[Hey, i'm , panda] (thats parsing)

But argsparse is an argument you pass to the program as variable. for example in terminal you pass:

Python3 scripy.py 355

355 created using argsparse and passed to the program as a variable(it can be input of a funtion).also it can be use to set flag(e.g. -help, and etc)for a program you're writing .

I hope it would help

Answer 5

Thank you Sonic for your answer, it did help 👍

This part specially:

"A parser is a software component that takes input data (frequently text) and builds a data structure – often some kind of parse tree, abstract syntax tree or other hierarchical structure, giving a structural representation of the input while checking for correct syntax."

When parse_args is called on the parser object, it does much more than an assignment, it builds a structure with all the arguments that it has been given. 😃💡👍

Answer 6

Alina Sansevich good to hear 👍

Answer 7

Hmm, I see.my bad :). I don't know then maybe it refers to how your command treated inside the cli, maybe it parses the argsparse :))

Answer 8

It's a recogniton some patterns in a text. For example, when you read a book, you see words and sentences - your brain parse a text automatically because you learned your native language for many years. But if you try to read a text in a foreign language, you'll see only a sequence of characters, because your brain can't parse this language yet.

Answer 9

Ccugd

Answer 10

Hello friends

Answer 11

سلام