Find function names from C

[Josiah Carlson]

Berlin Brown wrote:

> I am parsing a C file and want to find the function names, is this 
> python worthy or is Emacs-Lisp better for this.  I have searched for 
> some libraries but coming up null.  I just need the function names, no 
> args or anything else.  I would probably have to run a regular 
> expression pattern looking for int,void,static, etc and then the 
> enclosing { }.
> 

That sounds like something a recursive descent (sp?) parser could do 
very well (or really any other programming language parser).  In 
general, a regular expression would not be sufficient, due to nested 
blocks of {} like the following:

int main () {
   if (1) {
     return 4;
   } else {
     return 3;
   }
   return 2;
}

FYI: regular expressions are those languages that can be recognized by 
finite state automata.  Because most modern programming languages are 
context-free grammars, they are not recognized by regular expressions 
and thusly finite state automata.

I would be willing to bet that someone has already implemented a parser 
for C/C++ in Python.  If not, talk to someone taking a compilers class, 
they'll be able to help you.

  - Josiah