Tyre
A typed regular expression library for OCaml that enables type-safe parsing and unparsing with automatic group extraction.
Overview
Typed Regular Expressions
Use Cases
Not Ideal For
- Projects not using OCaml, as Tyre is specifically designed for the OCaml ecosystem and offers no cross-language support.
- Applications requiring high-speed regex matching without type safety overhead, such as real-time log processing where raw performance is critical.
- Teams preferring standard regex syntax over combinator-based DSLs, as Tyre requires learning a new way to define patterns instead of using familiar string-based regex.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Ensures regex groups are correctly typed at compile time, preventing runtime errors, as shown in the example where 'dim' parses integers without manual type checks.
Allows the same expression to parse strings into data and unparse data back, useful for routing and serialization, demonstrated with Tyre.eval generating strings from tuples.
Matched groups are automatically converted to OCaml values, reducing boilerplate code, evident in Tyre.exec returning typed results like (int * int).
Built entirely in OCaml with no external dependencies beyond ocaml-re, ensuring easy integration and consistency within OCaml projects.
Cons
Adds type-checking and combinator layers that may slow regex execution compared to raw libraries like ocaml-re, as benchmarks compare it with Angstrom for HTTP parsing.
Requires learning a domain-specific language of combinators (e.g., '*>' and '<&>') instead of standard regex strings, which can be unfamiliar and increase initial development time.
Niche to OCaml with fewer community resources and tutorials compared to mainstream regex libraries, potentially making debugging and adoption harder for new users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
RePure OCaml regular expressions, with support for Perl and POSIX-style strings
ocaml-pcreOCaml bindings to PCRE (Perl Compatibility Regular Expressions)
Humane-reThe human friendly interface to ocaml-re
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