rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-analyzer

ssr: support regex-style backreferences to previously used expressions

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A-ssr C-feature
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

In some cases, just like in regex, it is needed to reference an expression previously declared:

rust-analyzer ssr \
  'while $i < $end { $block; $i = $i.wrapping_add(1); } ==>> for $i in 0..$end { $block; }'

To match this type of code:

while counter < 100 {
  // ...
  counter = counter.wrapping_add(1);
}

to transform it into

for counter in 0..100 {
  // ...
}

Currently I get an error:

can't parse `rule`, Parse error: Placeholder `$i` repeats more than once

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the rust-analyzer SSR command, reproducing the shown rule and its “Placeholder $i repeats more than once” error. Trace how SSR rules are parsed and how placeholders are matched; done means the example rule accepts the repeated expression and transforms the shown while loop into the for loop.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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