# Parser

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parser/146535>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 22, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parser/146535 "2008-08-22T05:18:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/2acd7d/32.png) [@newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newb)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parser/146535/1 "2008-08-22T05:18:30Z")

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What is Parser???  
What is the usage of it??Pls Explain  
what i meant to say is… what it does actually??

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**Author:** ![newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/2acd7d/32.png) [@newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newb)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parser/146535/2 "2008-08-22T11:10:23Z")

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2008/8/22 Newb N. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> What is Parser???  
> What is the usage of it??Pls Explain  
> what i meant to say is… what it does actually??

Ever heard of Goole or Wikipedia?

> **[Parsing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parser)**
>
> Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term parsing comes from Latin pars (orationis), meaning part (of speech).
> The term has slightly different meanings in different branches of linguistics and computer science. Traditional sentence parsing is often performed as a method of understanding the exact meaning of a sentence or...

robert

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**Author:** ![newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/2acd7d/32.png) [@newb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/newb)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parser/146535/3 "2008-08-22T13:32:20Z")

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Newb N. wrote:

> What is Parser???  
> What is the usage of it??Pls Explain  
> what i meant to say is… what it does actually??

“Parse” means “cut into chunks”.

> **[Parsing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parser)**
>
> Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term parsing comes from Latin pars (orationis), meaning part (of speech).
> The term has slightly different meanings in different branches of linguistics and computer science. Traditional sentence parsing is often performed as a method of understanding the exact meaning of a sentence or...

In computing science it means to cut a string up into tokens, so a  
computer can  
then do something with each one.

There is no one “parser” for Ruby programs. There is the Ruby parser,  
YAML  
parsers, XML parsers, etc.