C++ code parsing

[Marek Krzeminski]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question but here goes.

I would like to write a C++ parser that can take .h and .cpp files and give me a listing of functions and variables that are stored in those files. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can do this?

[Jan Cumps]

A wild idea:

search for some open source c++ compiler, and use it's code parsing capabilities, or
search for some open source c++ IDE, and learn how it understands c++ code.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Do you want to do this programmatically using Java? If so, check out the eminent parser generators (JavaCC, Antlr, SableCC) - one of them is bound to have a ready-made grammar for C++ that you can use.

[Marek Krzeminski]

using an existing C++ compiler is an interesting idea, however licensing this code could be tricky.

I plan on doing all of this work in C++ myself.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Well, my reply would apply to parser generators written in C++ as well - just using different libraries, like bison.