Android XML Layout Parser with Bison & Flex (C)

Principles-of-Programming-Languages-and-Compilers Course

CEID, University of Patras.

XML Layout Parser Using Bison & Flex

📌 Project Overview

This project is a custom XML-like layout parser developed as part of the
Principles of Programming Languages and Compilers course at CEID, University of Patras.

It is implemented in C using GNU Bison (parser generator) and Flex (lexical analyzer).

The parser is designed to validate and process simplified Android-style XML layout files.

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⚙️ Features

• Parsing of Android-like UI layout elements:

  • LinearLayout
  • RelativeLayout
  • TextView
  • ImageView
  • Button
  • RadioGroup / RadioButton
  • ProgressBar

• Attribute validation:

  • layout_width / layout_height constraints
  • padding validation
  • progress range checking

• Structural checks:

  • Unique ID validation
  • RadioGroup consistency checks
  • Required attribute enforcement

• Comment support (<!-- --> style)

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🧠 Technologies Used

• C Programming Language
• GNU Bison (Yacc-style parser)
• Flex (Lexical analyzer)

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📂 Project Purpose

The goal of this project is to simulate a compiler-like system that:

• Tokenizes XML-like input
• Parses layout structure
• Validates semantic rules
• Detects errors in UI definitions

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🚀 How to Build & Run

bison -d parser.y
flex lexer.l
gcc lex.yy.c bison.tab.c -o parser -lfl
./parser input_file.xml