Is using a FSM a good design for general text parsing?
- by eSKay
I am reading a file that is filled
with hex numbers. I have to identify a
particular pattern, say "aaad" (without quotes) from
it. Every time I see the pattern, I
generate some data to some other file.
This would be a very common case in designing programs - parsing and looking for a particular pattern.
I have designed it as a Finite State Machine and structured structured it in C using switch-case to change states. This was the first implementation that occured to me.
DESIGN: Are there some better designs possible?
IMPLEMENTATION: Do you see some problems with using a switch case as I mentioned?