Spirit has a built-in construct for lists:
~*char( ':' ) % ':'
If you use attribute parsing you can simply perform the following:
std::vector< std::string > list_of_strings;
parse( begin, end, ~*char( ':' ) % ':', list_of_strings );
Nice huh?
Nice, but IUUC, it won't take into account the type of the elements, right? I tried to do the following (but it doesn't match the input string): // #include <boost/config/warning_disable.hpp> #include <boost/spirit/include/qi.hpp> #include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix_core.hpp> #include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix_operator.hpp> #include <boost/spirit/include/phoenix_object.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/adapt_struct.hpp> #include <string> namespace qi = boost::spirit::qi; namespace ascii = boost::spirit::ascii; namespace details { struct sensor { int id; std::string type; int cam; int group; std::string name; int state; std::string regs; }; } BOOST_FUSION_ADAPT_STRUCT ( details::sensor, (int, id) (std::string, type) (int, cam) (int, group) (std::string, name) (int, state) (std::string, regs) ) namespace details { template <typename Iterator> struct sensor_parser : qi::grammar<Iterator, details::sensor(), ascii::space_type> { sensor_parser() : sensor_parser::base_type(start) { using qi::int_; using qi::lit; using qi::double_; using qi::lexeme; using qi::eol; using ascii::char_; text %= lexeme[+(char_ - ':')]; start %= int_ >> ':' >> text >> ':' >> int_ >> ':' >> int_ >> ':' >> text >> -(':' >> int_) >> -(':' >> text) >> eol ; } qi::rule<Iterator, std::string(), ascii::space_type> text; qi::rule<Iterator, sensor(), ascii::space_type> start; }; } int main() { using boost::spirit::ascii::space; typedef std::string::const_iterator iterator_type; typedef details::sensor_parser<iterator_type> sensor_parser; sensor_parser g; std::string str = "3:abcd:3:3:My name:1:33333333333\r\n"; details::sensor emp; std::string::const_iterator iter = str.begin(); std::string::const_iterator end = str.end(); bool r = phrase_parse(iter, end, g, space, emp); if (r && iter == end) return 1; }