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I am working on a project that needs parsing and text processing functionality.

I searched the web about parsing and I found that my best choice for parsing is python.

What is a good, fast, and complete reference for learning text processing and parsing?

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If Python is your best choice for parsing because you already know Python, cool. Otherwise, Haskell is definitely worth looking at. – Matthew Flynn Mar 12 '12 at 17:23
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I was thinking of asking this. Thanks for saving me the time - I eagerly await the answers. – MathAttack Mar 12 '12 at 17:29

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Read Lex and Yacc 2nd Edition. Then look at using flex and bison, or one of the python parsing libraries. Good choices are:

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The first edition of Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide is out of print, but is available to download (PDF format) from the author without charge. I imagine it is a little dated as it was originally published back in 1990. What I read I found it informative, but must admit that I didn't read all of it (which is no reflection on the book, but rather my needs at the time).

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I've read the second edition and it is too extensive (it aims at a comprehensive analysis of the parsing techniques, and for that purpose it is quite good). I don't know if the first edition had also this characteristic. – AProgrammer Mar 12 '12 at 16:52
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I've always enjoyed using Java for text processing and string parsing/handling. Java offers a very robust set of classes dedicated to this type of work, and others have said it is on par with Python in this arena.

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