Reason for undefined location properties

[medihack]

I wonder a bit in what scenario the startColumn, endOffset, endLine and endColumn of CstNodeLocation can be undefined. And the second thing I noticed is that in an IToken additionally startLine can be undefined (but not in CstNodeLocation). Is there a reason for that?

[bd82]

I wonder a bit in what scenario the startColumn, endOffset, endLine and endColumn of CstNodeLocation can be undefined

The whole token location information is not always available, so the whole CstNodeLocation information
may not always be available. I am not sure how to model this better in the type definitions.

• https://chevrotain.io/documentation/9_1_0/interfaces/ILexerConfig.html#positionTracking

second thing I noticed is that in an IToken additionally startLine can be undefined (but not in CstNodeLocation). Is there a reason for that?

This seems like a mistake in the type signatures

[medihack]

Ok, makes sense for CstNodeLocation then. But for IToken why should any location property be optional?

[bd82]

In general terms a parser parses a stream of tokens, but tokens do not have to originate from a text input
so they do not have to have location information (particularly line/column).

[medihack]

I get it, thanks for your explanations. I did open an issue regarding that type signature difference of CstNodeLocation and IToken: #1718

[bd82]

Thanks @medihack for documenting the issue.
I will look into this in more depth (hopefully soon).