Parsing in Prolog without cut?

Question

I found this nice snippet for parsing lisp in Prolog (from here):

ws --> [W], { code_type(W, space) }, ws.
ws --> [].

parse(String, Expr) :- phrase(expressions(Expr), String).

expressions([E|Es]) -->
    ws, expression(E), ws,
    !, % single solution: longest input match
    expressions(Es).
expressions([]) --> [].

% A number N is represented as n(N), a symbol S as s(S).

expression(s(A))         --> symbol(Cs), { atom_codes(A, Cs) }.
expression(n(N))         --> number(Cs), { number_codes(N, Cs) }.
expression(List)         --> "(", expressions(List), ")".
expression([s(quote),Q]) --> "'", expression(Q).

number([D|Ds]) --> digit(D), number(Ds).
number([D])    --> digit(D).

digit(D) --> [D], { code_type(D, digit) }.

symbol([A|As]) -->
    [A],
    { memberchk(A, "+/-*><=") ; code_type(A, alpha) },
    symbolr(As).

symbolr([A|As]) -->
    [A],
    { memberchk(A, "+/-*><=") ; code_type(A, alnum) },
    symbolr(As).
symbolr([]) --> [].

However expressions uses a cut. I'm assuming this is for efficiency. Is it possible to write this code so that it works efficiently without cut?

Would also be in interested answers that involve Mercury's soft-cut / committed choice.

Parsing in Prolog without cut?

3 Answers