How to translate a search query into a JavaScript filtering function

In a project I had to translate a search query into a filtering function to apply to a stream of JavaScript objects. The query language was very simple, boolean expressions of property constraints, for example “name:john AND age:52” where the search should return all the objects with property “name” equals to “john” and property “age” equals to 52.

The first step was to parse the search query with a parser. You can write a parser by hand or your can use a parser generator like PEG.js. I prefered the second one.

With the online editor I’ve wrote the language grammar:

start = andExpression

andExpression = orExpression (and andExpression)?

orExpression = expression (or andExpression)?

expression = string ':' string

string = char*

char = [a-zA-Z0-9]

and = ws 'AND'i ws

or = ws 'OR'i ws

ws = [ \t\n\r]*

The generated parser takes as input the text to parse and returns the parsed elements:

The grammar can be changed to make the parser method return a boolean expression:

{
  function combine(left, right) {

    if (right === null) return left;
   
    return left + " " + right[0] + " " +right[1];
  }
}

start = ex:andExpression 
        {return 'return '+ex+';';}

andExpression = left:orExpression right:(and andExpression)? 
                {return combine(left,right);}

orExpression = left:expression right:(or andExpression)?  
               {return combine(left,right);}

expression = name:string ':' value:string
             {return 'LangParser.hasKeyValue(obj,\''+name+'\', \''+value+'\')';}

string = chars:char* 
         { return chars.join(""); }

char = [a-zA-Z0-9]

and = ws 'AND'i ws 
      {return '&&';}

or = ws 'OR'i ws 
     {return '||';}

ws = [ \t\n\r]*

The parser for a query like “name:john AND age:52” generates the following expression:

return LangParser.hasKeyValue(obj,'name', 'john') 
        && LangParser.hasKeyValue(obj,'age', '52');

In the generated expression I’ve used an utility method that checks if the specified couple of name and value exists as property for the specified object:

/**
 * Checks if the passed Object has the specified couple of key and value as property.
 * @param obj the object to check.
 * @param key the key.
 * @param value the value-
 * @returns {Boolean} <code>true</code> if the couple is found, <code>false</code> otherwise.
 */
LangParser.hasKeyValue = function (obj, key, value) {
    return obj.hasOwnProperty(key) && value === obj[key];
};

The expression can be then passed as parameter in the function constructor:

var expression = parser.parse(query);
var filterFunction = new Function("obj", expression);

Now you can use the new function as filter, for example with stream.js streams:

var filtered = new Stream.filter(filterFunction).toArray();

The grammar can be expanded with more operators and capabilities.