@vicapow/bibtex

A simple, no-frills parser for BibTex library written in TypeScript and generated from a peggy grammar.

Overview

This library provides a fast, reliable parser for BibTeX, the bibliography file format commonly used with LaTeX. It supports all standard BibTeX entry types, macros, string concatenation, and proper handling of BibTeX's syntactic features.

Installation

``bash
npm install @vicapow/bibtex
`

Usage

$3

`typescript
import { Parser } from '@vicapow/bibtex';

// Create a new parser instance
const parser = new Parser();

// Parse a BibTeX string
const bibtexString =
@article{smith2020,
author = {John Smith and Jane Doe},
title = {A Sample Article},
journal = {Journal of Important Research},
year = 2020,
volume = 123,
number = 4,
pages = {100--110}
};

const entries = parser.parseString(bibtexString);

// Access the parsed entries
console.log(entries.length); // 1
console.log(entries[0].type); // 'article'
console.log(entries[0].key); // 'smith2020'
console.log(entries[0].fields.title); // 'A Sample Article'
`

$3

`typescript
import { Parser, BtEntry, BtMetatype } from '@vicapow/bibtex';

// Create a new parser instance
const parser = new Parser();

// Create a BibTeX entry
const entry: BtEntry = {
type: 'article',
key: 'smith2020',
metatype: BtMetatype.REGULAR,
fields: {
author: 'John Smith',
title: 'A Sample Article',
journal: 'Journal of Science',
year: '2020'
}
};

// Convert entry to BibTeX string
const bibtexString = parser.stringify(entry);
console.log(bibtexString);
// Output:
// @article{smith2020,
// author = {John Smith},
// title = {A Sample Article},
// journal = {Journal of Science},
// year = {2020}
// }

// You can also convert multiple entries at once
const entries = parser.parseString(
@article{key1, title = {Title 1}}
@book{key2, title = {Title 2}}
);

const bibtexOutput = parser.stringifyEntries(entries);
console.log(bibtexOutput);
`

$3

`typescript
import { Parser, EXPAND_MACROS } from '@vicapow/bibtex';

const parser = new Parser();

const bibtexWithMacros =
@string{jir = "Journal of Important Research"}

@article{smith2020,
author = {John Smith},
title = {A Sample Article},
journal = jir,
year = 2020
};

// Parse with macro expansion
const entries = parser.parseString(bibtexWithMacros, 'input.bib', EXPAND_MACROS);

console.log(entries[1].fields.journal); // 'Journal of Important Research'

// You can also define macros programmatically
parser.defineMacro('publisher', 'Academic Press');

// And check if macros exist
console.log(parser.macroExists('publisher')); // true

// Get all defined macro names
console.log(parser.getMacroNames()); // ['jir', 'publisher']

// Clear all defined macros
parser.clearMacros();
`

$3

The parser supports all standard BibTeX entry types, including:

`bibtex
% Regular entries (article, book, inproceedings, etc.)
% @article, @book, @inproceedings, etc.

% String definitions
% @string{macro = "value"}

% Preamble entries
// @preamble{"LaTeX preamble code"}

% Comments
// @comment{This is a comment}
`

$3

Each parsed entry has the following structure:

`typescript
interface BtEntry {
key: string; // The citation key (e.g., 'smith2020')
type: string; // The entry type (e.g., 'article', 'book')
metatype: string; // Meta-type (e.g., 'REGULAR', 'COMMENT')
fields: Record; // Field name/value pairs
}
`

Features

- Macro handling: Supports macro definition and expansion
- String concatenation: Supports the BibTeX #` operator for concatenation
- Multiple delimiters: Handles values in braces, quotes, or without delimiters
- Case insensitivity: Handles field names and entry types case-insensitively
- Nested braces: Preserves nested braces in field values

Limitations

- No LaTeX parsing: This library only parses BibTeX syntax, not LaTeX code within field values
- No name parsing: Does not split author names into components (first, last, etc.)
- No field validation: Does not validate required or optional fields for different entry types
- Limited error recovery: May fail on severely malformed BibTeX input

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT