# charwise
This lightweight, dependency-free rust library provides a convenient way to read characters from different resources.
For now, the following resources are supported:
* `std::fs::File`
* `std::io::Stdin`
This library is particularly useful when implementing handwritten [lexers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_analysis), because on one hand, we read characters one at a time in code and on the other hand, we may need the following features:
* Buffering of characters.
* Peeking next characters without consuming them.
All these features are implemented in `charwise`.
## Installation
In order to use `charwise`, simply add
```
charwise = "*"
```
to your `Cargo.toml` file.
## Example
```rust
use std::fs::File;
use charwise::Charwise;
fn main() {
// file contains the following data: test contentโ๐
let file = File::open("test.txt").unwrap();
let mut cwf = Charwise::from_file(file);
assert_eq!('t', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('e', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('s', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('t', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!(' ', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('c', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('o', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
// peek the next character without reading it
assert_eq!('n', cwf.peek().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('n', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('t', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
// peek 4 characters ahead
assert_eq!('โ', cwf.peek_nth(3).unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('e', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('n', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('t', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('โ', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
assert_eq!('๐', cwf.next().unwrap().unwrap());
// end of file
assert!(cwf.next().is_none());
}
```