Java parser library for NetBeans

Question

I want to make a java application that takes java source codes as input to create and visit their Abstract Syntax Trees, so I can make some statistics out of them.

I found this java parser: https://github.com/javaparser/javaparser

My questions are:

• Is there a way to import that library into NetBeans? Maybe from a jar file?
• Are there other parsers for what I want to do?
• Is using NetBeans and java language the easiest way to do this or should I use a different IDE or different programming languages?

Answer 1

Some years ago I've done a prototype to analyze Java source. I used this library Recoder (manual) that do the dirty work for me (parsing and building a good designed AST).

It's a jar so you can use it with any kind of IDE.

Usually I use Eclispe as Java IDE. It has its own AST model and you can consider to use Eclipse JDT Eclipse JDT.

Answer 2

I am not sure about NetBeans but you can create a project using maven or gradle and specify a dependency to JavaParser and you are done. It is that easy. Alternatively you may want to download the JavaParser jar from Maven central: it should not have any dependency so that would be enough.

Disclaimer: I am a contributor to JavaParser