Question: is there a way to obtain the # of tokens in the matched expression without building a parse tree?

[eilonreshef]

E.g., using parboiled to parse a continuous stream and look for certain patterns (e.g., calculator)

e.g.,
A B C D 2 + 3 F G H I
we're parsing every prefix (ABC..., BCD..., CD2...)
and would like to be able to tell that the matched expression 2 + 3 has 3 tokens (without building the tree)

parseTree.end - parseTree.start gives us the result but requires building of the tree

Thanks