Evaluating a string of simple mathematical expressions [closed]

Answer 1

C#

Number of characters: 403

So here's my solution... I'm still waiting for someone to post one in C# that can beat it. (Marc Gravell was close, and may yet do better than me after some more tinkering.)

Fully obfuscated function:

float e(string x){float v=0;if(float.TryParse(x,out v))return v;x+=';';int t=0;
char o,s='?',p='+';float n=0;int l=0;for(int i=0;i

Semi-obfuscated function:

public static float Eval(string expr)
{
    float val = 0;
    if (float.TryParse(expr, out val))
        return val;
    expr += ';';
    int tokenStart = 0;
    char oldState, state = '?', op = '+';
    float num = 0;
    int level = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < expr.Length; i++)
    {
        oldState = state;
        if (expr[i] != ' ')
        {
            state = expr[i];
            if (char.IsDigit(expr[i]) || state == '.' ||
                (state == '-' && oldState != '1'))
                state = '1';
            if (state == ')')
                level--;
            if (state != oldState && level == 0)
            {
                if (oldState == '1' || oldState == ')')
                {
                    num = Eval(expr.Substring(tokenStart, i - tokenStart));
                    if (op == '+') val += num;
                    if (op == '-') val -= num;
                    if (op == '*') val *= num;
                    if (op == '/') val /= num;
                    op = expr[i];
                }
                tokenStart = i;
                if (state == '(')
                    tokenStart++;
            }
            if (state == '(')
                level++;
        }
    }
    return val;
}

Nothing too clever going on here, it woul seem. The function does however have the advantage of being re-entrant (i.e. thread-safe).

I am also reasonably pleased with the number of chars, given that it's written in C# (valid 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 I believe).