add section about Tree->HCL2 reconstruction to the README.md

README.md

@@ -42,6 +42,14 @@ with open('foo.tf', 'r') as file:
     dict = hcl2.load(file)
 ```
 
+### Parse Tree to HCL2 reconstruction
+
+With version 5.0.0 the possibility of HCL2 reconstruction from Lark Parse Tree was introduced.
+
+Example of manipulating Lark Parse Tree and reconstructing it back into valid HCL2 can be found in [tree-to-hcl2-reconstruction.md](tree-to-hcl2-reconstruction.md) file.
+
+More details about reconstruction implementation can be found in this [PR](https://github.com/amplify-education/python-hcl2/pull/169).
+
 ## Building From Source
 
 For development, `tox>=4.0.9` is recommended.

tree-to-hcl2-reconstruction.md

@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+Given `example.tf` file with following content
+
+```terraform
+resource "aws_s3_bucket" "bucket" {
+  bucket = "bucket_id"
+  force_destroy   = true
+}
+```
+
+below code will add a `tags` object to the S3 bucket definition. The code can also be used to print out readable representation of **any** Parse Tree (any valid HCL2 file), which can be useful when working on your own logic for arbitrary Parse Tree manipulation.
+
+```python
+from copy import deepcopy
+from lark import Token, Tree
+import hcl2
+
+
+def build_tags_tree(base_indent: int = 0) -> Tree:
+    # build Tree representing following HCL2 structure
+    # tags = {
+    #   Name = "My bucket"
+    #   Environment = "Dev"
+    # }
+    return Tree('attribute', [
+        Tree('identifier', [
+            Token('NAME', 'tags')
+        ]),
+        Token('EQ', '='),
+        Tree('expr_term', [
+            Tree('object', [
+                Tree('new_line_or_comment', [
+                    Token('NL_OR_COMMENT', '\n' + '  ' * (base_indent + 1)),
+                ]),
+                Tree('object_elem', [
+                    Tree('identifier', [
+                        Token('NAME', 'Name')
+                    ]),
+                    Token('EQ', '='),
+                    Tree('expr_term', [
+                        Token('STRING_LIT', '"My bucket"')
+                    ])
+                ]),
+                Tree('new_line_and_or_comma', [
+                    Tree('new_line_or_comment', [
+                        Token('NL_OR_COMMENT', '\n' + '  ' * (base_indent + 1)),
+                    ]),
+                ]),
+                Tree('object_elem', [
+                    Tree('identifier', [
+                        Token('NAME', 'Environment')
+                    ]),
+                    Token('EQ', '='),
+                    Tree('expr_term', [
+                        Token('STRING_LIT', '"Dev"')
+                    ])
+                ]),
+                Tree('new_line_and_or_comma', [
+                    Tree('new_line_or_comment', [
+                        Token('NL_OR_COMMENT', '\n' + '  ' * base_indent),
+                    ]),
+                ]),
+            ]),
+        ])
+    ])
+
+
+def is_bucket_block(tree: Tree) -> bool:
+    # check whether given Tree represents `resource "aws_s3_bucket" "bucket"`
+    try:
+        return tree.data == 'block' and tree.children[2].value == '"bucket"'
+    except IndexError:
+        return False
+
+
+def insert_tags(tree: Tree, indent: int = 0) -> Tree:
+    # Insert tags tree and adjust surrounding whitespaces to match indentation
+    new_children = [*tree.children.copy(), build_tags_tree(indent)]
+    # add indentation before tags tree
+    new_children[len(tree.children) - 1] = Tree('new_line_or_comment', [
+        Token('NL_OR_COMMENT', '\n  ')
+    ])
+    # move closing bracket to the new line
+    new_children.append(
+        Tree('new_line_or_comment', [
+            Token('NL_OR_COMMENT', '\n')
+        ])
+    )
+    return Tree(tree.data, new_children)
+
+
+def process_token(node: Token, indent=0):
+    # Print details of this token and return its copy
+    print(f'[{indent}] (token)\t|', ' ' * indent, node.type, node.value)
+    return deepcopy(node)
+
+
+def process_tree(node: Tree, depth=0) -> Tree:
+    # Recursively iterate over tree's children
+    # the depth parameter represents recursion depth,
+    #   it's used to deduce indentation for printing tree and for adjusting whitespace after adding tags
+    new_children = []
+    print(f'[{depth}] (tree)\t|', ' ' * depth, node.data)
+    for child in node.children:
+        if isinstance(child, Tree):
+            if is_bucket_block(child):
+                block_children = child.children.copy()
+                # this child is the Tree representing block's actual body
+                block_children[3] = insert_tags(block_children[3], depth)
+                # replace original Tree with new one including the modified body
+                child = Tree(child.data, block_children)
+
+            new_children.append(process_tree(child, depth + 1))
+
+        else:
+            new_children.append(process_token(child, depth + 1))
+
+    return Tree(node.data, new_children)
+
+
+def main():
+    tree = hcl2.parse(open('example.tf'))
+    new_tree = process_tree(tree)
+    reconstructed = hcl2.writes(new_tree)
+    open('example_reconstructed.tf', 'w').write(reconstructed)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
+
+```