diff --git a/src/example.toml b/src/example.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f6dc19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/example.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+title = "TOML Example"
+[owner]
+name = "Tom Preston-Werner"
+date = 2010-04-23
+time = 21:30:00
diff --git a/src/lexer.py b/src/lexer.py
index b98974a..b04c224 100644
--- a/src/lexer.py
+++ b/src/lexer.py
@@ -2,27 +2,106 @@ import ply.lex as lex
 
 tokens = [
     "ID",
-    "STR"
+    "STR",
     "DATE",
     "TIME",
     "DATETIME",
     "INT",
-    "FLOAT", # need to implement exponents check https://toml.io/en/
     "HEX",
     "BIN",
     "OCT",
+    "FLOAT",  # need to implement exponents check https://toml.io/en/
     "INF",
     "NAN",
     "COMMENT",
 ]
 
+
+# STR needs to be the first one to catch
+def t_STR(t):
+    r"\"[^\"]+\" "
+    return t
+
+
+# needs to check if datetime is valid
+def t_DATETIME(t):
+    r"\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}[T ]\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}(\.\d{1,6})?(Z|[+-]\d{2}:\d{2})"
+    return t
+
+
+# needs to check if date is valid
+def t_DATE(t):
+    r"\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}"
+    return t
+
+
+# needs to check if time is valid
+def t_TIME(t):
+    r"\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}(\.\d{1,6})?"
+    return t
+
+
+# needs number grouping (example : flt8 = 224_617.445_991_228)
+def t_FLOAT(t):
+    r"[+-]?\d+(\.\d+)?([eE][-+]?\d+)?"
+    return t
+
+
+# needs number grouping (example : int6 = 5_349_221)
+def t_INT(t):
+    r"[-+]?\d+"
+    return t
+
+
+# needs number grouping (example : hex3 = 0xdead_beef)
+def t_HEX(t):
+    r"0x[0-9a-fA-F]+"
+    return t
+
+
+def t_BIN(t):
+    r"0b[01]+"
+    return t
+
+
+def t_OCT(t):
+    r"0o[0-7]+"
+    return t
+
+
+def t_INF(t):
+    r"[-+]?inf"
+    return t
+
+
+def t_NAN(t):
+    r"[+-]?nan"
+
+
+# booleans are always lowercase
+def t_BOOL(t):
+    r"(true|false)"
+    return t
+
+
+# ID needs to be the last so it doesnt catch everything (literally)
+def t_ID(t):
+    r"[\w.]+"
+    return t
+
+
 def t_COMMENT(t):
-    r"#.*"
+    r"\#.*"
     pass
 
+
+def t_error(t):
+    print("Illegal character '%s'" % t.value[0])
+    t.lexer.skip(1)
+
+
 t_ignore = "\n\t "
 
 literals = "[]{},="
 
-
 lexer = lex.lex()
diff --git a/src/tokenizer.py b/src/tokenizer.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa69fbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tokenizer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+from lexer import lexer
+
+f = open("example.toml","r")
+
+lexer.input(f.read())
+
+for tok in lexer:
+    print(tok)