diff --git a/hw/syn/tools/dc/parse-syn-report.py b/hw/syn/tools/dc/parse-syn-report.py
index 97e82ed..2141fff 100755
--- a/hw/syn/tools/dc/parse-syn-report.py
+++ b/hw/syn/tools/dc/parse-syn-report.py
@@ -17,46 +17,42 @@
 CROSSCHECK_REL_TOL = 0.001
 
 
-def _match_strings(full_file, master_key, patterns, results):
-    """
-    This searches for string patterns in the full_file buffer.
-    The argument patterns needs to be a list of tuples with
-    (<error_severity>, <pattern_to_match_for>).
-    """
-    for severity, pattern in patterns:
-        results[master_key][severity] += re.findall(pattern,
-                                                    full_file,
-                                                    flags=re.MULTILINE)
-    return results
+def _match_fp_number(full_file, patterns):
+    """Extract numbers from patterns in full_file (a string)
 
+    patterns is a list of pairs, (key, pattern). Each pattern should be a
+    regular expression with exactly one capture group. Any match for group will
+    be parsed as a float.
 
-def _match_fp_number(full_file, master_key, patterns, results):
+    Returns a pair (nums, errs) where nums is a dictionary keyed by the keys in
+    patterns. The value at K is a list of floats matching patterns[K] if there
+    was more than one match. If there was exactly one match for the
+    patterns[K], the value at K is that float (rather than a singleton list).
+
+    errs is a list of error messages (caused by failed float conversions or
+    when there is no match for a pattern).
+
     """
-    This extracts numbers from the sting buffer full_file.
-    The argument patterns needs to be a list of tuples with
-    (<key>, <pattern_to_match_for>).
-    """
+    nums = {}
+    errs = []
     for key, pattern in patterns:
-        match = re.findall(pattern, full_file, flags=re.MULTILINE)
-        if len(match) == 1:
-            try:
-                results[master_key][key] = float(match[0])
-            except ValueError as err:
-                results["messages"]["flow_errors"] += ["ValueError: %s" % err]
-        elif len(match) > 0:
-            for item in match:
-                try:
-                    results[master_key][key] += [float(item)]
-                except ValueError as err:
-                    results["messages"]["flow_errors"] += [
-                        "ValueError: %s" % err
-                    ]
-        else:
-            results["messages"]["flow_errors"] += [
-                "Pattern '%s' of key '%s' not found" % (pattern, key)
-            ]
+        floats = []
+        matches = re.findall(pattern, full_file, flags=re.MULTILINE)
+        if not matches:
+            errs.append('Pattern {!r} of key {!r} not found'
+                        .format(pattern, key))
+            continue
 
-    return results
+        for match in matches:
+            try:
+                floats.append(float(match))
+            except ValueError as err:
+                errs.append('ValueError: {}'.format(err))
+
+        if floats:
+            nums[key] = floats[0] if len(floats) == 1 else floats
+
+    return (nums, errs)
 
 
 def _extract_messages(full_file, results, key):
@@ -68,8 +64,10 @@
                          ("%s_errors" % key, r"^.*command not found.*"),
                          ("%s_warnings" % key, r"^Warning: .*"),
                          ("%s_warnings" % key, r"^WARNING: .*")]
-    _match_strings(full_file, "messages", err_warn_patterns, results)
-
+    for severity, pattern in err_warn_patterns:
+        results['messages'][severity] += re.findall(pattern,
+                                                    full_file,
+                                                    flags=re.MULTILINE)
     return results
 
 
@@ -107,7 +105,10 @@
                 ("macro", r"^Macro/Black Box area: \s* (\d+\.\d+)"),
                 ("total", r"^Total cell area: \s* (\d+\.\d+)")]
 
-    results = _match_fp_number(full_file, key, patterns, results)
+    nums, errs = _match_fp_number(full_file, patterns)
+    results[key] = nums
+    results['messages']['flow_errors'] += errs
+
     # aggregate one level of sub-modules
     pattern = r"^([\.0-9A-Za-z_\[\]]+){1}(?:(?:/[\.0-9A-Za-z_\[\]]+)*)"
     for k in range(5):
@@ -293,7 +294,9 @@
                 ("leak", r"^" + results["top"] + r"\s*" + FP_NUMBER + r" \s*" +
                  FP_NUMBER + r"\s*(" + FP_NUMBER + r")")]
 
-    results = _match_fp_number(full_file, key, patterns, results)
+    nums, errs = _match_fp_number(full_file, patterns)
+    results[key] = nums
+    results['messages']['flow_errors'] += errs
 
     return results