Lecture# 05

Compiler Construction
A Simple Syntax-Directed Translator,
(Part-I)

by Safdar Hussain

Topics
• Syntax Definition (Structure of Compiler, Tokens vs Terminals, Tree Terminology, Grammars,
Parse Trees, Derivation, Ambiguity, Associativity & Precedence, left-associative grammars,
right-associative grammars, Syntax Statements, Multiple CFG Tasks
 Overview
• This chapter contains introductory material
• Building a simple compiler
– Syntax Definition
– Syntax-Directed Translation
– Parsing
– A Translator for Simple Expressions
– The Lexical Analyzer

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 2

 Overview
Programming Language can be defined by describing
1. The syntax of the language
a. What its program looks like
b. We use CFG or BNF (Backus Naur Form)

2. The semantics of the language

a. What its program mean
b. Difficult to describe
c. Use informal descriptions and suggestive examples

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 3

 The Entire Compilation Process
• Grammars for Syntax Definition
• Syntax-Directed Translation
• Parsing - Top Down & Predictive
• Pulling Together the Pieces
• The Lexical Analysis Process
• Symbol Table Considerations
• A Brief Look at Code Generation
• Concluding Remarks/Looking Ahead

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 4

The Structure of our Compiler

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 5

A model of a Compiler’s Front End

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 6

 Grammars for Syntax Definition
• A Context-free Grammar (CFG) Is Utilized to Describe
the Syntactic Structure of a Language
• A CFG Is Characterized By:
Non-Terminals
1. A Set of Tokens or Terminal Symbols
list  list + digit
2. A Set of Non-terminals
list  list - digit
3. A Set of Production Rules list  digit
Each Rule Has the Form digit  0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
NT  {T, NT}*

4. A Non-terminal Designated As the Start Symbol Terminals

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 7

 Tokens Versus Terminals
• The lexical analyzer reads the characters of the
source program, groups them into lexically
meaningful units called lexemes, and produces as
output tokens representing these lexemes.
• The token names are abstract symbols that are used
by the parser for syntax analysis. Often, we shall call
these token names terminals, since they appear as
terminal symbols in the grammar for a programming
language.
• In syntax analysis, often the tokens and terminals are
used interchangeably (synonymously).

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 8

 Parse Trees
• The root of the tree is labeled by the start symbol
• Each leaf of the tree is labeled by a terminal (=token)
or 
• Each interior node is labeled by a non-terminal
• If A  X1 X2 … Xn is a production, then node A has
children X1, X2, …, Xn where Xi is a (non)terminal or 
( denotes the empty string)

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 9

 Tree Terminology

Thanks to Dragon Book

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 10

Grammars for Syntax Definition
Example CFG
list  list + digit
list  list - digit
list  digit
digit  0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(the “|” means OR)
(So we could have written
list  list + digit | list - digit |digit )

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 11

 Example CFG (Function call)

call  id ( optparams )
optparams  params | 
params  params, param |param

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 12

 Key Terms
 A string of tokens is a sequence of zero or more tokens.
 The string containing with zero tokens, written as , is
called empty string.
 A grammar derives strings by beginning with the start
symbol and repeatedly replacing the non terminal by
the right side of a production for that non terminal.
 The token strings that can be derived from the start
symbol form the language defined by the grammar.

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 13

Grammars are Used to Derive Strings:
Using the CFG defined on the earlier slide, we can
derive the string: 9 - 5 + 2 as follows:
list  list + digit P1 : list  list + digit
 list - digit + digit P2 : list  list - digit
 digit - digit + digit P3 : list  digit
 9 - digit + digit P4 : digit  9
 9 - 5 + digit P4 : digit  5
 9-5+2 P4 : digit  2

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 14

 Grammars are Used to Derive Strings:
This derivation could also be represented via a Parse Tree
(parents on left, children on right)
list  list + digit list
 list - digit + digit
list + digit
 digit - digit + digit
- 2
 9 - digit + digit list digit
 9 - 5 + digit 5
digit
 9-5+2
9

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 15

 Ambiguity
Consider the following Context Free Grammar:
G = <{string}, {+,-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, P, string>
With productions p =
string  string + string | string - string | 0 | 1 | … | 9
This grammar is ambiguous, because more than one parse
tree generates the string 9-5+2

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 16

 Ambiguity Continued
string string

string string string

string string string string string

9 - 5 + 2 9 - 5 + 2

First Parse Tree Second Parse Tree

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 17

 Associativity of Operators
Left-associative operators have left-recursive productions:
left  left + term | term
String a+b+c has the same meaning as (a+b)+c

Right-associative operators have right-recursive

productions:
right  term = right | term
String a=b=c has the same meaning as a=(b=c)

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 18

 Parse trees for left & right-associative
grammars

Parse tree for Left-associative grammar Parse tree for right-associative grammar

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 19

 Precedence of Operators
Operators with higher precedence “bind more tightly”:
expr  expr + term | term
term  term * factor | factor BoDMAS Rule
factor  number | ( expr )

String 2+3*5 has the same meaning as 2+(3*5)

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 20

 Syntax of Statements
stmt  id := expr
| if expr then stmt
| if expr then stmt else stmt
| while expr do stmt
| begin opt_stmts end
opt_stmts  stmt ; opt_stmts
|

Note: Opt stands for optional

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 21

More Complex Grammars
block  begin opt_stmts end
opt_stmts  stmt_list | 
stmt_list  stmt_list ; stmt | stmt

What is this grammar for ?

What does “” represent ?
What kind of production rule is this ?

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 22

 Defining a Parse Tree
• A parse tree pictorially shows how the start symbol of a
grammar derives a string in the language.
• More formally, a parse tree for a CFG has the following
properties:
 Root is labeled with the Start Symbol
 Leaf Node is a Token or 
 Interior Node is a Non-Terminal
 If A  X1X2…Xn, Then A Is an Interior; X1X2…Xn Are Children
of A and May Be Non-Terminals or Tokens

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 23

 Problem & Solution (CFG Tasks)
Consider the context-free grammar
SSS+|SS*|a
a) Show how the string aa+a* can be generated by this grammar.
b) Construct a parse tree for this string
c) What language does this grammar generate? Justify your
answer.

?
Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 24
 Tasks Solution
Consider the context-free grammar
SSS+|SS*|a
a) Show how the string aa+a* can be generated by this grammar.
b) Construct a parse tree for this string
c) What language does this grammar generate? Justify your
answer.
Answers
(a)- string generation (b)- parse tree (c)- Grammar’s language
S  SS*
S SS+S* L = {Postfix expression
S aS+S* consisting of digits, plus and
S aa+S* multiple signs}
S aa+a*
Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 25
 Problem & Solution (CFG Tasks)
What language is generated by the following
grammars? In each case justify your answer.
a) S  0S1 | 01
b) S  +SS | -SS | a
c) S  S(S)S | Ԑ

?
Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 26
 Tasks Solution
What language is generated by the following grammars? In each
case justify your answer.
a) S  0S1 | 01
b) S  +SS | -SS | a
c) S  S(S)S | Ԑ
Q# Languages
a L = {0n 1n | n>=1}

b L = {Prefix expression consisting of plus and minus signs}

c L = {Matched brackets of arbitrary arrangement and nesting, includes Ԑ}

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 27

 Problem & Solution (CFG Tasks)
Consider the following grammars:
a) S  0S1 | 01
b) S  +SS | -SS | a
c) S  S(S)S | Ԑ
Which of the grammars are ambiguous?

?
Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 28
 Tasks Solution
Consider the following grammars: Which of the grammars
are ambiguous?
Q# Grammar Ambiguous? c
a S  0S1 |01 No
b S  +SS | -SS | a No
For String = ()(), it can generate 2
trees

c S  S(S)S | Ԑ Yes

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 29

 Problem & Solution (CFG Tasks)
Construct unambiguous context-free grammars for each of the
following languages. In each case show that your grammar is
correct.
a) Arithmetic expressions in postfix notation.
b) Left-associative lists of identifiers separated by commas.
c) Right-associative lists of identifiers separated by commas.

?
Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 30
 Tasks Solution
Construct unambiguous context-free grammars for each of the
following languages. In each case show that your grammar is
correct.
a) Arithmetic expressions in postfix notation.
b) Left-associative lists of identifiers separated by commas.
c) Right-associative lists of identifiers separated by commas.
Q# Unambiguous CFGs
a E  E E op | num

b list  list , id |id

c list  id , list |id

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 31

 Problem & Solution (CFG Task)
Construct a context-free grammar for roman numerals.

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 32

 Task Hint
Decimal Roman Decimal Roman
1 I 11 XI

2 II 12 XII

3 III 13 XIII

4 IV 14 XIV

5 V 15 XV

6 VI 16 XVI

7 VII 17 XVII

8 VIII 18 XVIII

9 IX 19 XIX

10 X 20 XX

Safdar Hussain, Lecturer CS, Khwaja Fareed University, RYK 33

The End

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