Intermediate Code Generation

• Intermediate codes are machine independent codes, but they are close to
machine instructions.
• The given program in a source language is converted to an equivalent
program in an intermediate language by the intermediate code generator.
• Intermediate language can be many different languages, and the designer
of the compiler decides this intermediate language.
– syntax trees can be used as an intermediate language.
– postfix notation can be used as an intermediate language.
– three-address code (Quadraples) can be used as an intermediate language
• we will use quadraples to discuss intermediate code generation
• quadraples are close to machine instructions, but they are not actual machine instructions.
– some programming languages have well defined intermediate languages.
• java – java virtual machine
• prolog – warren abstract machine
• In fact, there are byte-code emulators to execute instructions in these intermediate languages.

CS416 Compiler Design 1

 Three-Address Code (Quadraples)
• A quadraple is:
x := y op z
where x, y and z are names, constants or compiler-generated
temporaries; op is any operator.

• But we may also the following notation for quadraples (much better
notation because it looks like a machine code instruction)
op y,z,x
apply operator op to y and z, and store the result in x.

• We use the term “three-address code” because each statement usually

contains three addresses (two for operands, one for the result).
CS416 Compiler Design 2
 Three-Address Statements
Binary Operator: op y,z,result or result := y op z
where op is a binary arithmetic or logical operator. This binary operator is applied to
y and z, and the result of the operation is stored in result.
Ex: add a,b,c
gt a,b,c
addr a,b,c
addi a,b,c

Unary Operator: op y,,result or result := op y

where op is a unary arithmetic or logical operator. This unary operator is applied to y,
and the result of the operation is stored in result.
Ex: uminus a,,c
not a,,c
inttoreal a,,c

CS416 Compiler Design 3

 Three-Address Statements (cont.)
Move Operator: mov y,,result or result := y
where the content of y is copied into result.
Ex: mov a,,c
movi a,,c
movr a,,c

Unconditional Jumps: jmp ,,L or goto L

We will jump to the three-address code with the label L, and the execution continues
from that statement.
Ex: jmp ,,L1 // jump to L1
jmp ,,7 // jump to the statement 7

CS416 Compiler Design 4

 Three-Address Statements (cont.)
Conditional Jumps: jmprelop y,z,L or if y relop z goto L
We will jump to the three-address code with the label L if the result of y relop z is
true, and the execution continues from that statement. If the result is false, the execution
continues from the statement following this conditional jump statement.
Ex: jmpgt y,z,L1 // jump to L1 if y>z
jmpgte y,z,L1 // jump to L1 if y>=z
jmpe y,z,L1 // jump to L1 if y==z
jmpne y,z,L1 // jump to L1 if y!=z

Our relational operator can also be a unary operator.

jmpnz y,,L1 // jump to L1 if y is not zero
jmpz y,,L1 // jump to L1 if y is zero
jmpt y,,L1 // jump to L1 if y is true
jmpf y,,L1 // jump to L1 if y is false

CS416 Compiler Design 5

 Three-Address Statements (cont.)
Procedure Parameters: param x,, or param x
Procedure Calls: call p,n, or call p,n
where x is an actual parameter, we invoke the procedure p with n parameters.
Ex: param x1,,
param x2,,
 p(x1,...,xn)
param xn,,
call p,n,

f(x+1,y)  add x,1,t1

param t1,,
param y,,
call f,2,
CS416 Compiler Design 6
 Three-Address Statements (cont.)
Indexed Assignments:
move y[i],,x or x := y[i]
move x,,y[i] or y[i] := x

Address and Pointer Assignments:

moveaddr y,,x or x := &y
movecont y,,x or x := *y

CS416 Compiler Design 7

 Syntax-Directed Translation into Three-Address
Code
S → id := E S.code = E.code || gen(‘mov’ E.place ‘,,’ id.place)
E → E1 + E2 E.place = newtemp();
E.code = E1.code || E2.code || gen(‘add’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place)
E → E1 * E2 E.place = newtemp();
E.code = E1.code || E2.code || gen(‘mult’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place)
E → - E1 E.place = newtemp();
E.code = E1.code || gen(‘uminus’ E1.place ‘,,’ E.place)
E → ( E1 ) E.place = E1.place;
E.code = E1.code
E → id E.place = id.place;
E.code = null

CS416 Compiler Design 8

 Syntax-Directed Translation (cont.)
S → while E do S1 S.begin = newlabel();
S.after = newlabel();
S.code = gen(S.begin “:”) || E.code ||
gen(‘jmpf’ E.place ‘,,’ S.after) || S1.code ||
gen(‘jmp’ ‘,,’ S.begin) ||
gen(S.after ‘:”)
S → if E then S1 else S2 S.else = newlabel();
S.after = newlabel();
S.code = E.code ||
gen(‘jmpf’ E.place ‘,,’ S.else) || S1.code ||
gen(‘jmp’ ‘,,’ S.after) ||
gen(S.else ‘:”) || S2.code ||
gen(S.after ‘:”)

CS416 Compiler Design 9

Translation Scheme to Produce Three-Address Code
S → id := E { p= lookup(id.name);
if (p is not nil) then emit(‘mov’ E.place ‘,,’ p)
else error(“undefined-variable”) }
E → E1 + E2 { E.place = newtemp();
emit(‘add’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place) }
E → E1 * E2 { E.place = newtemp();
emit(‘mult’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place) }
E → - E1 { E.place = newtemp();
emit(‘uminus’ E1.place ‘,,’ E.place) }
E → ( E1 ) { E.place = E1.place; }
E → id { p= lookup(id.name);
if (p is not nil) then E.place = id.place
else error(“undefined-variable”) }

CS416 Compiler Design 10

 Translation Scheme with Locations
S → id := { E.inloc = S.inloc } E
{ p = lookup(id.name);
if (p is not nil) then { emit(E.outloc ‘mov’ E.place ‘,,’ p); S.outloc=E.outloc+1 }
else { error(“undefined-variable”); S.outloc=E.outloc } }

E → { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1 + { E2.inloc = E1.outloc } E2

{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E2.outloc ‘add’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place); E.outloc=E2.outloc+1 }

E → { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1 + { E2.inloc = E1.outloc } E2

{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E2.outloc ‘mult’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place); E.outloc=E2.outloc+1 }

E → - { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1
{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E1.outloc ‘uminus’ E1.place ‘,,’ E.place); E.outloc=E1.outloc+1 }

E → ( E1 ) { E.place = E1.place; E.outloc=E1.outloc+1 }

E → id { E.outloc = E.inloc; p= lookup(id.name);

if (p is not nil) then E.place = id.place
else error(“undefined-variable”) }

CS416 Compiler Design 11

 Boolean Expressions
E → { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1 and { E2.inloc = E1.outloc } E2
{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E2.outloc ‘and’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place); E.outloc=E2.outloc+1 }

E → { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1 or { E2.inloc = E1.outloc } E2

{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E2.outloc ‘and’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place); E.outloc=E2.outloc+1 }

E → not { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1

{ E.place = newtemp(); emit(E1.outloc ‘not’ E1.place ‘,,’ E.place); E.outloc=E1.outloc+1 }

E → { E1.inloc = E.inloc } E1 relop { E2.inloc = E1.outloc } E2

{ E.place = newtemp();
emit(E2.outloc relop.code E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place); E.outloc=E2.outloc+1 }

CS416 Compiler Design 12

 Translation Scheme(cont.)
S → while { E.inloc = S.inloc } E do
{ emit(E.outloc ‘jmpf’ E.place ‘,,’ ‘NOTKNOWN’);
S1.inloc=E.outloc+1; } S1
{ emit(S1.outloc ‘jmp’ ‘,,’ S.inloc);
S.outloc=S1.outloc+1;
backpatch(E.outloc,S.outloc); }

S → if { E.inloc = S.inloc } E then

{ emit(E.outloc ‘jmpf’ E.place ‘,,’ ‘NOTKNOWN’);
S1.inloc=E.outloc+1; } S1 else
{ emit(S1.outloc ‘jmp’ ‘,,’ ‘NOTKNOWN’);
S2.inloc=S1.outloc+1;
backpatch(E.outloc,S2.inloc); } S2
{ S.outloc=S2.outloc;
backpatch(S1.outloc,S.outloc); }

CS416 Compiler Design 13

 Three Address Codes - Example
x:=1; 01: mov 1,,x
y:=x+10; 02: add x,10,t1
while (x<y) {  03: mov t1,,y
x:=x+1; 04: lt x,y,t2
if (x%2==1) then y:=y+1; 05: jmpf t2,,17
else y:=y-2; 06: add x,1,t3
} 07: mov t3,,x
08: mod x,2,t4
09: eq t4,1,t5
10: jmpf t5,,14
11: add y,1,t6
12: mov t6,,y
13: jmp ,,16
14: sub y,2,t7
15: mov t7,,y
16: jmp ,,4
17:

CS416 Compiler Design 14

 Arrays
• Elements of arrays can be accessed quickly if the elements are stored in a block of
consecutive locations.

A one-dimensional array A:
… …

baseA low i width

baseA is the address of the first location of the array A,

width is the width of each array element.
low is the index of the first array element

location of A[i]  baseA+(i-low)*width

CS416 Compiler Design 15
 Arrays (cont.)
baseA+(i-low)*width
can be re-written as i*width + (baseA-low*width)

should be computed at run-time can be computed at compile-time

• So, the location of A[i] can be computed at the run-time by evaluating

the formula i*width+c where c is (baseA-low*width) which is evaluated
at compile-time.

• Intermediate code generator should produce the code to evaluate this

formula i*width+c (one multiplication and one addition operation).

CS416 Compiler Design 16

 Two-Dimensional Arrays
• A two-dimensional array can be stored in
– either row-major (row-by-row) or
– column-major (column-by-column).
• Most of the programming languages use row-major method.

• Row-major representation of a two-dimensional array:

row1 row2 rown

CS416 Compiler Design 17

 Two-Dimensional Arrays (cont.)
• The location of A[i1,i2] is
baseA+ ((i1-low1)*n2+i2-low2)*width
baseA is the location of the array A.
low1 is the index of the first row
low2 is the index of the first column
n2 is the number of elements in each row
width is the width of each array element
• Again, this formula can be re-written as
((i1*n2)+i2)*width + (baseA-((low1*n1)+low2)*width)

should be computed at run-time can be computed at compile-time

CS416 Compiler Design 18
 Multi-Dimensional Arrays
• In general, the location of A[i1,i2,...,ik] is
(( ... ((i1*n2)+i2) ...)*nk+ik)*width + (baseA-((...((low1*n1)+low2)...)*nk+lowk)*width)

• So, the intermediate code generator should produce the codes to evaluate
the following formula (to find the location of A[i1,i2,...,ik]) :

(( ... ((i1*n2)+i2) ...)*nk+ik)*width + c

• To evaluate the (( ... ((i1*n2)+i2) ...)*nk+ik portion of this formula, we can

use the recurrence equation:
e1 = i1
em = em-1 * nm + im
CS416 Compiler Design 19
 Translation Scheme for Arrays
• If we use the following grammar to calculate addresses of array
elements, we need inherited attributes.
L → id | id [ Elist ]
Elist → Elist , E | E

• Instead of this grammar, we will use the following grammar to calculate

addresses of array elements so that we do not need inherited attributes
(we will use only synthesized attributes).
L → id | Elist ]
Elist → Elist , E | id [ E

CS416 Compiler Design 20

 Translation Scheme for Arrays (cont.)
S → L := E { if (L.offset is null) emit(‘mov’ E.place ‘,,’ L.place)
else emit(‘mov’ E.place ‘,,’ L.place ‘[‘ L.offset ‘]’) }
E → E1 + E2 { E.place = newtemp();
emit(‘add’ E1.place ‘,’ E2.place ‘,’ E.place) }

E → ( E1 ) { E.place = E1.place; }

E →L { if (L.offset is null) E.place = L.place)

else { E.place = newtemp();
emit(‘mov’ L.place ‘[‘ L.offset ‘]’ ‘,,’ E.place) } }

CS416 Compiler Design 21

 Translation Scheme for Arrays (cont.)
L → id { L.place = id.place; L.offset = null; }

L → Elist ]
{ L.place = newtemp(); L.offset = newtemp();
emit(‘mov’ c(Elist.array) ‘,,’ L.place);
emit(‘mult’ Elist.place ‘,’ width(Elist.array) ‘,’ L.offset) }

Elist → Elist1 , E
{ Elist.array = Elist1.array ; Elist.place = newtemp(); Elist.ndim = Elist1.ndim + 1;
emit(‘mult’ Elist1.place ‘,’ limit(Elist.array,Elist.ndim) ‘,’ Elist.place);
emit(‘add’ Elist.place ‘,’ E.place ‘,’ Elist.place); }

Elist → id [ E
{Elist.array = id.place ; Elist.place = E.place; Elist.ndim = 1; }

CS416 Compiler Design 22

 Translation Scheme for Arrays – Example1
• A one-dimensional double array A : 5..100
 n1=95 width=8 (double) low1=5

• Intermediate codes corresponding to x := A[y]

mov c,,t1 // where c=baseA-(5)*8

mult y,8,t2
mov t1[t2],,t3
mov t3,,x

CS416 Compiler Design 23

 Translation Scheme for Arrays – Example2
• A two-dimensional int array A : 1..10x1..20
 n1=10 n2=20 width=4 (integers) low1=1 low2=1

• Intermediate codes corresponding to x := A[y,z]

mult y,20,t1
add t1,z,t1
mov c,,t2 // where c=baseA-(1*20+1)*4
mult t1,4,t3
mov t2[t3],,t4
mov t4,,x
CS416 Compiler Design 24
 Translation Scheme for Arrays – Example3
• A three-dimensional int array A : 0..9x0..19x0..29
 n1=10 n2=20 n3=30 width=4 (integers) low1=0 low2=0 low3=0
• Intermediate codes corresponding to x := A[w,y,z]
mult w,20,t1
add t1,y,t1
mult t1,30,t2
add t2,z,t2
mov c,,t3 // where c=baseA-((0*20+0)*30+0)*4
mult t2,4,t4
mov t3[t4],,t5
mov t5,,x

CS416 Compiler Design 25

 Declarations
P →M D
M →€ { offset=0 }
D →D ; D
D → id : T { enter(id.name,T.type,offset); offset=offset+T.width }
T → int{ T.type=int; T.width=4 }
T → real { T.type=real; T.width=8 }
T → array[num] of T1 { T.type=array(num.val,T1.type);
T.width=num.val*T1.width }
T → ↑ T1 { T.type=pointer(T1.type); T.width=4 }

where enter crates a symbol table entry with given values.

CS416 Compiler Design 26
 Nested Procedure Declarations
• For each procedure we should create a symbol table.
mktable(previous) – create a new symbol table where previous is the parent symbol
table of this new symbol table
enter(symtable,name,type,offset) – create a new entry for a variable in the given
symbol table.
enterproc(symtable,name,newsymbtable) – create a new entry for the procedure in
the symbol table of its parent.
addwidth(symtable,width) – puts the total width of all entries in the symbol table
into the header of that table.

• We will have two stacks:

– tblptr – to hold the pointers to the symbol tables
– offset – to hold the current offsets in the symbol tables in tblptr stack.

CS416 Compiler Design 27

 Nested Procedure Declarations
P → M D { addwidth(top(tblptr),top(offset)); pop(tblptr); pop(offset) }
M →€ { t=mktable(nil); push(t,tblptr); push(0,offset) }
D →D ; D
D → proc id N D ; S
{ t=top(tblptr); addwidth(t,top(offset));
pop(tblptr); pop(offset);
enterproc(top(tblptr),id.name,t) }
D → id : T { enter(top(tblptr),id.name,T.type,top(offset));
top(offset)=top(offset)+T.width }
N→ € { t=mktable(top(tblptr)); push(t,tblptr); push(0,offset) }

CS416 Compiler Design 28