Amity School of Engineering and Technology

COMPILER CONSTRUCTION
Module II
Syntax Analyzer (Parsing)
Dr A. K. Jayswal
ASET(CSE)
MTech(CSE)-JNU
PhD(CSE)-JNU
BSc(CS), MSc(CS)-BHU
GATE(CS), UGC-NET(CS)
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Module II:

 Role of the parser

 Top-down and bottom-up Parser
 Various top-down and Bottom-up Parser
 Writing Grammars –Context-Free Grammars

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Recommended Reading​
Textbooks: ​
• Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman, “Compilers:
Principles Techniques and Tool”, Second Edition, Pearson Publication, 2007.​
​
• A.A Putambekar, “Compiler Construction”, Technical Publications, 2009. ​
​
Reference Book: ​
• Des Watson, A Practical Approach to Compiler Construction, First
Edition, Springer, 2017​

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OBJECTIVES
After completing this section, you will be able to
1.1 Understand the Role of the parse

1.2 Analyze & implement –Context-Free Grammars.

1.3 Differentiate between Top-Down parsing and Bottom-up Parsing

1.4 Analyze and Implement various Top-Down parsing and Bottom-up Parsing

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Module Assessment​
• Quiz (Conceptual and Numerical Based)-2 Marks
​
• Assignment (module-2)-2 marks

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STEPS OF LANGUAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM

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PHASES
OF
COMPILE
R

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PHASES
OF
COMPILE
R

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Parse tree for w,

if w belongs to G
Input string w Parser
Error message

 Parser for any grammar is program that takes as input string w (obtain set
PARSER of strings of tokens from the lexical analyzer) and produces as output
either a parse tree for w , if w is a valid sentences of grammar or error
message indicating that w is not a valid sentences of given grammar.
 The goal of the parser is to determine the syntactic validity of a source
string is valid, a tree is built for use by the subsequent phases of the
computer. The tree reflects the sequence of derivations or reduction used
during the parser. Hence, it is called parse tree. If string is invalid, the
parse has to issue diagnostic message identifying the nature and cause of
the errors in string. Every elementary subtree in the parse tree
corresponds to a production of the grammar.

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Role of the Parser

The parser obtains a string of tokens from the lexical analyzer and verifies that the
string can be generated by the grammar for the source language.
The parser returns any syntax error for the source language

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Role of
the Parser
(syntax
Analyzer)

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There are two ways to identifying (test) whether the string w

(stream of tokens) is a sentence of a given grammar or not.

1. By deriving a string w from the start symbol (non-terminal) S.

or
2. By reducing a string of symbol w to a start non-terminal, S.

The 1st approach is called a Top-down parsing: which build

parse trees from top(root) to bottom(leaves) and
The 2nd approach is called Bottom-up parsing: which build parse
trees from leaves and work up the root.
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Types of Parser

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Types of
Parser

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Variety of Top-Down Bottom-up

Grammar Parser Parser
Comparison Ambiguous (Except OOP)
of Parsing
Unambiguous
Methods
with Variety LR (Left Recursive)

of Grammar RR (Right Recursive)

ND (Non-deterministic)
Deterministic

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Hierarch
y of
Parsing
methods

• LL(1) is less power than any LR parser.

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Difficulties Associated with TDP:

1. Ambiguity
2. Backtracking
3. Left Recursion
4. Left Factoring
5. Sometimes TDP may reject some valid sentences

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Difficulties with TDP:

1. Ambiguity
2. Backtracking
3. Left Recursion
4. Left Factoring
5. Sometimes TDP may reject some valid sentences

2. G1 : S → aSbS | bSaS | λ
G2: s → aAB A → bBb B → A | λ
G3: s → SS | aSb | bSa | λ

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 Ambiguous Grammar

Definition. A grammar G is ambiguous if there is a word w  L(G) having are

least two different parse trees

SA
SB
S  AB
A  aA
B  bB
Ae
Be

Notice that a has at least two left-most derivations

Ambiguity
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Rules for Disambiguating a grammar

Generally, productions are ambiguous when they have more than one occurance of
a given non-terminal on their right-hand side.

Rules:
1. Check the precedence of the operators involved.
2. Different precedence operators are treated differently for removing ambiguity.
3. First remove the ambiguity for the minimum precedence operator and so on…

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Rules for Disambiguating a grammar

Example: If a production rule is
S->ASBSy|a1|a2|……|an
Then ambiguity can be removed by rewriting the production rule as
S -> ASBSy|S’
S’-> a1|a2|…|an

If the operator is left associative then change the right most symbol
Eg.- E->E*E|id
E->E*E’|E’
E’-> id
If the operator is right associative then change the Left most symbol
Eg.- E->E⬆E|id
E->E’⬆E|E’
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Difficulties Associated with TDP:

1. Ambiguity 2. Backtracking 3. Left Recursion 4. Left Factoring
5. Sometimes TDP may reject some valid sentences

2. Backtracking:
 Backtracking is a technique in which for expansion of non-terminal symbol, we choose
alternative and if some mismatch occurs then we try another alternative if any.
 If for a non-terminal, there are multiple production rules beginning with the same input symbol
then to get the correct derivation, we need to try all these alternatives.
 Secondly, in backtracking, we need to move some levels upward in order to check the
possibilities. This increases lot of overhead in implementation of parsing.
 Hence, it becomes necessary to eliminate the backtracking by modifying the grammar.
Example: ScAd
Aab/a
Consider w=cad

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Difficulties Associated with TDP:

1. Ambiguity 2. Backtracking 3. Left Recursion 4. Left Factoring
5. Sometimes TDP may reject some valid sentences

3. Left Recursion:
A Grammar G is said to be left recursive, if it has a derivation of the form
It can cause a top-down parser to go into an infinite loop. To use TDP, we have to eliminate left recursion.

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Elimination of Left Recursion

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Elimination of Left Recursion

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Immediate Left Recursion-Example

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Left Recursion (two or more level deep left recursion….

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Left Recursion (two or more level deep left recursion)

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General Algorithm-Removing Left Recursion

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Left Recursion-Example1

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Elimination of Left Recursion-Example2

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Left
Factoring

A TDP without backtracking (Predictive parser) insists that Grammar must be left factored.

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Left
Factoring

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Left Factoring
Example:
S->cAd
A->ab/a
After LF, it can be re-write
as:
S->cAd
A->aA’
A’->b/Null

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Left Factoring- Algorithm

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Left Factoring- Example1

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Left Factoring- Example2

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Check Your Progress-1

Remove left factoring:
1:

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Top-Down Parser
 Top-down parser build parse tree from the top (root) to the bottom (leaves).
 A left-most derivation is applied at each derivation step
 Top-down parser may require (need) Backtracking, that is it may require repeated scan
over the input. However, backtracking is rarely needed to parse programming language
constructs. Backtracking is an extra overhead so generally backtracking parser are not
used frequently.
 Example of TDP :
- Recursive descent parsing,
- Predictive parsing and
- LL(1) parsing.

Note : TDP does not allow ambiguous grammar, No left recursive grammar, no non-deterministic
grammar (can be removed using left factoring)

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Top-Down Parser

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Recursive Descent Parsing

 A Parser that uses a set of recursive procedure for each Nonterminal of the grammar to
recognize its input is called RDP.
 This parsing technique recursively parses the input to make a parse tree, which may or
may not requires backtracking.
 RDP consists of several small functions, one for each nonterminal in the grammar.
 A form of RDP that does not require any backtracking is called a Predictive Parsing.

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Recursive-descent parsing (Example1)

Q.1: Write a RDP for the following grammar:
[No TDP allow ambiguous, Left-recursion, ND grammar].
So, after removing left recursion Grammar is written as:

parse the input string

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Recursive-descent parsing (Example2)

Q.1: Write a RDP for the following T
grammar:
}

E();

input++;

Main()
{
E();
If (input==‘$’)
Write production for each nonterminals. Printf(“ parsing successful);
}

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Top-Down Parsing
Top-Down parsing does not support ambiguous , left recursive and left factoring.

If the grammar is having all the three then

1. Remove ambiguity, if possible, by rewriting the grammar
2. Remove left- recursion, otherwise it may lead to an infinite loop.
3. Do left- factoring.

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Top-Down Parsing
Top Down Parsing involves construction of parse tree from root to leaves using left most
derivation.

Top Down Parsing can be done in two ways:

a) With Backtracking
b) Without Backtracking

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Top-Down Parsing with Backtracking

If a left most non-terminal has more than one production i.e.
A->a1|a2|…|an
Then there is a problem to decide which A-production should be used for derivation.

Example: S->cAd, a->ab|a

For string, cad

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Top-Down Parsing without Backtracking

It is of two types:
1) Recursive Descent Parsing (RDP)
2) Predictive parsing

Recursive Descent Parsing: It is top down method of syntax analysis which uses collection of recursive
procedures to process the input.
Predictive Parsing:
It is a special form of RDP, in which the look-ahead symbol unambiguously determines the procedure
selected for each non-terminal.
The look-ahead symbol guides the selection of the production to be used. Writing a grammar after
eliminating left-recursion and left-factoring guaranteed a RDP with no Backtracking.
It is also called as non recursive predictive parsing because it implements the recursive descent parsing by
maintaining a stack of activation records.

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Predictive parsing:

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Steps for constructing Predictive parsing table:

Step1: For a given grammar eliminate the Left-Recursion (if any).

Step2: Eliminate the Left-factoring (if any).
Step3: Construct the FIRST set and FOLLOW Set.
Step4: Construct Predictive Parsing Table using Algorithm (which uses FIRST and FOLLOW set).

Finally, Parse the given string w using Algorithm and parsing table created in step4.

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FIRST and FOLLOW set:
 FIRST and FOLLOW Set:

Note: FIRST and Follow set are useful in creating parse table in Top-Down and Bottom-Up parsing.
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Rule2: For any terminal symbol ‘a’ , First(a) = { a }

All 3 Rules Rule3: For a production rule X → Y1Y2Y3,

for
calculating Calculating First(X):
FIRST set
• If ∈ ∉ First(Y1), then First(X) = First(Y1)
• If ∈ ∈ First(Y1), then First(X) = { First(Y1) – ∈ } ∪ First(Y2Y3)

Calculating First(Y2Y3)

• If ∈ ∉ First(Y2), then First(Y2Y3) = First(Y2)

• If ∈ ∈ First(Y2), then First(Y2Y3) = { First(Y2) – ∈ } ∪ First(Y3)

Similarly, we can make expansion for any production rule X → Y 1Y2Y3…..Yn.

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Example:
SACB/CbB/Ba
Ada/BC
Bg/∈
Ch/∈

Compute FIRST
set.

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FOLLOW(A):
[where A is any nonterminal of G]
Follow(A) is a function which gives a set of all terminals that can appear immediately to the right of
symbol A. That is [to calculate follow we always focus on RHS of “arrow” nonterminal].

Note: symbol is not written (allowed) in follow set of any nonterminal.

In Rule2: , then Follow(B)=FIRST()-
In Rule3: (a) means Follow(B)=Follow(A)
(b) where , then Follow(B)=(First()- ) Follow(A)
 If A can be last symbol (any way) in some sentential form, then will be included in Follow of that nonterminal.
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Example1:
SaSbS/bSaS/∈

Compute FIRST and

Follow set.

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Example2:
SABC
ADEF
B/b
C/c
D /d
E /e
F /f
Compute FIRST and
FOLLOW set.

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Example3:

Compute FIRST and

FOLLOW set.

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Note: if grammar is Left recursive then first remove it then calculate FIRST and FOLLOW SET,
before creating a TDP table (i.e. predictive parsing)

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We have-
•The given grammar is left recursive.
•So, we first remove left recursion from the given grammar.

After eliminating left recursion, we get the following grammar-

Example10:
Compute FIRST and
FOLLOW set.

Now, the first and follow functions are calculated as follows-

•First(E) = First(T) = First(F) = { ( , id }

•First(E’) = { + , ∈ }
• Follow(E) = { $ , ) }
•First(T) = First(F) = { ( , id } • Follow(E’) = Follow(E) = { $ , ) }
•First(T’) = { * , ∈ } • Follow(T) = { First(E’) – ∈ } ∪ Follow(E) ∪ Follow(E’) = { + , $ , ) }
•First(F) = { ( , id } • Follow(T’) = Follow(T) = { + , $ , ) }
• Follow(F) = { First(T’) – ∈ } ∪ Follow(T) ∪ Follow(T’) = { * , + , $ , ) }

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Check Your Progress-2

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Check Your Progress-3

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Check Your Progress-4

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Check Your Progress-5

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Steps for constructing Predictive parsing table:

Step1: For a given grammar eliminate the Left-Recursion (if any).

Step2: Eliminate the Left-factoring (if any).
Step3: Construct the FIRST set and FOLLOW Set.
Step4: Construct Predictive Parsing Table using Algorithm (which uses FIRST and FOLLOW set).

Finally, Parse the given string w using Algorithm and parsing table created in step4.

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Predictive
Parser

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Predictive
Parser

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Parsing Table M:
It is a 2D table
where A is a
Nonterminal and a
is a terminal
Predictive symbol or .

Parser

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Construction of Predictive Parsing Table

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Predictive Parser Program

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Predictive Parser

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Predictive Parser

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Example:
Table-driven
Predictive
Parser

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Construction of Predictive Parsing Table

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Note: Since there is no multiple entries in Table M, so the grammar is LL(1).

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Predictive Parser (Parsing Algorithm using Table)

Predictive Parsers is controlled by a program which behaves as follows.
This program determines (X: top element of stack) and (a - current input symbol) and
perform the following actions:-
 If X=a=$, then parser halts and return successful completion of parsing.
 If X=a≠$, then parser pops X from the stack and advance the input
pointer to next input symbol.
 If X is a Nonterminal, then it checks in the parsing table entry for .
If , then parser replace X by with at the top of the stack.
else if
then it’s an Error.

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Predictive Parser (Parsing Algorithm using Table)

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Moves made
by Predictive
Parser for
Input:

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Example2:
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Check your progress-2

Q.1 Design a TDP for the following Grammar:

Using a parse table, check whether the string belongs to grammar or not.

Q.2 Construct a predictive Parsing table for the following grammar. Also, check whether the grammar
is LL(1) or not?

Parse the string

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LL(1) Grammar
Ambiguous Grammar or Left Recursive Grammar cannot be LL(1) grammar.

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Note point

1. If a Grammar is Ambiguous, then it can not be LL(1).

For example:

2. If a Grammar contains left recursion, then it can not be LL(1).

For example:

3. If a Grammar contains any factoring, then it can not be LL(1).

For example:

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Check Your Progress-1

Check Whether the following grammar is LL(1) or not?
Q1.

Q2.

Q.3

Q.5
Q.4. SiCtSS’/a
S’eS/
Cb
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Types of Parsing

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Shift Reduce Parser

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Bottom-Up Parsing

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Practice Questions
Ques1: Consider the grammar
S->TL;
T->int|float
L->L,id|id

Parse the input string int id, id; using shift reduce parser.

Ques2: Consider the grammar

S->TL;
T->int|float
L->L,id|id
Check if the sentence “ float id,id,id;”is syntactically correct using predictive parsing

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Practice Questions
Ques3: Consider the grammar
E->E+T
T-> id|id[]|id[X]
X-> E, E|E
Find FIRST and FOLLOW of all the non-terminals.
Ques4: Consider the grammar
S->(A)|0
A->SB
B->,SB| e
Is the above grammar LL(1)? Justify your answer.
Ques5: Consider the grammar
E->+EE| *EE |num
Construct LL(1) parsing table for it.
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Practice Questions
Ques 7: Construct the predictive parser for the following grammar
S->a|^|(T)
T->T,S| S
Show the behavior of the parser in the sentences:
i) (a,(a,a))
ii) (((a,a),^,(a),a)
Ques 8: Construct the predictive parser for the following grammar
S->(L)|a
L-> L,S| S
Parse the sentence (a,a) using predictive parsing for the above grammar.

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Check Your Progress-1

Check whether the following grammar can be

converted into
an Operator Grammar or not?

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Note: By using LEADING and TRAILING set, we can also construct a Precedence relation Table.
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Leading and Trailing Set:

Note: By using LEADING and TRAILING set, we can also construct a Precedence relation Table.

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Algorithm for constructing Operator Precedence Relation table (OPRT) using Leading and
Trailing Set

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Creating OPPT using

Leading and trailing Set

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In other words

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Consider a string w=

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Algorithm for Precedence Function

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Advantages/disadvantages of Operator function table

1. Table size is reduced from to O(n) since there are only 2n entries in operator
function table.
2. But the Error capability is less than the precedence table.

*************************************************************************

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