Introduction to Compiler

o A compiler is a translator that converts the high-level language into the machine
language.
o High-level language is written by a developer and machine language can be understood
by the processor.
o Compiler is used to show errors to the programmer.
o The main purpose of compiler is to change the code written in one language without
changing the meaning of the program.
o When you execute a program which is written in HLL programming language then it
executes into two parts.
o In the first part, the source program compiled and translated into the object program (low
level language).
o In the second part, object program translated into the target program through the
assembler.

Fig: Execution process of source program in Compiler

Compiler Phases
The compilation process contains the sequence of various phases. Each phase takes source
program in one representation and produces output in another representation. Each phase takes
input from its previous stage.

There are the various phases of compiler:

 Fig: phases of compiler

Lexical Analysis:

Lexical analyzer phase is the first phase of compilation process. It takes source code as input. It
reads the source program one character at a time and converts it into meaningful lexemes.
Lexical analyzer represents these lexemes in the form of tokens.
Syntax Analysis

Syntax analysis is the second phase of compilation process. It takes tokens as input and generates
a parse tree as output. In syntax analysis phase, the parser checks that the expression made by the
tokens is syntactically correct or not.

Semantic Analysis

Semantic analysis is the third phase of compilation process. It checks whether the parse tree
follows the rules of language. Semantic analyzer keeps track of identifiers, their types and
expressions. The output of semantic analysis phase is the annotated tree syntax.

Intermediate Code Generation

In the intermediate code generation, compiler generates the source code into the intermediate
code. Intermediate code is generated between the high-level language and the machine language.
The intermediate code should be generated in such a way that you can easily translate it into the
target machine code.

Code Optimization

Code optimization is an optional phase. It is used to improve the intermediate code so that the
output of the program could run faster and take less space. It removes the unnecessary lines of
the code and arranges the sequence of statements in order to speed up the program execution.

Code Generation

Code generation is the final stage of the compilation process. It takes the optimized intermediate
code as input and maps it to the target machine language. Code generator translates the
intermediate code into the machine code of the specified computer.

Example:
 Compiler Passes
Pass is a complete traversal of the source program. Compiler has two passes to traverse the
source program.

Multi-pass Compiler

o Multi pass compiler is used to process the source code of a program several times.
o In the first pass, compiler can read the source program, scan it, extract the tokens and
store the result in an output file.
o In the second pass, compiler can read the output file produced by first pass, build the
syntactic tree and perform the syntactical analysis. The output of this phase is a file that
contains the syntactical tree.
o In the third pass, compiler can read the output file produced by second pass and check
that the tree follows the rules of language or not. The output of semantic analysis phase is
the annotated tree syntax.
o This pass is going on, until the target output is produced.

One-pass Compiler
o One-pass compiler is used to traverse the program only once. The one-pass compiler
passes only once through the parts of each compilation unit. It translates each part into its
final machine code.
o In the one pass compiler, when the line source is processed, it is scanned and the token is
extracted.
o Then the syntax of each line is analyzed and the tree structure is build. After the semantic
part, the code is generated.
o The same process is repeated for each line of code until the entire program is compiled.

Bootstrapping
o Bootstrapping is widely used in the compilation development.
o Bootstrapping is used to produce a self-hosting compiler. Self-hosting compiler is a type
of compiler that can compile its own source code.
o Bootstrap compiler is used to compile the compiler and then you can use this compiled
compiler to compile everything else as well as future versions of itself.

A compiler can be characterized by three languages:

1. Source Language
2. Target Language
3. Implementation Language

The T- diagram shows a compiler SCIT for Source S, Target T, implemented in I.

Follow some steps to produce a new language L for machine A:

1. Create a compiler SCAA for subset, S of the desired language, L using language "A" and that
compiler runs on machine A.

2. Create a compiler LCSA for language L written in a subset of L.

3. Compile LCSA using the compiler SCAA to obtain LCAA. LCAA is a compiler for language L,
which runs on machine A and produces code for machine A.

The process described by the T-diagrams is called bootstrapping.

Finite state machine

o Finite state machine is used to recognize patterns.

o Finite automata machine takes the string of symbol as input and changes its state
accordingly. In the input, when a desired symbol is found then the transition occurs.
 o While transition, the automata can either move to the next state or stay in the same state.

o FA has two states: accept state or reject state. When the input string is successfully
processed and the automata reached its final state then it will accept.

A finite automata consists of following:

Q: finite set of states

∑: finite set of input symbol
q0: initial state
F: final state
δ: Transition function

Transition function can be define as

1. δ: Q x ∑ →Q

FA is characterized into two ways:

1. DFA (finite automata)

2. NDFA (non deterministic finite automata)

DFA
DFA stands for Deterministic Finite Automata. Deterministic refers to the uniqueness of the
computation. In DFA, the input character goes to one state only. DFA doesn't accept the null
move that means the DFA cannot change state without any input character.

DFA has five tuples {Q, ∑, q0, F, δ}

Q: set of all states

∑: finite set of input symbol where δ: Q x ∑ →Q
q0: initial state
F: final state
δ: Transition function

Example

See an example of deterministic finite automata:

1. Q = {q0, q1, q2}

2. ∑ = {0, 1}

3. q0 = {q0}

4. F = {q3}
NDFA
NDFA refer to the Non Deterministic Finite Automata. It is used to transit the any number of
states for a particular input. NDFA accepts the NULL move that means it can change state
without reading the symbols.

NDFA also has five states same as DFA. But NDFA has different transition function.

Transition function of NDFA can be defined as:

δ: Q x ∑ →2Q

Example

See an example of non deterministic finite automata:

1. Q = {q0, q1, q2}

2. ∑ = {0, 1}

3. q0 = {q0}

4. F = {q3}
 Regular expression
o Regular expression is a sequence of pattern that defines a string. It is used to denote
regular languages.

o It is also used to match character combinations in strings. String searching algorithm used
this pattern to find the operations on string.

o In regular expression, x* means zero or more occurrence of x. It can generate {e, x, xx,
xxx, xxxx,.....}

o In regular expression, x+ means one or more occurrence of x. It can generate {x, xx, xxx,
xxxx,.....}

Operations on Regular Language

The various operations on regular language are:

Union: If L and M are two regular languages then their union L U M is also a union.

1. L U M = {s | s is in L or s is in M}

Intersection: If L and M are two regular languages then their intersection is also an intersection.

1. L ⋂ M = {st | s is in L and t is in M}

Kleene closure: If L is a regular language then its kleene closure L1* will also be a regular
language.

1. L* = Zero or more occurrence of language L.

Example

Write the regular expression for the language:

L = {abn w:n ≥ 3, w ∈ (a,b)+}

Solution:

The string of language L starts with "a" followed by atleast three b's. Itcontains atleast one "a" or
one "b" that is string are like abbba, abbbbbba, abbbbbbbb, abbbb.....a

So regular expression is:

r= ab3b* (a+b)+

Here + is a positive closure i.e. (a+b)+ = (a+b)* - ∈

 Optimization of DFA

To optimize the DFA you have to follow the various steps. These are as follows:

Step 1: Remove all the states that are unreachable from the initial state via any set of the
transition of DFA.

Step 2: Draw the transition table for all pair of states.

Step 3: Now split the transition table into two tables T1 and T2. T1 contains all final states and
T2 contains non-final states.

Step 4: Find the similar rows from T1 such that:

1. δ (q, a) = p

2. δ (r, a) = p

That means, find the two states which have same value of a and b and remove one of them.

Step 5: Repeat step 3 until there is no similar rows are available in the transition table T1.

Step 6: Repeat step 3 and step 4 for table T2 also.

Step 7: Now combine the reduced T1 and T2 tables. The combined transition table is the
transition table of minimized DFA.

Example:
Solution:

Step 1: In the given DFA, q2 and q4 are the unreachable states so remove them.

Step 2: Draw the transition table for rest of the states.

Step 3:

Now divide rows of transition table into two sets as:

1. One set contains those rows, which start from non-final sates:

2. Other set contains those rows, which starts from final states.

Step 4: Set 1 has no similar rows so set 1 will be the same.

Step 5: In set 2, row 1 and row 2 are similar since q3 and q5 transit to same state on 0 and 1. So
skip q5 and then replace q5 by q3 in the rest.

Step 6: Now combine set 1 and set 2 as:

Now it is the transition table of minimized DFA.

Transition diagram of minimized DFA:

Fig: Minimized DFA

LEX- A Lexical Analyzer Generator

o Lex is a program that generates lexical analyzer. It is used with YACC parser generator.
o The lexical analyzer is a program that transforms an input stream into a sequence of
tokens.
o It reads the input stream and produces the source code as output through implementing
the lexical analyzer in the C program.

The function of Lex is as follows:

o Firstly lexical analyzer creates a program lex.1 in the Lex language. Then Lex compiler
runs the lex.1 program and produces a C program lex.yy.c.
o Finally C compiler runs the lex.yy.c program and produces an object program a.out.
 o a.out is lexical analyzer that transforms an input stream into a sequence of tokens.

Lex file format

A Lex program is separated into three sections by %% delimiters. The formal of Lex source is as
follows:

1. { definitions }
2. %%
3. { rules }
4. %%
5. { user subroutines }

Definitions include declarations of constant, variable and regular definitions.

Rules define the statement of form p1 {action1} p2 {action2}....pn {action}.

Where pi describes the regular expression and action1 describes the actions what action the
lexical analyzer should take when pattern pi matches a lexeme.

User subroutines are auxiliary procedures needed by the actions. The subroutine can be loaded
with the lexical analyzer and compiled separately.
 BNF Notation
BNF stands for Backus-Naur Form. It is used to write a formal representation of a context-free
grammar. It is also used to describe the syntax of a programming language.

BNF notation is basically just a variant of a context-free grammar.

In BNF, productions have the form:

1. Left side → definition

Where leftside ∈ (Vn∪ Vt)+ and definition ∈ (Vn∪ Vt)*. In BNF, the leftside contains one non-
terminal.

We can define the several productions with the same leftside. All the productions are separated
by a vertical bar symbol "|".

There is the production for any grammar as follows:

1. S → aSa
2. S → bSb
3. S → c

In BNF, we can represent above grammar as follows:

1. S → aSa| bSb| c

Ambiguity
A grammar is said to be ambiguous if there exists more than one leftmost derivation or more
than one rightmost derivative or more than one parse tree for the given input string. If the
grammar is not ambiguous then it is called unambiguous.

Example:

1. S = aSb | SS
2. S = ∈

For the string aabb, the above grammar generates two parse trees:
If the grammar has ambiguity then it is not good for a compiler construction. No method can
automatically detect and remove the ambiguity but you can remove ambiguity by re-writing the
whole grammar without ambiguity.

YACC
o YACC stands for Yet Another Compiler Compiler.
o YACC provides a tool to produce a parser for a given grammar.
o YACC is a program designed to compile a LALR (1) grammar.
o It is used to produce the source code of the syntactic analyzer of the language produced
by LALR (1) grammar.
o The input of YACC is the rule or grammar and the output is a C program.

These are some points about YACC:

Input: A CFG- file.y

Output: A parser y.tab.c (yacc)

o The output file "file.output" contains the parsing tables.

o The file "file.tab.h" contains declarations.
o The parser called the yyparse ().
o Parser expects to use a function called yylex () to get tokens.

The basic operational sequence is as follows:

This file contains the desired grammar in YACC format.

It shows the YACC program.

It is the c source program created by YACC.

C Compiler

Executable file that will parse grammar given in gram.Y

 Context free grammar
Context free grammar is a formal grammar which is used to generate all possible strings in a
given formal language.

Context free grammar G can be defined by four tuples as:

1. G= (V, T, P, S)

Where,

G describes the grammar

T describes a finite set of terminal symbols.

V describes a finite set of non-terminal symbols

P describes a set of production rules

S is the start symbol.

In CFG, the start symbol is used to derive the string. You can derive the string by repeatedly
replacing a non-terminal by the right hand side of the production, until all non-terminal have
been replaced by terminal symbols.

Example:

L= {wcwR | w € (a, b)*}

Production rules:

1. S → aSa
2. S → bSb
3. S → c

Now check that abbcbba string can be derived from the given CFG.

1. S ⇒ aSa
2. S ⇒ abSba
3. S ⇒ abbSbba
4. S ⇒ abbcbba

By applying the production S → aSa, S → bSb recursively and finally applying the production
S → c, we get the string abbcbba.
 Derivation
Derivation is a sequence of production rules. It is used to get the input string through these
production rules. During parsing we have to take two decisions. These are as follows:

o We have to decide the non-terminal which is to be replaced.

o We have to decide the production rule by which the non-terminal will be replaced.

We have two options to decide which non-terminal to be replaced with production rule.

Left-most Derivation

In the left most derivation, the input is scanned and replaced with the production rule from left to
right. So in left most derivatives we read the input string from left to right.

Example:

Production rules:

1. S = S + S
2. S = S - S
3. S = a | b |c

Input:

a-b+c

The left-most derivation is:

1. S=S+S
2. S=S-S+S
3. S=a-S+S
4. S=a-b+S
5. S=a-b+c

Right-most Derivation

In the right most derivation, the input is scanned and replaced with the production rule from right
to left. So in right most derivatives we read the input string from right to left.

Example:

1. S = S + S
2. S = S - S
3. S = a | b |c
Input:

a-b+c

The right-most derivation is:

1. S=S-S
2. S=S-S+S
3. S=S-S+c
4. S=S-b+c
5. S=a-b+c

Parse tree
o Parse tree is the graphical representation of symbol. The symbol can be terminal or non-
terminal.
o In parsing, the string is derived using the start symbol. The root of the parse tree is that
start symbol.
o It is the graphical representation of symbol that can be terminals or non-terminals.
o Parse tree follows the precedence of operators. The deepest sub-tree traversed first. So,
the operator in the parent node has less precedence over the operator in the sub-tree.

The parse tree follows these points:

o All leaf nodes have to be terminals.

o All interior nodes have to be non-terminals.
o In-order traversal gives original input string.

Example:

Production rules:

1. T= T + T | T * T
2. T = a|b|c

Input:

a*b+c

Step 1:
Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:
 Capabilities of CFG
There are the various capabilities of CFG:

o Context free grammar is useful to describe most of the programming languages.

o If the grammar is properly designed then an efficientparser can be constructed
automatically.
o Using the features of associatively & precedence information, suitable grammars for
expressions can be constructed.
o Context free grammar is capable of describing nested structures like: balanced
parentheses, matching begin-end, corresponding if-then-else's & so on.