UNIT 3 SYNTAX ANALYSIS – PARSING 10

Syntax Analysis: Role of the parser - Context free grammars - Top-down parsing: shift reduce
- predictive parsing; Bottom-up parsing: Operator precedence, LR parsers (SLR, Canonical
LR,LALR) - Parser generators-Design aspects of Parser.

SYNTAX ANALYSIS

Syntax analysis is the second phase of the compiler. It gets the input from the tokens and
generates a syntax tree or parse tree.

THE ROLE OFPARSER

The parser or syntactic analyzer obtains a string of tokens from the lexical analyzer and verifies
that the string can be generated by the grammar for the source language. It reports any syntax
errors in the program. It also recovers from commonly occurring errors so that it can continue
processing its input.

Functions of the parser :

 It verifies the structure generated by the tokens based on the grammar.

 It constructs the parse tree.

 It reports the errors.

 It performs error recovery.

Issues :

Parser cannot detect errors such as:

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  Variable re-declaration

 Variable initialization before use.

 Data type mismatch for an operation.

The above issues are handled by Semantic Analysis phase.

Syntax error handling :

Programs can contain errors at many different levels. For example :

 Lexical, such as misspelling a keyword.

 Syntactic, such as an arithmetic expression with unbalanced parentheses.

 Semantic, such as an operator applied to an incompatible operand.

 Logical, such as an infinitely recursive call.

Functionsof error handler :

 It should report the presence of errors clearly and accurately.

 It should recover from each error quickly enough to be able to detect subsequent errors.

 It should not significantly slow down the processing of correct programs.

Error recovery strategies:

 The different strategies that a parse uses to recover from a syntactic error are:
 Panic mode
 Phrase level
 Error productions
 Global correction
Panic mode:
 When a parser encounters an error anywhere in the statement, it ignores the rest of the
statement by not processing input from erroneous input to delimiter, such as semi-colon.

 This is the easiest way of error-recovery and also, it prevents the parser from developing
infinite loops.

Statement mode:
 When a parser encounters an error, it tries to take corrective measures so that the rest of
inputs of statement allow the parser to parse ahead.

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  For example, inserting a missing semicolon, replacing comma with a semicolon etc.
Parser designers have to be careful here because one wrong correction may lead to an
infinite loop.

Error productions:
 Some common errors are known to the compiler designers that may occur in the code.

 In addition, the designers can create augmented grammar to be used, as productions that
generate erroneous constructs when these errors are encountered.

Global correction:
 The parser considers the program in hand as a whole and tries to figure out what the
program is intended to do and tries to find out a closest match for it, which is error-free.

 When an erroneous input (statement) X is fed, it creates a parse tree for some closest
error-free statement Y.

 This may allow the parser to make minimal changes in the source code, but due to the
complexity (time and space) of this strategy, it has not been implemented in practice yet.

Context Free Grammar:

 A context-free grammar (CFG) consisting of a finite set of grammar rules for deriving
(or) generating strings (or sentences) is a quadruple (V, T, P, S) where

 V is a set of non-terminal symbols.

 T is a set of terminals
 P is a production rule or set of rules,
 S is the start symbol.

Example 1:

Construct the CFG for the language having any number of a’s.

Solution:

Let us build the production rules for the same

SaS

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 S

Now we consider string “aaaaaaa” to derive

S
aS
aaS
aaaS
aaaaS
aaaaaS
aaaaaaS
aaaaaaaS

Example 2:

Let L (G), SaSb | ab To find aaabbb

Solution:

S
aSb
aaSbb
aaaSbbb
aaabbb

Example 3:
Find aab by SAB
AaaA
A
BBb
B
Solution:
S AB
aaAB
 aa B
 aaB
 aaBb
 aa b
 aab
Example 4:

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 Let L (G), S0S1 | 01 To find 000111

Solution:
S 0S1
00S11
 000111
Example 5:
Let, G be the grammar
S aB | bA
Aa | aS | bAA
Bb | bs | aBB
For the string baaabbabba. Find LMD, RMD and Parse tree
Solution:

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Parse Tree:

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Example 6:
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Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 8
Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 9
PARSING

 Syntax analyzers follow production rules defined by means of context-free grammar.

 The way the production rules are implemented (derivation) divides parsing into two
types : top-down parsing and bottom-up parsing.

Top-down Parsing:
 When the parser starts constructing the parse tree from the start symbol and then tries to
transform the start symbol to the input, it is called top-down parsing.

 Recursive descent parsing : It is a common form of top-down parsing. It is called

recursive as it uses recursive procedures to process the input. Recursive descent parsing
suffers from backtracking.

 Backtracking : It means, if one derivation of a production fails, the syntax analyzer

restarts the process using different rules of same production. This technique may process
the input string more than once to determine the right production.

Bottom-up Parsing:
 As the name suggests, bottom-up parsing starts with the input symbols and tries to
construct the parse tree up to the start symbol.

Example:

Input string : a + b * c

Production rules:

S→E
E→E+T
E→E*T

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E→T
T → id

Let us start bottom-up parsing

a+b*c

Read the input and check if any production matches with the input:

a+b*c
T+b*c
E+b*c
E+T*c
E*c
E*T
E
S

 We have learnt in the last chapter that the top-down parsing technique parses the input,
and starts constructing a parse tree from the root node gradually moving down to the leaf
nodes.

 The types of top-down parsing are depicted below:

Recursive Descent Parsing:

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  Recursive descent is a top-down parsing technique that constructs the parse tree from the
top and the input is read from left to right.

 It uses procedures for every terminal and non-terminal entity.

 This parsing technique recursively parses the input to make a parse tree, which may or
may not require back-tracking.

 But the grammar associated with it (if not left factored) cannot avoid back-tracking.

 A form of recursive-descent parsing that does not require any back-tracking is known
as predictive parsing.

 This parsing technique is regarded recursive as it uses context-free grammar which is

recursive in nature.

Back-tracking:
 Top- down parsers start from the root node (start symbol) and match the input string
against the production rules to replace them (if matched).

 To understand this, take the following example of CFG:

S → rXd | rZd
X → oa | ea
Z → ai

For an input string: read, a top-down parser, will behave like this:

It will start with S from the production rules and will match its yield to the left-most letter of the
input, i.e. ‘r’. The very production of S (S → rXd) matches with it. So the top-down parser
advances to the next input letter (i.e. ‘e’). The parser tries to expand non-terminal ‘X’ and
checks its production from the left (X → oa). It does not match with the next input symbol. So
the top-down parser backtracks to obtain the next production rule of X, (X → ea).

Now the parser matches all the input letters in an ordered manner. The string is accepted.

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Predictive Parser:
 Predictive parser is a recursive descent parser, which has the capability to predict which
production is to be used to replace the input string.

 The predictive parser does not suffer from backtracking.

 To accomplish its tasks, the predictive parser uses a look-ahead pointer, which points to
the next input symbols.

 To make the parser back-tracking free, the predictive parser puts some constraints on the
grammar and accepts only a class of grammar known as LL(k) grammar.

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  Predictive parsing uses a stack and a parsing table to parse the input and generate a parse
tree.

 Both the stack and the input contains an end symbol $to denote that the stack is empty
and the input is consumed.

 The parser refers to the parsing table to take any decision on the input and stack element
combination.

 In recursive descent parsing, the parser may have more than one production to choose
from for a single instance of input, whereas in predictive parser, each step has at most
one production to choose.

 There might be instances where there is no production matching the input string, making
the parsing procedure to fail.

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LL Parser:
 An LL Parser accepts LL grammar.

 LL grammar is a subset of context-free grammar but with some restrictions to get the
simplified version, in order to achieve easy implementation.

 LL grammar can be implemented by means of both algorithms namely, recursive-descent

or table-driven.

LL parser is denoted as LL(k). The first L in LL(k) is parsing the input from left to right, the
second L in LL(k) stands for left-most derivation and k itself represents the number of look
aheads. Generally k = 1, so LL(k) may also be written as LL(1).

LL Parsing Algorithm:
 We may stick to deterministic LL(1) for parser explanation, as the size of table grows
exponentially with the value of k.

 Secondly, if a given grammar is not LL(1), then usually, it is not LL(k), for any given k.

Given below is an algorithm for LL(1) Parsing:

Input:
string ω
parsing table M for grammar G

Output:
If ω is in L(G) then left-most derivation of ω,
error otherwise.

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Initial State : $S on stack (with S being start symbol)
ω$ in the input buffer

SET ip to point the first symbol of ω$.

repeat
let X be the top stack symbol and a the symbol pointed by ip.

if X∈ Vt or $
if X = a
POP X and advance ip.
else
error()
endif

else /* X is non-terminal */
if M[X,a] = X → Y1, Y2,... Yk
POP X
PUSH Yk, Yk-1,... Y1 /* Y1 on top */
Output the production X → Y1, Y2,... Yk
else
error()
endif
endif
until X = $ /* empty stack */

A grammar G is LL(1) if A → α | β are two distinct productions of G:

 for no terminal, both α and β derive strings beginning with a.

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  at most one of α and β can derive empty string.

 if β → t, then α does not derive any string beginning with a terminal in FOLLOW(A).

 Bottom-up parsing starts from the leaf nodes of a tree and works in upward direction till
it reaches the root node.

 Here, we start from a sentence and then apply production rules in reverse manner in
order to reach the start symbol. The image given below depicts the bottom-up parsers
available.

Shift-Reduce Parsing:
 Shift-reduce parsing uses two unique steps for bottom-up parsing.

 These steps are known as shift-step and reduce-step.

 Shift step: The shift step refers to the advancement of the input pointer to the next input
symbol, which is called the shifted symbol. This symbol is pushed onto the stack. The
shifted symbol is treated as a single node of the parse tree.

 Reduce step : When the parser finds a complete grammar rule (RHS) and replaces it to
(LHS), it is known as reduce-step. This occurs when the top of the stack contains a
handle. To reduce, a POP function is performed on the stack which pops off the handle
and replaces it with LHS non-terminal symbol.

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LR Parser:
 The LR parser is a non-recursive, shift-reduce, bottom-up parser.

 It uses a wide class of context-free grammar which makes it the most efficient syntax
analysis technique.

 LR parsers are also known as LR(k) parsers, where L stands for left-to-right scanning of
the input stream; R stands for the construction of right-most derivation in reverse, and k
denotes the number of lookahead symbols to make decisions.

There are three widely used algorithms available for constructing an LR parser:

 SLR(1) – Simple LR Parser:

 Works on smallest class of grammar

 Few number of states, hence very small table
 Simple and fast construction

 LR(1) – LR Parser:

 Works on complete set of LR(1) Grammar

 Generates large table and large number of states
 Slow construction

 LALR(1) – Look-Ahead LR Parser:

 Works on intermediate size of grammar

 Number of states are same as in SLR(1)

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LR Parsing Algorithm:
Here we describe a skeleton algorithm of an LR parser:

token = next_token()

repeat forever
s = top of stack

if action[s, token] = “shift si” then

PUSH token
PUSH si
token = next_token()

else if action[s, token] = “reduce A::= β“ then

POP 2 * |β| symbols
s = top of stack
PUSH A
PUSH goto[s,A]

else if action[s, token] = “accept” then

return

else
error()

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LL vs. LR
LL LR

Does a leftmost derivation. Does a rightmost derivation in reverse.

Starts with the root nonterminal on the Ends with the root nonterminal on the stack.
stack.

Ends when the stack is empty. Starts with an empty stack.

Uses the stack for designating what is still Uses the stack for designating what is already
to be expected. seen.

Builds the parse tree top-down. Builds the parse tree bottom-up.

Continuously pops a nonterminal off the Tries to recognize a right hand side on the
stack, and pushes the corresponding right stack, pops it, and pushes the corresponding
hand side. nonterminal.

Expands the non-terminals. Reduces the non-terminals.

Reads the terminals when it pops one off Reads the terminals while it pushes them on
the stack. the stack.

Pre-order traversal of the parse tree. Post-order traversal of the parse tree.

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 UNIT 4 SEMANTIC ANALYSIS – TRANSLATION & RUNTIME STORAGE 9
Syntax-directed translation: Syntax-directed definitions - S-attributed definition - L-attributed
definition - Top-down and bottom-up translation - Type checking - Type systems -
Specification of a type checker; Run time environment -Source language issues -Storage
organization –Storage allocation strategies - Access to non- local names - Parameter
passing - Symbol tables- Design aspects of Syntax Directed Translation.

SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

Semantic Analysis computes additional information related to the meaning of the
program once the syntactic structure is known.

In typed languages as C, semantic analysis involves adding information to the symbol
table and performing type checking.

The information to be computed is beyond the capabilities of standard parsing
techniques, therefore it is not regarded as syntax.

As for Lexical and Syntax analysis, also for Semantic Analysis we need both a
Representation Formalism and an Implementation Mechanism.

As representation formalism this lecture illustrates what are called Syntax Directed
Translations.
SYNTAX DIRECTED TRANSLATION
The Principle of Syntax Directed Translation states that the meaning of an input
sentence is related to its syntactic structure, i.e., to its Parse-Tree.
By Syntax Directed Translations we indicate those formalisms for specifying
translations for programming language constructs guided by context-free grammars.
o We associate Attributes to the grammar symbols representing the language
constructs.

o Values for attributes are computed by Semantic Rules associated with

grammar productions.
Evaluation of Semantic Rules may:
o Generate Code;
o Insert information into the Symbol Table;
o Perform Semantic Check;
o Issue error messages;
o etc.
There are two notations for attaching semantic rules:
1. Syntax Directed Definitions. High-level specification hiding many implementation details
(also called Attribute Grammars).

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 2. Translation Schemes. More implementation oriented: Indicate the order in which semantic
rules are to be evaluated.
Syntax Directed Definitions
• Syntax Directed Definitions are a generalization of context-free grammars in which:
1. Grammar symbols have an associated set of Attributes;
2. Productions are associated with Semantic Rules for computing the values of attributes.
o Such formalism generates Annotated Parse-Trees where each node of the tree is
a record with a field for each attribute (e.g.,X.a indicates the attribute a of the
grammar symbol X).
o The value of an attribute of a grammar symbol at a given parse-tree node is
defined by a semantic rule associated with the production used at that node.

S-attributed SDT
 If an SDT uses only synthesized attributes, it is called as S-attributed SDT.

 These attributes are evaluated using S-attributed SDTs that have their semantic actions
written after the production (right hand side).

 As depicted above, attributes in S-attributed SDTs are evaluated in bottom-up parsing, as

the values of the parent nodes depend upon the values of the child nodes.

L-attributed SDT
 This form of SDT uses both synthesized and inherited attributes with restriction of not
taking values from right siblings.

 In L-attributed SDTs, a non-terminal can get values from its parent, child, and sibling
nodes. As in the following production.

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S → ABC

 S can take values from A, B, and C (synthesized). A can take values from S only. B can
take values from S and A. C can get values from S, A, and B. No non-terminal can get
values from the sibling to its right.

 Attributes in L-attributed SDTs are evaluated by depth-first and left-to-right parsing

manner.

 We may conclude that if a definition is S-attributed, then it is also L-attributed as L-

attributed definition encloses S-attributed definitions.

Top-Down Translation

 We will look at the implementation of L-attributed definitions during predictive parsing.

 Instead of the syntax-directed translations, we will work with translation schemes.
 We will see how to evaluate inherited attributes (in L-attributed definitions) during
recursive predictive parsing.
 We will also look at what happens to attributes during the left-recursion elimination in
the left-recursive grammars.

TYPE CHECKING

 A compiler must check that the source program follows both syntactic and
semantic conventions of the source language.
 This checking, called static checking, detects and reports programming errors.

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 Some examples of static checks:

Type checks –
 A compiler should report an error if an operator is applied to an incompatible
operand. Example: If an array variable and function variable are added together.
Flow-of-control checks
 Statements that cause flow of control to leave a construct must have some place to which
to transfer the flow of control. Example: An error occurs when an enclosing statement,
such as break, does not exist in switch statement.

Position of type checker

token parser syntax Typechecker syntax intermediate intermediate

stream code generator

 A type checker verifies that the type of a construct matches that expected by its
context. For example : arithmetic operator mod in Pascal requires integer operands, so a
type checker verifies that the operands of mod have type integer.

 Type information gathered by a type checker may be needed when code is generated.

TYPE SYSTEMS

 The design of a type checker for a language is based on information about the syntactic
constructs in the language, the notion of types, and the rules for assigning types to language
.
constructs.

 For example : “ if both operands of the arithmetic operators of +,- and * are of type
integer, then the result is of type integer ”

Run-Time Environment:
 A program as a source code is merely a collection of text (code, statements etc.) and to
make it alive, it requires actions to be performed on the target machine.

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  A program needs memory resources to execute instructions. A program contains names
for procedures, identifiers etc., that require mapping with the actual memory location at
runtime.

 By runtime, we mean a program in execution. Runtime environment is a state of the

target machine, which may include software libraries, environment variables, etc., to
provide services to the processes running in the system.

 Runtime support system is a package, mostly generated with the executable program
itself and facilitates the process communication between the process and the runtime
environment.

 It takes care of memory allocation and de-allocation while the program is being
executed.

Activation Trees
 A program is a sequence of instructions combined into a number of procedures.
Instructions in a procedure are executed sequentially.

 A procedure has a start and an end delimiter and everything inside it is called the body of
the procedure.

 The procedure identifier and the sequence of finite instructions inside it make up the
body of the procedure.

 The execution of a procedure is called its activation. An activation record contains all the
necessary information required to call a procedure.

 An activation record may contain the following units (depending upon the source
language used).

Temporaries Stores temporary and intermediate values of an expression.

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Local Data Stores local data of the called procedure.

Machine Status Stores machine status such as Registers, Program Counter etc., before
the procedure is called.

Control Link Stores the address of activation record of the caller procedure.

Access Link Stores the information of data which is outside the local scope.

Actual Parameters Stores actual parameters, i.e., parameters which are used to send input
to the called procedure.

Return Value Stores return values.

 Whenever a procedure is executed, its activation record is stored on the stack, also
known as control stack.

 When a procedure calls another procedure, the execution of the caller is suspended until
the called procedure finishes execution.

 At this time, the activation record of the called procedure is stored on the stack.

 We assume that the program control flows in a sequential manner and when a procedure
is called, its control is transferred to the called procedure. When a called procedure is
executed, it returns the control back to the caller. This type of control flow makes it
easier to represent a series of activations in the form of a tree, known as the activation
tree.

To understand this concept, we take a piece of code as an example:

...
printf(“Enter Your Name: “);
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scanf(“%s”, username);
show_data(username);
printf(“Press any key to continue…”);
...
int show_data(char *user)
{
printf(“Your name is %s”, username);
return 0;
}
...

Below is the activation tree of the code given.

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  Now we understand that procedures are executed in depth-first manner, thus stack
allocation is the best suitable form of storage for procedure activations.

Type systems

type system a collection of rules for assigning type expressions to the various

-directed manner.

he

Static and Dynamic Checking of Types

Checkingdone by a compiler is said to be static, while checking done when the target
program runs is termed dynamic.

Any check can be done dynamically, if the target code carries the type of an element
along with the value of that element.
Sound type system
 A sound type system eliminates the need for dynamic checking for type errors because it
allows us to determine statically that these errors cannot occur when the target program
runs.
 That is, if a sound type system assigns a type other than type_error to a program part,
then type errors cannot occur when the target code for the program part is run.

Strongly typed language

 A language is strongly typed if its compiler can guarantee that the programs it
accepts will execute without type errors.

Error Recovery

 Since type checking has the potential for catching errors in program, it is desirable for
type checker to recover from errors, so it can check the rest of the input.

 Error handling has to be designed into the type system right from the start; the type
checking rules must be prepared to cope with errors.
SPECIFICATION OF A SIMPLE TYPE CHECKER:
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  Here, we specify a type checker for a simple language in which the type of each identifier
must be declared before the identifier is used.
 The type checker is. a translation scheme that synthesizes the type of each expression
from the types of its sub expressions.
 The type checker can handle arrays, pointers, statements and functions.

A Simple Language

Consider the following grammar:

P→D;E
D → D ; D | id : T
T → char | integer | array [ num ] of T | ↑ T
E → literal | num | id | E mod E | E [ E ] | E ↑

Translation scheme:

P→D;E
D→D;D
D → id : T { addtype (id.entry , T.type)}
T → char { T.type : = char }
T → integer { T.type : = integer }
T → ↑ T1 { T.type : = pointer(T1.type) }
T → array [ num ] of T1 { T.type : = array ( 1… num.val , T1.type) }

Type checking of statements

Statements do not have values; hence the basic type void can be assigned to them. If an error is

Translation scheme for checking the type of statements:

1. Assignment statement:
S → id : = E { S.type : = if id.type = E.type then void else
type_error }

2. Conditional statement:
S → if E then S1 { S.type : = if E.type = boolean then S1.type
else type_error }

3. While statement:
S → while E do S1 { S.type : = if E.type = boolean then S1.type

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 else type_error }
4. Sequence of statements:
S → S1 ; S2 { S.type : = if S1.type = void and S1.type = void
then void
else type_error }

Type checking of functions

The rule for checking the type of a function application is :

E → E1 ( E2) { E.type : = if E2.type = s and
E1.type = s → t then t
else type_error }
SOURCE LANGUAGE ISSUES

Procedures:
A procedure definition is a declaration that associates an identifier with a statement. The
identifier is the procedure name, and the statement is the procedure body.
tk/
For example, the following is the definition of procedure named readarray :

procedure readarray; .
Var i : integer;
begin
for i : = 1 to 9 do
read(a[i]) end;

When a procedure name appears within an executable statement, the procedure is said to
be called at that point.

Storage Allocation
Runtime environment manages runtime memory requirements for the following entities:

 Code : It is known as the text part of a program that does not change at runtime. Its
memory requirements are known at the compile time.

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  Procedures : Their text part is static but they are called in a random manner. That is
why, stack storage is used to manage procedure calls and activations.

 Variables : Variables are known at the runtime only, unless they are global or constant.
Heap memory allocation scheme is used for managing allocation and de-allocation of
memory for variables in runtime.

Static Allocation
 In this allocation scheme, the compilation data is bound to a fixed location in the
memory and it does not change when the program executes.

 As the memory requirement and storage locations are known in advance, runtime support
package for memory allocation and de-allocation is not required.

Stack Allocation
 Procedure calls and their activations are managed by means of stack memory allocation.

 It works in last-in-first-out (LIFO) method and this allocation strategy is very useful for
recursive procedure calls.

Heap Allocation
 Variables local to a procedure are allocated and de-allocated only at runtime.

 Heap allocation is used to dynamically allocate memory to the variables and claim it
back when the variables are no more required.

 Except statically allocated memory area, both stack and heap memory can grow and
shrink dynamically and unexpectedly.

 Therefore, they cannot be provided with a fixed amount of memory in the system.

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 11

  As shown in the image above, the text part of the code is allocated a fixed amount of
memory.

 Stack and heap memory are arranged at the extremes of total memory allocated to the
program. Both shrink and grow against each other.

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 12

Parameter Passing
 The communication medium among procedures is known as parameter passing. The
values of the variables from a calling procedure are transferred to the called procedure
by some mechanism.

 Before moving ahead, first go through some basic terminologies pertaining to the values
in a program.

r-value
 The value of an expression is called its r-value. The value contained in a single variable
also becomes an r-value if it appears on the right-hand side of the assignment operator.

 r-values can always be assigned to some other variable.

l-value
 The location of memory (address) where an expression is stored is known as the l-value
of that expression.

 It always appears at the left hand side of an assignment operator.

For example:

day = 1;
week = day * 7;
month = 1;
year = month * 12;

 From this example, we understand that constant values like 1, 7, 12, and variables like
day, week, month and year, all have r-values.

 Only variables have l-values as they also represent the memory location assigned to
them.

For example:

7 = x + y;

is an l-value error, as the constant 7 does not represent any memory location.

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Formal Parameters
 Variables that take the information passed by the caller procedure are called formal
parameters.

 These variables are declared in the definition of the called function.

Actual Parameters
 Variables whose values or addresses are being passed to the called procedure are called
actual parameters.

 These variables are specified in the function call as arguments.

Example:

fun_one()
{
int actual_parameter = 10;
call fun_two(int actual_parameter);
}
fun_two(int formal_parameter)
{
print formal_parameter;
}

 Formal parameters hold the information of the actual parameter, depending upon the
parameter passing technique used.

 It may be a value or an address.

Pass by Value
 In pass by value mechanism, the calling procedure passes the r-value of actual
parameters and the compiler puts that into the called procedure’s activation record.

 Formal parameters then hold the values passed by the calling procedure.

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  If the values held by the formal parameters are changed, it should have no impact on the
actual parameters.

Pass by Reference
 In pass by reference mechanism, the l-value of the actual parameter is copied to the
activation record of the called procedure.

 This way, the called procedure now has the address (memory location) of the actual
parameter and the formal parameter refers to the same memory location.

 Therefore, if the value pointed by the formal parameter is changed, the impact should be
seen on the actual parameter as they should also point to the same value.

Pass by Copy-restore
 This parameter passing mechanism works similar to ‘pass-by-reference’ except that the
changes to actual parameters are made when the called procedure ends.

 Upon function call, the values of actual parameters are copied in the activation record of
the called procedure.

 Formal parameters if manipulated have no real-time effect on actual parameters (as l-

values are passed), but when the called procedure ends, the l-values of formal
parameters are copied to the l-values of actual parameters.

Example:

int y;
calling_procedure()
{
y = 10;
copy_restore(y); //l-value of y is passed
printf y; //prints 99
}
copy_restore(int x)
{
x = 99; // y still has value 10 (unaffected)
Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 15
 y = 0; // y is now 0
}

 When this function ends, the l-value of formal parameter x is copied to the actual
parameter y.

 Even if the value of y is changed before the procedure ends, the l-value of x is copied to
the l-value of y making it behave like call by reference.

Pass by Name
 Languages like Algol provide a new kind of parameter passing mechanism that works
like preprocessor in C language.

 In pass by name mechanism, the name of the procedure being called is replaced by its
actual body.

 Pass-by-name textually substitutes the argument expressions in a procedure call for the
corresponding parameters in the body of the procedure so that it can now work on actual
parameters, much like pass-by-reference.

Symbol Table:

 Symbol table is an important data structure created and maintained by compilers in order
to store information about the occurrence of various entities such as variable names,
function names, objects, classes, interfaces, etc. Symbol table is used by both the
analysis and the synthesis parts of a compiler.

 A symbol table may serve the following purposes depending upon the language in hand:

 To store the names of all entities in a structured form at one place.

 To verify if a variable has been declared.

 To implement type checking, by verifying assignments and expressions in the source

code are semantically correct.

 To determine the scope of a name (scope resolution).

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A symbol table is simply a table which can be either linear or a hash table. It maintains an entry
for each name in the following format:

<symbol name, type, attribute>

For example, if a symbol table has to store information about the following variable declaration:

static int interest;

then it should store the entry such as:

<interest, int, static>

The attribute clause contains the entries related to the name.

Implementation
 If a compiler is to handle a small amount of data, then the symbol table can be
implemented as an unordered list, which is easy to code, but it is only suitable for small
tables only. A symbol table can be implemented in one of the following ways:

 Linear (sorted or unsorted) list

 Binary Search Tree
 Hash table
 Among all, symbol tables are mostly implemented as hash tables, where the source code
symbol itself is treated as a key for the hash function and the return value is the
information about the symbol.

Operations
 A symbol table, either linear or hash, should provide the following operations.

insert()
 This operation is more frequently used by analysis phase, i.e., the first half of the
compiler where tokens are identified and names are stored in the table.

 This operation is used to add information in the symbol table about unique names
occurring in the source code. The format or structure in which the names are stored
depends upon the compiler in hand.
Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 17
  An attribute for a symbol in the source code is the information associated with that
symbol.

 This information contains the value, state, scope, and type about the symbol.

 The insert() function takes the symbol and its attributes as arguments and stores the
information in the symbol table.

For example:

int a;

should be processed by the compiler as:

insert(a, int);

lookup()
lookup() operation is used to search a name in the symbol table to determine:

 if the symbol exists in the table.

 if it is declared before it is being used.
 if the name is used in the scope.
 if the symbol is initialized.
 if the symbol declared multiple times.
The format of lookup() function varies according to the programming language. The basic
format should match the following:

lookup(symbol)

 This method returns 0 (zero) if the symbol does not exist in the symbol table. If the
symbol exists in the symbol table, it returns its attributes stored in the table.

Scope Management
 A compiler maintains two types of symbol tables: a global symbol table which can be
accessed by all the procedures and scope symbol tables that are created for each scope
in the program.

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  To determine the scope of a name, symbol tables are arranged in hierarchical structure as
shown in the example below:

 The global symbol table contains names for one global variable (int value) and two
procedure names, which should be available to all the child nodes shown above.

 The names mentioned in the pro_one symbol table (and all its child tables) are not
available for pro_two symbols and its child tables.

 This symbol table data structure hierarchy is stored in the semantic analyzer and
whenever a name needs to be searched in a symbol table, it is searched using the
following algorithm:

 first a symbol will be searched in the current scope, i.e. current symbol table.

 if a name is found, then search is completed, else it will be searched in the parent symbol
table until,

 either the name is found or global symbol table has been searched for the name.

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 19

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 20
 UNIT 5 CODE GENERATION & OPTIMIZATION 9
Intermediate code generation: Intermediate languages - Declaration - Assignment Statement -
Boolean expression - Procedure calls - Code optimization : Introduction - Sources of
optimization - Introduction to data flow analysis- Code generator : Issues in the design of a
code generator- the target machine- A simple code generator- Design aspects of Code
Optimizer.

CODE GENERATION:

Code generation can be considered as the final phase of compilation. Through post code
generation, optimization process can be applied on the code, but that can be seen as a part of
code generation phase itself. The code generated by the compiler is an object code of some
lower-level programming language, for example, assembly language. We have seen that the
source code written in a higher-level language is transformed into a lower-level language that
results in a lower-level object code, which should have the following minimum properties:

 It should carry the exact meaning of the source code.

 It should be efficient in terms of CPU usage and memory management.
We will now see how the intermediate code is transformed into target object code (assembly
code, in this case).

Directed Acyclic Graph

Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) is a tool that depicts the structure of basic blocks, helps to see
the flow of values flowing among the basic blocks, and offers optimization too. DAG provides
easy transformation on basic blocks. DAG can be understood here:

 Leaf nodes represent identifiers, names or constants.

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  Interior nodes represent operators.

 Interior nodes also represent the results of expressions or the identifiers/name where the
values are to be stored or assigned.

Example:

t0 = a + b
t1 = t0 + c
d = t0 + t1

[t0 = a + b]

[t1 = t0 + c]

[d = t0 + t1]

Peephole Optimization
This optimization technique works locally on the source code to transform it into an optimized
code. By locally, we mean a small portion of the code block at hand. These methods can be
applied on intermediate codes as well as on target codes. A bunch of statements is analyzed and
are checked for the following possible optimization:

Redundant instruction elimination

At source code level, the following can be done by the user:

int add_ten(int x) int add_ten(int x) int add_ten(int x) int add_ten(int x)

{ { { {
int y, z; int y; int y = 10; return x + 10;

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 y = 10; y = 10; return x + y; }
z = x + y; y = x + y; }
return z; return y;
} }

At compilation level, the compiler searches for instructions redundant in nature. Multiple
loading and storing of instructions may carry the same meaning even if some of them are
removed. For example:

 MOV x, R0
 MOV R0, R1
We can delete the first instruction and re-write the sentence as:

MOV x, R1

Unreachable code
Unreachable code is a part of the program code that is never accessed because of programming
constructs. Programmers may have accidently written a piece of code that can never be reached.

Example:

void add_ten(int x)
{
return x + 10;
printf(“value of x is %d”, x);
}

In this code segment, the printf statement will never be executed as the program control returns
back before it can execute, hence printf can be removed.

Flow of control optimization

There are instances in a code where the program control jumps back and forth without
performing any significant task. These jumps can be removed. Consider the following chunk of
code:

...

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 3

MOV R1, R2
GOTO L1
...
L1 : GOTO L2
L2 : INC R1

In this code,label L1 can be removed as it passes the control to L2. So instead of jumping to L1
and then to L2, the control can directly reach L2, as shown below:

...
MOV R1, R2
GOTO L2
...
L2 : INC R1

Algebraic expression simplification

There are occasions where algebraic expressions can be made simple. For example, the
expression a = a + 0 can be replaced by a itself and the expression a = a + 1 can simply be
replaced by INC a.

Strength reduction
There are operations that consume more time and space. Their ‘strength’ can be reduced by
replacing them with other operations that consume less time and space, but produce the same
result.

For example, x * 2 can be replaced by x << 1, which involves only one left shift. Though the
output of a * a and a2 is same, a2 is much more efficient to implement.

Accessing machine instructions

The target machine can deploy more sophisticated instructions, which can have the capability to
perform specific operations much efficiently. If the target code can accommodate those
instructions directly, that will not only improve the quality of code, but also yield more efficient
results.

Issues of Code Generator

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A code generator is expected to have an understanding of the target machine’s runtime
environment and its instruction set. The code generator should take the following things into
consideration to generate the code:

 Target language : The code generator has to be aware of the nature of the target
language for which the code is to be transformed. That language may facilitate some
machine-specific instructions to help the compiler generate the code in a more
convenient way. The target machine can have either CISC or RISC processor
architecture.

 IR Type : Intermediate representation has various forms. It can be in Abstract Syntax

Tree (AST) structure, Reverse Polish Notation, or 3-address code.

 Selection of instruction : The code generator takes Intermediate Representation as input

and converts (maps) it into target machine’s instruction set. One representation can have
many ways (instructions) to convert it, so it becomes the responsibility of the code
generator to choose the appropriate instructions wisely.

 Register allocation : A program has a number of values to be maintained during the

execution. The target machine’s architecture may not allow all of the values to be kept in
the CPU memory or registers. Code generator decides what values to keep in the
registers. Also, it decides the registers to be used to keep these values.

 Ordering of instructions : At last, the code generator decides the order in which the
instruction will be executed. It creates schedules for instructions to execute them.

Descriptors
The code generator has to track both the registers (for availability) and addresses (location of
values) while generating the code. For both of them, the following two descriptors are used:

 Register descriptor : Register descriptor is used to inform the code generator about the
availability of registers. Register descriptor keeps track of values stored in each register.
Whenever a new register is required during code generation, this descriptor is consulted
for register availability.

 Address descriptor : Values of the names (identifiers) used in the program might be
stored at different locations while in execution. Address descriptors are used to keep
track of memory locations where the values of identifiers are stored. These locations

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 may include CPU registers, heaps, stacks, memory or a combination of the mentioned
locations.

Code generator keeps both the descriptor updated in real-time. For a load statement, LD R1, x,
the code generator:

 updates the Register Descriptor R1 that has value of x and

 updates the Address Descriptor (x) to show that one instance of x is in R1.

Code Generation
Basic blocks comprise of a sequence of three-address instructions. Code generator takes
these sequence of instructions as input.

Note : If the value of a name is found at more than one place (register, cache, or memory), the
register’s value will be preferred over the cache and main memory. Likewise cache’s value will
be preferred over the main memory. Main memory is barely given any preference.

getReg : Code generator uses getReg function to determine the status of available registers and
the location of name values. getReg works as follows:

 If variable Y is already in register R, it uses that register.

 Else if some register R is available, it uses that register.

 Else if both the above options are not possible, it chooses a register that requires minimal
number of load and store instructions.

For an instruction x = y OP z, the code generator may perform the following actions. Let us
assume that L is the location (preferably register) where the output of y OP z is to be saved:

 Call function getReg, to decide the location of L.

 Determine the present location (register or memory) of y by consulting the Address

Descriptor of y. If y is not presently in register L, then generate the following instruction
to copy the value of y to L:

MOV y’, L

where y’ represents the copied value of y.

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  Determine the present location of z using the same method used in step 2 for y and
generate the following instruction:

OP z’, L

where z’ represents the copied value of z.

 Now L contains the value of y OP z, that is intended to be assigned to x. So, if L is a

register, update its descriptor to indicate that it contains the value of x. Update the
descriptor of x to indicate that it is stored at location L.

 If y and z has no further use, they can be given back to the system.

Other code constructs like loops and conditional statements are transformed into assembly
language in general assembly way.

CODE OPTIMIZATION:

Optimization is a program transformation technique, which tries to improve the code by making
it consume less resources (i.e. CPU, Memory) and deliver high speed.

In optimization, high-level general programming constructs are replaced by very efficient low-
level programming codes. A code optimizing process must follow the three rules given below:

 The output code must not, in any way, change the meaning of the program.

 Optimization should increase the speed of the program and if possible, the program
should demand less number of resources.

 Optimization should itself be fast and should not delay the overall compiling process.

Efforts for an optimized code can be made at various levels of compiling the process.

 At the beginning, users can change/rearrange the code or use better algorithms to write
the code.

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  After generating intermediate code, the compiler can modify the intermediate code by
address calculations and improving loops.

 While producing the target machine code, the compiler can make use of memory
hierarchy and CPU registers.

Optimization can be categorized broadly into two types :

 machine independent and

 machine dependent.

Machine-independent Optimization
In this optimization, the compiler takes in the intermediate code and transforms a part of the
code that does not involve any CPU registers and/or absolute memory locations. For example:

do
{
item = 10;
value = value + item;
} while(value<100);

This code involves repeated assignment of the identifier item, which if we put this way:

Item = 10;
do
{
value = value + item;
} while(value<100);

should not only save the CPU cycles, but can be used on any processor.

Machine-dependent Optimization
Machine-dependent optimization is done after the target code has been generated and when the
code is transformed according to the target machine architecture. It involves CPU registers and

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 8

may have absolute memory references rather than relative references. Machine-dependent
optimizers put efforts to take maximum advantage of memory hierarchy.

Basic Blocks
Source codes generally have a number of instructions, which are always executed in sequence
and are considered as the basic blocks of the code. These basic blocks do not have any jump
statements among them, i.e., when the first instruction is executed, all the instructions in the
same basic block will be executed in their sequence of appearance without losing the flow
control of the program.

A program can have various constructs as basic blocks, like IF-THEN-ELSE, SWITCH-CASE
conditional statements and loops such as DO-WHILE, FOR, and REPEAT-UNTIL, etc.

Basic block identification

We may use the following algorithm to find the basic blocks in a program:

 Search header statements of all the basic blocks from where a basic block starts:

o First statement of a program.

o Statements that are target of any branch (conditional/unconditional).
o Statements that follow any branch statement.
 Header statements and the statements following them form a basic block.

 A basic block does not include any header statement of any other basic block.

Basic blocks are important concepts from both code generation and optimization point of view.

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Basic blocks play an important role in identifying variables, which are being used more than
once in a single basic block. If any variable is being used more than once, the register memory
allocated to that variable need not be emptied unless the block finishes execution.

Control Flow Graph

Basic blocks in a program can be represented by means of control flow graphs. A control flow
graph depicts how the program control is being passed among the blocks. It is a useful tool that
helps in optimization by help locating any unwanted loops in the program.

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Loop Optimization
Most programs run as a loop in the system. It becomes necessary to optimize the loops in order
to save CPU cycles and memory. Loops can be optimized by the following techniques:

 Invariant code : A fragment of code that resides in the loop and computes the same
value at each iteration is called a loop-invariant code. This code can be moved out of the
loop by saving it to be computed only once, rather than with each iteration.

 Induction analysis : A variable is called an induction variable if its value is altered

within the loop by a loop-invariant value.

 Strength reduction : There are expressions that consume more CPU cycles, time, and
memory. These expressions should be replaced with cheaper expressions without
compromising the output of expression. For example, multiplication (x * 2) is expensive
in terms of CPU cycles than (x << 1) and yields the same result.

Dead-code Elimination
Dead code is one or more than one code statements, which are:

Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 11

  Either never executed or unreachable,
 Or if executed, their output is never used.
Thus, dead code plays no role in any program operation and therefore it can simply be
eliminated.

Partially dead code

There are some code statements whose computed values are used only under certain
circumstances, i.e., sometimes the values are used and sometimes they are not. Such codes are
known as partially dead-code.

The above control flow graph depicts a chunk of program where variable ‘a’ is used to assign
the output of expression ‘x * y’. Let us assume that the value assigned to ‘a’ is never used inside
the loop.Immediately after the control leaves the loop, ‘a’ is assigned the value of variable ‘z’,
which would be used later in the program. We conclude here that the assignment code of ‘a’ is
never used anywhere, therefore it is eligible to be eliminated.

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Likewise, the picture above depicts that the conditional statement is always false, implying that
the code, written in true case, will never be executed, hence it can be removed.

Partial Redundancy
Redundant expressions are computed more than once in parallel path, without any change in
operands.whereas partial-redundant expressions are computed more than once in a path, without
any change in operands. For example,

[partially redundant expression]

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 [redundant expression]

Loop-invariant code is partially redundant and can be eliminated by using a code-motion

technique.

Another example of a partially redundant code can be:

If (condition)
{
a = y OP z;
}
else
{
...
}
c = y OP z;

We assume that the values of operands (y and z) are not changed from assignment of
variable a to variable c. Here, if the condition statement is true, then y OP z is computed twice,
otherwise once. Code motion can be used to eliminate this redundancy, as shown below:

If (condition)
{
...
tmp = y OP z;
a = tmp;
...
}
else
{
...
Dr. Neeraj Dahiya, Asst. Prof., CSE Page 14
 tmp = y OP z;
}
c = tmp;

Here, whether the condition is true or false; y OP z should be computed only once.

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