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Lecture 08 - FIRST and FOLLOW

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11 views30 pages

Lecture 08 - FIRST and FOLLOW

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niladrix719
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FIRST and FOLLOW

Lecture 8
Mon, Feb 7, 2005
Left Factoring
 A problem occurs when two productions for
the same nonterminal begin with the same
token.
 We cannot decide which production to use.
 This is not necessarily a problem since we
could process the part they have in common,
then make a decision based on what follows.
Left Factoring
 Consider the grammar
A   | .
 We use left factorization to transform it into
the form
A  A'
A'   | .
 Now we can apply the productions
immediately and unambiguously.
Example: Left Factoring
 In the earlier example, we had the
productions
C  id == num | id != num | id < num
 To perform left factoring, introduce a
nonterminal C':
C  id C'
C'  == num | != num | < num
Example: Left Factoring
 Consider the grammar of if statements.
S  if C then S else S
| if C then S
 We rewrite it as
S  if C then S S'
S'  else S | .
LL Parsing Methods
 LL parsing methods read the tokens from Left
to right and parse them top-down according
to a Leftmost derivation.
Table-Driven LL Parsing
 To build the parsing table, we need the notion
of nullability and the two functions
 FIRST
 FOLLOW
Nullability
 A nonterminal A is nullable if
A * .
 Clearly, A is nullable if it has a production
A  .
 But A is also nullable if there are, for example,
productions
A  BC.
B  A | aC | .
C  aB | Cb | .
Nullability
 In other words, A is nullable if there is a
production
A  ,
or there is a production
A  B1B2…Bn,
where B1, B2, ..., Bn are nullable.
Nullability
 In the grammar
E  T E'
E'  + T E' | .
T  F T'
T'  * F T' | .
F  (E) | id | num
E' and T' are nullable.
 E, T, and F are not nullable.
Summary

Nonterminal Nullable
E No
E' Yes
T No
T' Yes
F No
FIRST and FOLLOW
 Given a grammar G, we may define the
functions FIRST and FOLLOW on the strings
of symbols of G.
 FIRST() is the set of all terminals that may
appear as the first symbol in a replacement string
of .
 FOLLOW() is the set of all terminals that may
follow  in a derivation.
FIRST
 For a grammar symbol X, FIRST(X) is
defined as follows.
 For every terminal X, FIRST(X) = {X}.
 For every nonterminal X, if X  Y1Y2…Yn is a
production, then
 FIRST(Y1)  FIRST(X).
 Furthermore, if Y1, Y2, …, Yk are nullable, then
FIRST(Yk + 1)  FIRST(X).
FIRST
 We are concerned with FIRST(X) only for the
nonterminals of the grammar.
 FIRST(X) for terminals is trivial.
 According to the definition, to determine
FIRST(A), we must inspect all productions
that have A on the left.
Example: FIRST
 Let the grammar be
E  T E'
E'  + T E' | .
T  F T'
T'  * F T' | .
F  (E) | id | num
Example: FIRST
 Find FIRST(E).
 E occurs on the left in only one production
E  T E'.
 Therefore, FIRST(T)  FIRST(E).
 Furthermore, T is not nullable.
 Therefore, FIRST(E) = FIRST(T).
 We have yet to determine FIRST(T).
Example: FIRST
 Find FIRST(T).
 T occurs on the left in only one production
T  F T'.
 Therefore, FIRST(F)  FIRST(T).
 Furthermore, F is not nullable.
 Therefore, FIRST(T) = FIRST(F).
 We have yet to determine FIRST(F).
Example: FIRST
 Find FIRST(F).
 FIRST(F) = {(, id, num}.
 Therefore,
 FIRST(E) = {(, id, num}.
 FIRST(T) = {(, id, num}.
Example: FIRST
 Find FIRST(E').
 FIRST(E') = {+}.
 Find FIRST(T').
 FIRST(T') = {*}.
Summary

Nonterminal Nullable FIRST


E No {(, id, num}
E' Yes {+}
T No {(, id, num}
T' Yes {*}
F No {(, id, num}
FOLLOW
 For a grammar symbol X, FOLLOW(X) is
defined as follows.
 If S is the start symbol, then $  FOLLOW(S).
 If A  B is a production, then FIRST() 
FOLLOW(B).
 If A  B is a production, or A  B is a
production and  is nullable, then FOLLOW(A) 
FOLLOW(B).
FOLLOW
 We are concerned about FOLLOW(X) only
for the nonterminals of the grammar.
 According to the definition, to determine
FOLLOW(A), we must inspect all productions
that have A on the right.
Example: FOLLOW
 Let the grammar be
E  T E'
E'  + T E' | .
T  F T'
T'  * F T' | .
F  (E) | id | num
Example: FOLLOW
 Find FOLLOW(E).
 E is the start symbol, therefore $  FOLLOW(E).
 E occurs on the right in only one production.
F  (E).
 Therefore FOLLOW(E) = {$, )}.
Example: FOLLOW
 Find FOLLOW(E').
 E' occurs on the right in two productions.
E  T E'
E'  + T E'.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(E') = FOLLOW(E) = {$, )}.
Example: FOLLOW
 Find FOLLOW(T).
 T occurs on the right in two productions.
E  T E'
E'  + T E'.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(T) contains FIRST(E') = {+}.
 However, E' is nullable, therefore it also contains
FOLLOW(E) = {$, )} and FOLLOW(E') = {$, )}.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(T) = {+, $, )}.
Example: FOLLOW
 Find FOLLOW(T').
 T' occurs on the right in two productions.
T  F T'
T'  * F T'.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(T') = FOLLOW(T) = {$, ), +}.
Example: FOLLOW
 Find FOLLOW(F).
 F occurs on the right in two productions.
T  F T'
T'  * F T'.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(F) contains FIRST(T') = {*}.
 However, T' is nullable, therefore it also contains
FOLLOW(T) = {+, $, )} and FOLLOW(T') = {$, ),
+}.
 Therefore, FOLLOW(F) = {*, $, ), +}.
Summary

Nonterminal Nullable FIRST FOLLOW


E No {(, id, num} {$, )}
E' Yes {+} {$, )}
T No {(, id, num} {$, ), +}
T' Yes {*} {$, ), +}
F No {(, id, num} {*, $, ), +}
Exercise
 The grammar
R  R  R | RR | R* | (R) | a | b
generates all regular expressions on the
alphabet {a, b}.
 Using the result of the exercise from the
previous lecture, find FIRST(X) and
FOLLOW(X) for each nonterminal X in the
grammar.

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