Chapter – two

Lexical analysis

1
Outline
 Introduction
 Interaction of Lexical Analyzer with Parser
 Token, pattern, lexeme
 Specification of patterns using regular expressions
 Regular expressions
 Regular expressions for tokens

 NFA and DFA

 Conversion from RE to NFA to DFA…
 Lex Scanner Generator
 Creating a Lexical Analyzer with Lex
 Regular Expressions in Lex
 Lex specifications and examples

2
 Introduction
 The role of lexical analyzer is:
• to read a sequence of characters from the source
program
• group them into lexemes and
• produce as output a sequence of tokens for each
lexeme in the source program.
 The scanner can also perform the following
secondary tasks:
 stripping out blanks, tabs, new lines
 stripping out comments
 keep track of line numbers (for error reporting)

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Interaction of the Lexical Analyzer
with the Parser

next char next token

lexical Syntax
analyzer analyzer
get next
char get next
token

Source
Program
symbol
table

(Contains a record
for each identifier)

token: smallest meaningful sequence of characters

of interest in source program
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 Token, pattern, lexeme
 A token is a sequence of characters from the source
program having a collective meaning.
 A token is a classification of lexical units.
- For example: id and num
 Lexemes are the specific character strings that make up
a token.
– For example: abc and 123A
 Patterns are rules describing the set of lexemes
belonging to a token.
– For example: “letter followed by letters and digits”
 Patterns are usually specified using regular expressions.
[a-zA-Z]*
Example: printf("Total = %d\n", score);

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Example

Token Informal description Sample lexemes

if Characters i, f if
else Characters e, l, s, e else
comparison < or > or <= or >= or == or != <=, !=

id Letter followed by letter and digits pi, score, D2

number Any numeric constant 3.14159, 0, 6.02e23
literal Anything but “ sorrounded by “ “core dumped”

• In general, in programming languages, the following

are tokens:
keywords, operators, identifiers, constants, literals,
punctuation symbols…
 Attributes of tokens
 When more than one pattern matches a lexeme, the
scanner must provide additional information about the
particular lexeme to the subsequent phases of the
compiler.
 For example, both 0 and 1 match the pattern for the
token num.
 But the code generator needs to know which number is
recognized.
 The lexical analyzer collects information about tokens
into their associated attributes.
• Tokens influence parsing decisions;
• Attributes influence the translation of tokens after
parse
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 Attributes of tokens…
 Practically, a token has one attribute:
 a pointer to the symbol table entry in which
information about the token is kept.
 The symbol table entry contains various
information about the token
 such as its lexeme, type, the line number in which
it was first seen …

Ex. y = 31 + 28 * x, The tokens and their

attributes are written as:

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Attributes of tokens…

9
9
Errors
 Very few errors are detected by the lexical
analyzer.
 For example, if the programmer mistakes fi for
if, the lexical analyzer cannot detect the error
since it will consider as an identifier.
 Nonetheless, if a certain sequence of
characters follows none of the specified
patterns, the lexical analyzer can detect the
error.

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 Errors…
 When an error occurs, the lexical analyzer
recovers by:
 skipping (deleting) successive characters from the
remaining input until the lexical analyzer can find a
well-formed token (panic mode recover)
 deleting one character from the remaining input
 inserting missing characters into the remaining input
 replacing an incorrect character by a correct
character
 transposing two adjacent characters

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 Specification of patterns using
regular expressions

 Regular expressions
 Regular expressions for tokens

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Regular expression: Definitions

 Represents patterns of strings of characters.

 An alphabet Σ is a finite set of symbols
(characters)
 A string s is a finite sequence of symbols
from Σ
 |s| denotes the length of string s
 ε denotes the empty string, thus |ε| = 0
 A language L is a specific set of strings over
some fixed alphabet Σ

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 Regular expressions…
 A regular expression is one of the following:
Symbol: a basic regular expression consisting of a single
character a, where a is from:
 an alphabet Σ of legal characters;
 the metacharacter ε: or
 the metacharacter ø.
 In the first case, L(a)={a};
 in the second case, L(ε)= {ε};
 in the third case, L(ø)= { }.
 {} – contains no string at all.
 {ε} – contains the single string consists of no character

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 Regular expressions…
 Union/Alternation: an expression of the form r|s,
where r and s are regular expressions.
 In this case , L(r|s) = L(r) U L(s) ={r,s}

 Concatenation: An expression of the form rs, where r

and s are regular expressions.
 In this case, L(rs) = L(r)L(s)={rs}

 Repetition: An expression of the form r*, where r is a

regular expression.
 In this case, L(r*) = L(r)* ={ε, r,…}

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Regular expression: Language Operations
 Union of L and M
L ∪ M = {s |s ∈ L or s ∈ M}
 Concatenation of L and M
 LM = {xy | x ∈ L and y ∈ M}
 Exponentiation of L
 L0 = {ε}; Li = Li-1L The following shorthands
 Kleene closure of L are often used:
 L* = ∪i=0,…,∞ Li r+ =rr*
 Positive closure of L r* = r+| ε
r? =r|ε
 L+ = ∪i=1,…,∞ Li
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 Regular expressions…
Examples:
1- a | b = {a,b}
2- (a|b)a = {aa,ba}
3- (ab) | ε ={ab, ε}
4- ((a|b)a)* = {ε, aa,ba,aaaa,baba,....}
 Reverse
1 – Even binary numbers (0|1)*0
2 – An alphabet consisting of just three alphabetic
characters: Σ = {a, b, c}. Consider the set of all strings
over this alphabet that contains exactly one b.
(a | c)*b(a|c)* {b, abc, abaca, baaaac, ccbaca, cccccb}

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Exercises
 Describe the languages denoted by the following
regular expressions:
1- a(a|b)*a
2- ((ε|a)b*)*
3- (a|b)*a(a|b)(a|b)
4- a*ba*ba*ba*
5- (aa|bb)*((ab|ba)(aa|bb)*(ab|ba)(aa|bb)*)*

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 Regular expressions for tokens

 Regular expressions are used to specify the

patterns of tokens.
 Each pattern matches a set of strings. It falls into
different categories:
 Reserved (Key) words: They are represented by
their fixed sequence of characters,
 Ex. if, while and do....
 If we want to collect all the reserved words into
one definition, we could write it as follows:
Reserved = if | while | do |...

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Regular expressions for tokens…
 Special symbols: including arithmetic operators,
assignment and equality such as =, :=, +, -, *
 Identifiers: which are defined to be a sequence of
letters and digits beginning with letter,
 we can express this in terms of regular definitions as
follows:
letter = A|B|…|Z|a|b|…|z
digit = 0|1|…|9
or
letter= [a-zA-Z]
digit = [0-9]
identifiers = letter(letter|digit)*
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Regular expressions for tokens…
 Numbers: Numbers can be:
 sequence of digits (natural numbers), or
 decimal numbers, or
 numbers with exponent (indicated by an e or E).
 Example: 2.71E-2 represents the number 0.0271.
 We can write regular definitions for these numbers as
follows:
nat = [0-9]+
signedNat = (+|-)? Nat
number = signedNat(“.” nat)?(E signedNat)?
 Literals or constants: which can include:
 numeric constants such as 42, and
 string literals such as “ hello, world”.
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Regular expressions for tokens…

 relop < | <= | = | <> | > | >=

 Comments: Ex. /* this is a C comment*/
 Delimiter  newline | blank | tab | comment
 White space = (delimiter )+

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 Design of a Lexical Analyzer/Scanner
Finite Automata
 Lex – turns its input program into lexical analyzer.
 At the heart of the transition is the formalism known as
finite automata.
1. Finite automata are recognizers; they simply say "yes" or
"no" about each possible input string.
2. Finite automata come in two flavors:
a) Nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) have no restrictions
on the labels of their edges.
ε, the empty string, is a possible label.
b) Deterministic finite automata (DFA) have, for each state,
and for each symbol of its input alphabet exactly one edge
with that symbol leaving that state.

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 The Whole Scanner Generator Process
Overview
 Direct construction of Nondeterministic finite
Automation (NFA) to recognize a given regular
expression.
 Easy to build in an algorithmic way
 Requires ε-transitions to combine regular sub expressions
 Construct a deterministic finite automation
(DFA) to simulate the NFA Optional
 Use a set-of-state construction
 Minimize the number of states in the DFA
 Generate the scanner code.

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Design of a Lexical Analyzer …
 Token  Pattern
 Pattern  Regular Expression
 Regular Expression  NFA
 NFA  DFA
 DFA’s or NFA’s for all tokens  Lexical Analyzer

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 Non-Deterministic Finite Automata
(NFA)
Definition
 An NFA M consists of five tuples: ( Σ,S, T, s0, F)
 A set of input symbols Σ, the input alphabet
 a finite set of states S,
 a transition function T: S × (Σ U { ε}) -> S (next state),

 a start state s0 from S, and

 a set of accepting/final states F from S.

 The language accepted by M, written L(M), is defined as:
The set of strings of characters c1c2...cn with each ci from Σ
U { ε} such that there exist states s 1 in T(s0,c1), s2 in
T(s1,c2), ... , sn in T(sn-1,cn) with sn an element of F.
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NFA…
 It is a finite automata which has choice of
edges
• The same symbol can label edges from one state to
several different states.
 An edge may be labeled by ε, the empty
string
• We can have transitions without any input
character consumption.

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Transition Graph
 The transition graph for an NFA recognizing the
language of regular expression (a|b)*abb
all strings of a's and b's ending in the
particular string abb
a

start a b b
0 1 2 3

b S={0,1,2,3}
Σ={a,b}
S0=0
F={3}
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 Transition Table
 The mapping T of an NFA can be represented
in a transition table
State Input Input Input
a b ε
0 {0,1} {0} ø

T(0,a) = {0,1} 1 ø {2} ø

T(0,b) = {0}
T(1,b) = {2} 2 ø {3} ø
T(2,b) = {3}
3 ø ø ø

The language defined by an NFA is the set of input

strings it accepts, such as (a|b)*abb for the example
NFA
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 Acceptance of input strings by NFA
 An NFA accepts input string x if and only if there is some path in the transition graph from the start state to one of the accepting states
 The string aabb is accepted by the NFA:

a a b b
0 0 1 2 3 YES

a a b b
0 0 0 0 0 NO

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 Another NFA
a

a


start
b
b


An -transition is taken without consuming any character from

the input.
What does the NFA above accepts?

aa*|bb*
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Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA)

 A deterministic finite automaton is a special

case of an NFA
 No state has an ε-transition
 For each state S and input symbol a there is at
most one edge labeled a leaving S
 Each entry in the transition table is a single state
 At most one path exists to accept a string
 Simulation algorithm is simple

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 DFA example
A DFA that accepts (a|b)*abb

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Simulating a DFA: Algorithm
How to apply a DFA to a string.
INPUT:
 An input string x terminated by an end-of-file character eof.
 A DFA D with start state So, accepting states F, and
transition function move.
OUTPUT: Answer ''yes" if D accepts x; "no" otherwise
METHOD
 Apply the algorithm in (next slide) to the input string x.
 The function move(s, c) gives the state to which there is an
edge from state s on input c.
 The function nextChar() returns the next character of the
input string x.

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Simulating a DFA
s = so;
c = nextchar();
while ( c != eof ) {
s = move(s, c);
c = nextchar();
}
if ( s is in F ) return
"yes"; DFA accepting (a|b)*abb
else return "no";

Given the input string ababb, this DFA enters the

sequence of states 0,1,2,1,2,3 and returns "yes"
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DFA: Exercise

 Draw DFAs for the string matched by the

following definition:
digit =[0-9]
nat=digit+
signednat=(+|-)?nat
number=signednat(“.”nat)?(E signedNat)?

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Design of a Lexical Analyzer Generator

Regular Expression DFA

Two algorithms:
1- Translate a regular expression into an NFA
(Thompson’s construction)

2- Translate NFA into DFA

(Subset construction)
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From regular expression to an NFA
 It is known as Thompson’s construction.

Rules:
1- For an ε, a regular expressions, construct:

start a

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From regular expression to an NFA…
2- For a composition of regular expression:
 Case 1: Alternation: regular expression(s|r), assume
that NFAs equivalent to r and s have been
constructed.

39
39
From regular expression to an NFA…
 Case 2: Concatenation: regular expression sr

ε
…r …s

Case 3: Repetition r*

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From RE to NFA:Exercises

 Construct NFA for token identifier.

letter(letter|digit)*
 Construct NFA for the following regular
expression:
(a|b)*abb

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 From an NFA to a DFA
(subset construction algorithm)

 Input NFA N Both accept the same

Output DFA D language usage (RE)

Rules:
 Start state of D is assumed to be unmarked.
 Start state of D is = ε-closer (S0),
where S0 - start state of N.

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NFA to a DFA…
ε- closure
ε-closure (S’) – is a set of states with the following
characteristics:
1- S’ € ε-closure(S’) itself
2- if t € ε-closure (S’) and if there is an edge labeled
ε from t to v, then v € ε-closure (S’)
3- Repeat step 2 until no more states can be added
to ε-closure (S’).
E.g: for NFA of (a|b)*abb
ε-closure (0)= {0, 1, 2, 4, 7}
ε-closure (1)= {1, 2, 4}

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 NFA to a DFA…
Algorithm
While there is unmarked state
X = { s0, s1, s2,..., sn} of D do
Begin
Mark X
For each input symbol ‘a’ do
Begin
Let T be the set of states to which there is a transition ‘a’ from state s i in X.
Y= ε-Closer (T)
If Y has not been added to the set of states of D then {
Mark Y an “Unmarked” state of D add a transition from X to Y labeled a if
not already presented
}
End
End

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 NFA for identifier: letter(letter|digit)*
ε

letter
3 4
ε ε
start
letter ε ε
0 1 2 7 8
digit ε
ε 5 6

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 NFA to a DFA…
Example: Convert the following NFA into the corresponding
DFA. letter (letter|digit)*
A={0}
B={1,2,3,5,8}
start letter C={4,7,2,3,5,8}
A B
D={6,7,8,2,3,5}

letter digit
letter
digit D digit
C

letter

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Exercise: convert NFA of (a|b)*abb in to DFA.

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The Lexical- Analyzer Generator: Lex
 The first phase in a compiler is, it reads the
input source and converts strings in the source
to tokens.
 Lex: generates a scanner (lexical analyzer or
lexer) given a specification of the tokens using
REs.
 The input notation for the Lex tool is referred to as
the Lex language and
 The tool itself is the Lex compiler.
 The Lex compiler transforms the input patterns into a
transition diagram and generates code, in a file called
lex.yy.c, that simulates this transition diagram.

48
 Lex…

 By using regular expressions, we can specify

patterns to lex that allow it to scan and match
strings in the input.
 Each pattern in lex has an associated action.
 Typically an action returns a token, representing the
matched string, for subsequent use by the parser.
 It uses patterns that match strings in the input and
converts the strings to tokens.

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 General Compiler Infra-structure
Parse tree
Program source Tokens Parser
Scanner Semantic
(tokenizer) Routines
(stream of
characters) Annotated/decorated
x c
Le
Y ac tree

Analysis/
Transformations/
Symbol and optimizations
literal Tables
IR: Intermediate
Representation

Code
Generator

Assembly code

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Scanner, Parser, Lex and Yacc

5151
 Generating a Lexical Analyzer using Lex
Lex is a scanner generator ----- it takes lexical specification as
input, and produces a lexical analyzer written in C.

Lex source
program Lex compiler lex.yy.c
lex.l

lex.yy.c
C compiler a.out

Sequence of
Input stream
a.out tokens

Lexical Analyzer
52
Implementation
 A DFA can be implemented by a 2D table T
 One dimension is “states”
 Other dimension is “input symbols”

 For every transition Si a Sk define T[i,a] = k

 DFA “execution”
 If in state Si and input a, read T[i,a] = k and
skip to state Sk
 Very efficient

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Table Implementation of a DFA
0
0 T

S 0 1
1
1 U

0 1
S T U
T T U
U T U

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Implementation (Cont.)
 NFA -> DFA conversion is at the heart of
tools such as flex or jflex

 But, DFAs can be huge

 In practice, flex-like tools trade off speed

for space in the choice of NFA and DFA
representations

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Readings
 Chapter 3 of the book: Aho2