Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

o Introduction to Compiler
o Compiler Architecture / Structure
o Phases of Compiler
o Exercise

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

o What is Compiler ?
o What is the need of Compiler?

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

Introduction to Compiler
o Compiler : Simply stated, it is a language processer , a
compiler is a program that can read a program in one language
- the source language - and translate it into an equivalent
program in another language - the target language; see Fig.
below.
o An important role of the compiler is to report any errors in the
source program that it detects during the translation process.

o If the target program is an executable machine-language

program, it can then be called by the user to process inputs and
produce outputs; see Fig. Below .
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

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.

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

Introduction to Compiler
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.

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Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
This subject discusses the various techniques used to achieve this

objective(Compiler Design).

In addition to the development of a compiler, the techniques used in compiler

design can be applicable to many problems in computer science.

o Techniques used in a lexical analyzer can be used in text editors, information retrieval system,

and pattern recognition programs.

o Techniques used in a parser can be used in a query processing system such as SQL.

o Many software having a complex front-end may need techniques used in compiler design.

o A symbolic equation solver which takes an equation as input. That

o program should parse the given input equation.

o Most of the techniques used in compiler design can be used in Natural Language
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Processing (NLP) systems.
Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
Introduction to Compiler
o An interpreter is another common kind of language processor that
instead of producing a target program as a translation, an interpreter
appears to directly execute the operations specified in the source
program on input supplied by the user.

o The machine-language target program produced by a compiler is

usually much faster than an interpreter at mapping inputs to outputs .
o An interpreter, however, can usually give better error diagnostics than
a compiler, because it executes the source program statement by
statement.
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Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
Introduction to Compiler
o Example 1.1 : Java language processors combine compilation and
interpretation, as shown in Fig. (hybrid complier). A Java source
program may first be compiled into an intermediate form called
bytecodes. The bytecodes are then interpreted by a virtual
machine. A benefit of this arrangement is that bytecodes compiled
on one machine can be interpreted on another machine , perhaps
across a network. In order to achieve faster processing of inputs to
outputs, some Java compilers, called just-in-time compilers,
translate the bytecodes into machine language immediately before
they run the intermediate program to process the input.

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Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
Context of Compiler
o In addition to a compiler, several other
programs are required to create an executable
target program, as shown in Fig.
o A source program may be divided into modules
stored in separate files. The task of collecting
the source program is sometimes entrusted to a
separate program, called a preprocessor.
o The preprocessor may also expand short-hands,
called macros, into source language statements.
o The linker resolves external memory addresses,
where the code in one file may refer to a
location in another file
o The loader then puts together all executable
object files into memory for execution

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Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
Context of Compiler
o The modified source program is then fed to a compiler. The compiler
may produce an assembly-language program as its output, because
assembly language is easier to produce as output and is easier to
debug.
o The assembly language is then processed by a program called an
assembler that produces relocatable machine code as its output.
o Large programs are often compiled in pieces, so the relocatable
machine code may have to be linked together with other relocatable
object files and library files into the code that actually runs on the
machine. The linker resolves external memory addresses, where the
code in one file may refer to a location in another file. The loader then
puts together all of the executable object files into memory for
execution.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler

Structure of a Compiler

There are two major parts of a compiler : Analysis and Synthesis . The analysis part

is often called the front end of the compiler; the synthesis part is the back end.
Analysis Part
o The analysis part breaks up the source program into constituent pieces and
imposes a grammatical structure on them.
o It then uses this structure to create an intermediate representation of the source
program.
o If the analysis part detects that the source program is either syntactically ill
formed or semantically unsound, then it must provide informative messages, so
the user can take corrective action.
o The analysis part also collects information about the source program and stores it
in a data structure called a symbol table, which is passed along with the
intermediate representation to the synthesis part.
o Lexical Analyzer, Syntax Analyzer and Semantic Analyzer are the phases in this
part.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a Compiler
Structure of a Compiler
Synthesis Part
o The synthesis part constructs the desired target program from the
intermediate representation and the information in the symbol
table.
o The symbol table, which stores information about the entire
source program, is used by all phases of the compiler.
o If we examine the compilation process in more detail, we see that
it operates as a sequence of phases, each of which transforms one
representation of the source program to another.
o Intermediate Code Generator, Code Generator, and Code
Optimizer are the phases in this part.

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler Character stream

The Phases of a Compiler

Lexical Analyzer
o Conceptually , a compiler operates
in phases , each of which Token stream
transforms the Source program
form one representation to another. Syntax Analyzer

o The first three phases, forming the Syntax tree

bulk of analysis operation of a
Semantic Analyzer
compiler. And the last three phases
forming the bulk of Synthesis Syntax tree
operation of a complier.
Symbol Error
Intermediate Code Generator
o The other activities, symbol-table Table handler
management and error handling , intermediate representation
are shown interacting with the six
phases of lexical analysis, syntax Code Optimizer
analysis, semantic analysis ,
intermediate code generation, code intermediate representation
optimization and code generation .
Code Generator

target-machine code
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Lexical Analysis
o The first phase of a compiler is called lexical analysis or scanning.
The lexical analyzer reads the stream of characters making up the
source program and groups the characters into meaningful sequences
called lexemes.
o A token describes a pattern of characters having same meaning in the
source program. (such as identifiers, operators, keywords, numbers,
delimiters and so on)
o For each lexeme, the lexical analyzer produces as output a token of the
form that it passes on to the subsequent phase, syntax analysis .
<token- name, attribute-value>
• In the token, the first component token- name is an abstract symbol
that is used during syntax analysis , and the second component
attribute-value points to an entry in the symbol table for this token.
Information from the symbol-table entry 'is needed for semantic
analysis and code generation.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Lexical Analysis
o Puts information about
identifiers(token) into the symbol
table.
o Regular expressions are used to
describe tokens (lexical constructs).
o A (Deterministic) Finite State
Automaton can be used in the
implementation of a lexical
analyzer.
o position, =, initial , + , rate ,* and
60 are token

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Syntax Analysis
o A Syntax Analyzer creates the syntactic
structure (generally a parse tree) of the
given program.
o A syntax analyzer is also called a parser.
o A parse tree describes a syntactic
structure
o The syntax of a language is specified by
a context free grammar (CFG).
o The rules in a CFG are mostly
recursive.
o A syntax analyzer checks whether a
given program satisfies the rules
implied by a CFG or not. If it satisfies,
the syntax analyzer creates a parse tree
for the given program.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Syntax Analysis
o Generate CFG for the given parse tree:
o Depending on how the parse tree is
created, there are different parsing
techniques. These parsing techniques
are categorized into two groups:
o Top-Down Parsing,
o Bottom-Up Parsing
Top-Down Parsing:
o Construction of the parse tree starts at
the root, and proceeds towards the
leaves. Bottom-Up Parsing:
o Efficient top-down parsers can be easily o Construction of the parse tree starts at
constructed by hand. the leaves, and proceeds towards the
o Recursive Predictive Parsing, Non- root.
Recursive Predictive Parsing (LL o Normally efficient bottom-up parsers
Parsing).
are created with the help of some
software tools.
o Bottom-up parsing is also known as
shift-reduce parsing.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Semantic Analysis
o A semantic analyzer checks the source program for semantic
errors and collects the type information for the code generation.
o Semantic Analysis makes sure that declarations and statements
of program are semantically correct.
o It is a collection of procedures which is called by parser as and
when required by grammar.
o Type-checking is an important part of semantic analyzer.
o Normally semantic information cannot be represented by a
context-free language used in syntax analyzers.
o Context-free grammars used in the syntax analysis are integrated
with attributes (semantic rules) . The result is a syntax-directed
translation and Attribute grammars
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Semantic Analysis
o The semantic analyzer uses the syntax tree and the
information in the symbol table to check the source program
for semantic consistency with the language definition.
o It also gathers type information and saves it in either the
syntax tree or the symbol table, for subsequent use during
intermediate-code generation.

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Intermediate Code Generation
o A compiler may produce an
explicit intermediate codes
representing the source program.
o These intermediate codes are
generally machine architecture
independent. But the level of
intermediate codes is close to the
level of machine codes.

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Code Optimization
• The code optimizer optimizes the code produced by the
intermediate code generator in the terms of time and space.

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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
The Phases of a Compiler
Code Generation
• The code generator takes as input an intermediate representation
of the source program and maps it into the target language.
• If the target language is machine code, registers Or memory
locations are selected for each of the variables used by the
program.
• Then, the intermediate instructions are translated into sequences
of machine instructions that perform the same task. A crucial
aspect of code generation is the judicious assignment of registers
to hold variables.
• Produces the target language in a specific architecture.
• The target program is normally is a relocatable object file
containing the machine codes.
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
Symbol-Table Management
• An essential function of a compiler is to record the variables
names used in the source program and collect information about
various attributes of each name
• These attributes may provide information about the storage
allocated for a name, its type, its scope (where in the program its
program can be used), and in the case of procedure names, such
things as the number and types of its arguments, the method of
passing each argument (e.g., by value or by reference), and the
type returned
• The symbol table is a data structure containing a record for each
variable name, with fields for attributes of the name
• The data structure should be designed to allow the compiler to
find the record for each name quickly and to store or retrieve data
from that record quickly
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler Construction Tools
Compiler
• There are tools created to help implement the various phases of a compiler
• These tools use specialized languages for specifying and implementing specific
components, and many use quite sophisticated algorithm
• Some commonly used compiler construction tools include:
• Parser generators that automatically produce syntax analyzers from a
grammatical description of a programming language
• Scanner generators that produce lexical analyzers from a regular-expression
description of the tokens of the language
• Syntax-directed translation engines that produce collections of routines for
walking a parse tree and generating intermediate code
• Code generator generators that produce a code a generator form a collection of
rules for translating each operation of the intermediate language into the machine
language for a target machine
• Data-flow analysis engines that facilitate the gathering of information about how
values are transmitted from one part of the program to each other part. Data flow
analysis is key part of code optimization
• Compiler-construction toolkits that provide an integrated set of routines for
constructing various phases of a compiler
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 Chapter One : An Overview of a
Compiler
Exercises
• What is the difference between a compiler and an
interpreter?
• What are the advantages of (a) a compiler over an interpreter
(b) an interpreter over a compiler?
• What advantages are there to a language-processing system
in which the compiler produces assembly language rather
than machine language?
• A compiler that translates a high-level language into another
high-level language is called a source-to-source translator.
What advantages are there to using C as a target language
for a compiler?
• Describe some of the tasks that an assembler needs to
perform.
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