1|Page

Compiler Construction
Language Processing System
We have learnt that any computer system is made of hardware and
software. The hardware understands a language, which humans cannot
understand. So we write programs in high-level language, which is easier
for us to understand and remember. These programs are then fed into a
series of tools and OS components to get the desired code that can be
used by the machine. This is known as Language Processing System.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

2|Page

The high-level language is converted into binary language in various

phases. A compiler is a program that converts high-level language to
assembly language. Similarly, an assembler is a program that converts
the assembly language to machine-level language.

Let us first understand how a program, using C compiler, is executed on a

host machine.

 User writes a program in C language (high-level language).

 The C compiler, compiles the program and translates it to assembly program

(low-level language).

 An assembler then translates the assembly program into machine code

(object).

 A linker tool is used to link all the parts of the program together for execution
(executable machine code).

 A loader loads all of them into memory and then the program is executed.

Before diving straight into the concepts of compilers, we should

understand a few other tools that work closely with compilers.

Preprocessor
A preprocessor, generally considered as a part of compiler, is a tool that
produces input for compilers. It deals with macro-processing,
augmentation, file inclusion, language extension, etc.

Interpreter
An interpreter, like a compiler, translates high-level language into low-
level machine language. The difference lies in the way they read the source
code or input. A compiler reads the whole source code at once, creates
tokens, checks semantics, generates intermediate code, executes the
whole program and may involve many passes. In contrast, an interpreter
reads a statement from the input, converts it to an intermediate code,
executes it, then takes the next statement in sequence. If an error occurs,
an interpreter stops execution and reports it. whereas a compiler reads
the whole program even if it encounters several errors.

Assembler
An assembler translates assembly language programs into machine
code.The output of an assembler is called an object file, which contains a

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

3|Page

combination of machine instructions as well as the data required to place

these instructions in memory.

Linker
Linker is a computer program that links and merges various object files
together in order to make an executable file. All these files might have
been compiled by separate assemblers. The major task of a linker is to
search and locate referenced module/routines in a program and to
determine the memory location where these codes will be loaded, making
the program instruction to have absolute references.

Loader
Loader is a part of operating system and is responsible for loading
executable files into memory and execute them. It calculates the size of a
program (instructions and data) and creates memory space for it. It
initializes various registers to initiate execution.

Cross-compiler
A compiler that runs on platform (A) and is capable of generating
executable code for platform (B) is called a cross-compiler.

Source-to-source Compiler
A compiler that takes the source code of one programming language and
translates it into the source code of another programming language is
called a source-to-source compiler.

Structure Of Compiler:
A compiler can broadly be divided into two phases based on the way they
compile.

Analysis Phase
Known as the front-end of the compiler, the analysis phase of the
compiler reads the source program, divides it into core parts and then
checks for lexical, grammar and syntax errors.The analysis phase
generates an intermediate representation of the source program and
symbol table, which should be fed to the Synthesis phase as input.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

4|Page

Synthesis Phase
Known as the back-end of the compiler, the synthesis phase generates
the target program with the help of intermediate source code
representation and symbol table.

A compiler can have many phases and passes.

 Pass : A pass refers to the traversal of a compiler through the entire program.

 Phase : A phase of a compiler is a distinguishable stage, which takes input

from the previous stage, processes and yields output that can be used as input
for the next stage. A pass can have more than one phase.

Phases of compiler
The compilation process is a sequence of various phases. Each phase takes
input from its previous stage, has its own representation of source
program, and feeds its output to the next phase of the compiler. Let us
understand the phases of a compiler.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

5|Page

Lexical Analysis
The first phase of scanner works as a text scanner. This phase scans the
source code as a stream of characters and converts it into meaningful
lexemes. Lexical analyzer represents these lexemes in the form of tokens
as:

<token-name, attribute-value>

Syntax Analysis

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

6|Page

The next phase is called the syntax analysis or parsing. It takes the token
produced by lexical analysis as input and generates a parse tree (or syntax
tree). In this phase, token arrangements are checked against the source
code grammar, i.e. the parser checks if the expression made by the tokens
is syntactically correct.

Semantic Analysis
Semantic analysis checks whether the parse tree constructed follows the
rules of language. For example, assignment of values is between
compatible data types, and adding string to an integer. Also, the semantic
analyzer keeps track of identifiers, their types and expressions; whether
identifiers are declared before use or not etc. The semantic analyzer
produces an annotated syntax tree as an output.

Intermediate Code Generation

After semantic analysis the compiler generates an intermediate code of
the source code for the target machine. It represents a program for some
abstract machine. It is in between the high-level language and the
machine language. This intermediate code should be generated in such a
way that it makes it easier to be translated into the target machine code.

Code Optimization
The next phase does code optimization of the intermediate code.
Optimization can be assumed as something that removes unnecessary
code lines, and arranges the sequence of statements in order to speed up
the program execution without wasting resources (CPU, memory).

Code Generation
In this phase, the code generator takes the optimized representation of
the intermediate code and maps it to the target machine language. The
code generator translates the intermediate code into a sequence of
(generally) re-locatable machine code. Sequence of instructions of
machine code performs the task as the intermediate code would do.

Symbol Table
It is a data-structure maintained throughout all the phases of a compiler.
All the identifier's names along with their types are stored here. The
symbol table makes it easier for the compiler to quickly search the
identifier record and retrieve it. The symbol table is also used for scope
management.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

7|Page

Lexical Analysis
Lexical analysis is the first phase of a compiler. It takes the modified source
code from language preprocessors that are written in the form of
sentences. The lexical analyzer breaks these syntaxes into a series of
tokens, by removing any whitespace or comments in the source code.

If the lexical analyzer finds a token invalid, it generates an error. The

lexical analyzer works closely with the syntax analyzer. It reads character
streams from the source code, checks for legal tokens, and passes the
data to the syntax analyzer when it demands.

Tokens
Lexemes are said to be a sequence of characters (alphanumeric) in a
token. There are some predefined rules for every lexeme to be identified
as a valid token. These rules are defined by grammar rules, by means of
a pattern. A pattern explains what can be a token, and these patterns are
defined by means of regular expressions.

In programming language, keywords, constants, identifiers, strings,

numbers, operators and punctuations symbols can be considered as
tokens.

For example, in C language, the variable declaration line

int value = 100;

contains the tokens:

int (keyword), value (identifier), = (operator), 100 (constant) and ; (symbol).

Specifications of Tokens
Let us understand how the language theory undertakes the following
terms:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

8|Page

Alphabets
Any finite set of symbols {0,1} is a set of binary alphabets,
{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F} is a set of Hexadecimal alphabets, {a-
z, A-Z} is a set of English language alphabets.

Strings
Any finite sequence of alphabets is called a string. Length of the string is
the total number of occurrence of alphabets, e.g., the length of the string
tutorialspoint is 14 and is denoted by |tutorialspoint| = 14. A string having
no alphabets, i.e. a string of zero length is known as an empty string and
is denoted by ε (epsilon).

Special Symbols
A typical high-level language contains the following symbols:-

Arithmetic Symbols Addition(+), Subtraction(-), Modulo(%), Multiplication(*),

Division(/)

Punctuation Comma(,), Semicolon(;), Dot(.), Arrow(->)

Assignment =

Special Assignment +=, /=, *=, -=

Comparison ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=

Preprocessor #

Location Specifier &

Logical &, &&, |, ||, !

Shift Operator >>, >>>, <<, <<<

Language
A language is considered as a finite set of strings over some finite set of
alphabets. Computer languages are considered as finite sets, and

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

9|Page

mathematically set operations can be performed on them. Finite languages

can be described by means of regular expressions.

Longest Match Rule

When the lexical analyzer read the source-code, it scans the code letter by
letter; and when it encounters a whitespace, operator symbol, or special
symbols, it decides that a word is completed.

For example:

int intvalue;

While scanning both lexemes till ‘int’, the lexical analyzer cannot determine
whether it is a keyword int or the initials of identifier int value.

The Longest Match Rule states that the lexeme scanned should be
determined based on the longest match among all the tokens available.

The lexical analyzer also follows rule priority where a reserved word,
e.g., a keyword, of a language is given priority over user input. That is, if
the lexical analyzer finds a lexeme that matches with any existing reserved
word, it should generate an error.

Regular Expressions
The lexical analyzer needs to scan and identify only a finite set of valid
string/token/lexeme that belong to the language in hand. It searches for
the pattern defined by the language rules.

Regular expressions have the capability to express finite languages by

defining a pattern for finite strings of symbols. The grammar defined by
regular expressions is known as regular grammar. The language defined
by regular grammar is known as regular language.

Regular expression is an important notation for specifying patterns. Each

pattern matches a set of strings, so regular expressions serve as names
for a set of strings. Programming language tokens can be described by
regular languages. The specification of regular expressions is an example
of a recursive definition. Regular languages are easy to understand and
have efficient implementation.

There are a number of algebraic laws that are obeyed by regular

expressions, which can be used to manipulate regular expressions into
equivalent forms.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

10 | P a g e

Operations
The various operations on languages are:

 Union of two languages L and M is written as

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

 Concatenation of two languages L and M is written as

LM = {st | s is in L and t is in M}

 The Kleene Closure of a language L is written as

L* = Zero or more occurrence of language L.

Notations
If r and s are regular expressions denoting the languages L(r) and L(s),
then

 Union : (r)|(s) is a regular expression denoting L(r) U L(s)

 Concatenation : (r)(s) is a regular expression denoting L(r)L(s)

 Kleene closure : (r)* is a regular expression denoting (L(r))*

 (r) is a regular expression denoting L(r)

Precedence and Associativity

 *, concatenation (.), and | (pipe sign) are left associative

 * has the highest precedence

 Concatenation (.) has the second highest precedence.

 | (pipe sign) has the lowest precedence of all.

Representing valid tokens of a language in regular

expression
If x is a regular expression, then:

 x* means zero or more occurrence of x.

i.e., it can generate { e, x, xx, xxx, xxxx, … }

 x+ means one or more occurrence of x.

i.e., it can generate { x, xx, xxx, xxxx … } or x.x*

 x? means at most one occurrence of x

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

11 | P a g e

i.e., it can generate either {x} or {e}.

[a-z] is all lower-case alphabets of English language.

[A-Z] is all upper-case alphabets of English language.

[0-9] is all natural digits used in mathematics.

Representing occurrence of symbols using regular

expressions
letter = [a – z] or [A – Z]

digit = 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 or [0-9]

sign = [ + | - ]

Representing language tokens using regular expressions

Decimal = (sign)?(digit)+

Identifier = (letter)(letter | digit)*

The only problem left with the lexical analyzer is how to verify the validity
of a regular expression used in specifying the patterns of keywords of a
language. A well-accepted solution is to use finite automata for
verification.

Finite Automata
Finite automata is a state machine that takes a string of symbols as input
and changes its state accordingly. Finite automata is a recognizer for
regular expressions. When a regular expression string is fed into finite
automata, it changes its state for each literal. If the input string is
successfully processed and the automata reaches its final state, it is
accepted, i.e., the string just fed was said to be a valid token of the
language in hand.

The mathematical model of finite automata consists of:

 Finite set of states (Q)

 Finite set of input symbols (Σ)

 One Start state (q0)

 Set of final states (qf)

 Transition function (δ)

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

12 | P a g e

The transition function (δ) maps the finite set of state (Q) to a finite set of
input symbols (Σ), Q × Σ ➔ Q

Finite Automata Construction

Let L(r) be a regular language recognized by some finite automata (FA).

 States : States of FA are represented by circles. State names are written

inside circles.

 Start state : The state from where the automata starts, is known as the start
state. Start state has an arrow pointed towards it.

 Intermediate states : All intermediate states have at least two arrows; one
pointing to and another pointing out from them.

 Final state : If the input string is successfully parsed, the automata is

expected to be in this state. Final state is represented by double circles. It
may have any odd number of arrows pointing to it and even number of arrows
pointing out from it. The number of odd arrows are one greater than even,
i.e. odd = even+1.

 Transition : The transition from one state to another state happens when a
desired symbol in the input is found. Upon transition, automata can either
move to the next state or stay in the same state. Movement from one state to
another is shown as a directed arrow, where the arrows points to the
destination state. If automata stays on the same state, an arrow pointing from
a state to itself is drawn.

Example : We assume FA accepts any three digit binary value ending in

digit 1. FA = {Q(q0, qf), Σ(0,1), q0, qf, δ}

Syntax analysis

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

13 | P a g e

Syntax analysis or parsing is the second phase of a compiler. In this

chapter, we shall learn the basic concepts used in the construction of a
parser.

We have seen that a lexical analyzer can identify tokens with the help of
regular expressions and pattern rules. But a lexical analyzer cannot check
the syntax of a given sentence due to the limitations of the regular
expressions. Regular expressions cannot check balancing tokens, such as
parenthesis. Therefore, this phase uses context-free grammar (CFG),
which is recognized by push-down automata.

CFG, on the other hand, is a superset of Regular Grammar, as depicted

below:

It implies that every Regular Grammar is also context-free, but there

exists some problems, which are beyond the scope of Regular Grammar.
CFG is a helpful tool in describing the syntax of programming languages.

Context-Free Grammar
In this section, we will first see the definition of context-free grammar and
introduce terminologies used in parsing technology.

A context-free grammar has four components:

 A set of non-terminals (V). Non-terminals are syntactic variables that denote

sets of strings. The non-terminals define sets of strings that help define the
language generated by the grammar.

 A set of tokens, known as terminal symbols (Σ). Terminals are the basic
symbols from which strings are formed.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

14 | P a g e

 A set of productions (P). The productions of a grammar specify the manner

in which the terminals and non-terminals can be combined to form strings.
Each production consists of a non-terminal called the left side of the
production, an arrow, and a sequence of tokens and/or on- terminals, called
the right side of the production.

 One of the non-terminals is designated as the start symbol (S); from where
the production begins.

The strings are derived from the start symbol by repeatedly replacing a
non-terminal (initially the start symbol) by the right side of a production,
for that non-terminal.

Example
We take the problem of palindrome language, which cannot be described
by means of Regular Expression. That is, L = { w | w = wR } is not a
regular language. But it can be described by means of CFG, as illustrated
below:
G = ( V, Σ, P, S )

Where:
V = { Q, Z, N }
Σ = { 0, 1 }
P = { Q → Z | Q → N | Q → ℇ | Z → 0Q0 | N → 1Q1 }
S = { Q }

This grammar describes palindrome language, such as: 1001, 11100111,

00100, 1010101, 11111, etc.

Syntax Analyzers
A syntax analyzer or parser takes the input from a lexical analyzer in the
form of token streams. The parser analyzes the source code (token
stream) against the production rules to detect any errors in the code. The
output of this phase is a parse tree.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

15 | P a g e

This way, the parser accomplishes two tasks, i.e., parsing the code,
looking for errors and generating a parse tree as the output of the phase.

Parsers are expected to parse the whole code even if some errors exist in
the program. Parsers use error recovering strategies, which we will learn
later in this chapter.

Derivation
A derivation is basically a sequence of production rules, in order to get the
input string. During parsing, we take two decisions for some sentential
form of input:

 Deciding the non-terminal which is to be replaced.

 Deciding the production rule, by which, the non-terminal will be replaced.

To decide which non-terminal to be replaced with production rule, we can

have two options.

Left-most Derivation
If the sentential form of an input is scanned and replaced from left to right,
it is called left-most derivation. The sentential form derived by the left-
most derivation is called the left-sentential form.

Right-most Derivation
If we scan and replace the input with production rules, from right to left,
it is known as right-most derivation. The sentential form derived from the
right-most derivation is called the right-sentential form.

Example

Production rules:

E → E + E

E → E * E

E → id

Input string: id + id * id

The left-most derivation is:

E → E * E

E → E + E * E

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

16 | P a g e

E → id + E * E

E → id + id * E

E → id + id * id

Notice that the left-most side non-terminal is always processed first.

The right-most derivation is:

E → E + E

E → E + E * E

E → E + E * id

E → E + id * id

E → id + id * id

Parse Tree
A parse tree is a graphical depiction of a derivation. It is convenient to see
how strings are derived from the start symbol. The start symbol of the
derivation becomes the root of the parse tree. Let us see this by an
example from the last topic.

We take the left-most derivation of a + b * c

The left-most derivation is:

E → E * E

E → E + E * E

E → id + E * E

E → id + id * E

E → id + id * id

Step 1:

E→E*E

Step 2:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

17 | P a g e

E→E+E*E

Step 3:

E → id + E * E

Step 4:

E → id + id * E

Step 5:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

18 | P a g e

E → id + id * id

In a parse tree:

 All leaf nodes are terminals.

 All interior nodes are non-terminals.

 In-order traversal gives original input string.

A parse tree depicts associativity and precedence of operators. The

deepest sub-tree is traversed first, therefore the operator in that sub-tree
gets precedence over the operator which is in the parent nodes.

Ambiguity
A grammar G is said to be ambiguous if it has more than one parse tree
(left or right derivation) for at least one string.

Example

E → E + E

E → E – E

E → id

For the string id + id – id, the above grammar generates two parse trees:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

19 | P a g e

The language generated by an ambiguous grammar is said to

be inherently ambiguous. Ambiguity in grammar is not good for a
compiler construction. No method can detect and remove ambiguity
automatically, but it can be removed by either re-writing the whole
grammar without ambiguity, or by setting and following associativity and
precedence constraints.

Associativity
If an operand has operators on both sides, the side on which the operator
takes this operand is decided by the associativity of those operators. If the
operation is left-associative, then the operand will be taken by the left
operator or if the operation is right-associative, the right operator will take
the operand.

Example

Operations such as Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction, and Division are

left associative. If the expression contains:

id op id op id

it will be evaluated as:

(id op id) op id

For example, (id + id) + id

Operations like Exponentiation are right associative, i.e., the order of

evaluation in the same expression will be:

id op (id op id)

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

20 | P a g e

For example, id ^ (id ^ id)

Precedence
If two different operators share a common operand, the precedence of
operators decides which will take the operand. That is, 2+3*4 can have
two different parse trees, one corresponding to (2+3)*4 and another
corresponding to 2+(3*4). By setting precedence among operators, this
problem can be easily removed. As in the previous example,
mathematically * (multiplication) has precedence over + (addition), so the
expression 2+3*4 will always be interpreted as:

2 + (3 * 4)

These methods decrease the chances of ambiguity in a language or its

grammar.

Left Recursion
A grammar becomes left-recursive if it has any non-terminal ‘A’ whose
derivation contains ‘A’ itself as the left-most symbol. Left-recursive
grammar is considered to be a problematic situation for top-down parsers.
Top-down parsers start parsing from the Start symbol, which in itself is
non-terminal. So, when the parser encounters the same non-terminal in
its derivation, it becomes hard for it to judge when to stop parsing the left
non-terminal and it goes into an infinite loop.

Example:
(1) A => Aα | β

(2) S => Aα | β
A => Sd

(1) is an example of immediate left recursion, where A is any non-terminal

symbol and α represents a string of non-terminals.

(2) is an example of indirect-left recursion.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

21 | P a g e

A top-down parser will first parse the A, which in-turn will yield a string
consisting of A itself and the parser may go into a loop forever.

Removal of Left Recursion

One way to remove left recursion is to use the following technique:

The production
A => Aα | β

is converted into following productions

A => βA'
A'=> αA' | ε

This does not impact the strings derived from the grammar, but it removes
immediate left recursion.

Second method is to use the following algorithm, which should eliminate

all direct and indirect left recursions.
START

Arrange non-terminals in some order like A1, A2, A3,…, An

for each i from 1 to n

{
for each j from 1 to i-1
{
replace each production of form Ai ⟹Aj𝜸
with Ai ⟹ δ1𝜸 | δ2𝜸 | δ3𝜸 |…| 𝜸
where Aj ⟹ δ1 | δ2|…| δn are current Aj productions
}
}
eliminate immediate left-recursion

END

Example

The production set

S => Aα | β

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

22 | P a g e

A => Sd

after applying the above algorithm, should become

S => Aα | β
A => Aαd | βd

and then, remove immediate left recursion using the first technique.
A => βdA'
A' => αdA' | ε

Now none of the production has either direct or indirect left recursion.

Left Factoring
If more than one grammar production rules has a common prefix string,
then the top-down parser cannot make a choice as to which of the
production it should take to parse the string in hand.

Example

If a top-down parser encounters a production like

A ⟹ αβ | α𝜸 | …

Then it cannot determine which production to follow to parse the string as

both productions are starting from the same terminal (or non-terminal).
To remove this confusion, we use a technique called left factoring.

Left factoring transforms the grammar to make it useful for top-down

parsers. In this technique, we make one production for each common
prefixes and the rest of the derivation is added by new productions.

Example

The above productions can be written as

A => αA'
A'=> β | 𝜸 | …

Now the parser has only one production per prefix which makes it easier
to take decisions.

First and Follow Sets

An important part of parser table construction is to create first and follow
sets. These sets can provide the actual position of any terminal in the
derivation. This is done to create the parsing table where the decision of
replacing T[A, t] = α with some production rule.

First Set

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

23 | P a g e

This set is created to know what terminal symbol is derived in the first
position by a non-terminal. For example,
α → t β

That is α derives t (terminal) in the very first position. So, t ∈ FIRST(α).

ALGORITHM FOR CALCULATING FIRST SET

Look at the definition of FIRST(α) set:

 if α is a terminal, then FIRST(α) = { α }.

 if α is a non-terminal and α → ℇ is a production, then FIRST(α) = { ℇ }.

 if α is a non-terminal and α → 𝜸1 𝜸2 𝜸3 … 𝜸n and any FIRST(𝜸) contains t

then t is in FIRST(α).

First set can be seen as:

Follow Set
Likewise, we calculate what terminal symbol immediately follows a non-
terminal α in production rules. We do not consider what the non-terminal
can generate but instead, we see what would be the next terminal symbol
that follows the productions of a non-terminal.

ALGORITHM FOR CALCULATING FOLLOW SET:

 if α is a start symbol, then FOLLOW() = $

 if α is a non-terminal and has a production α → AB, then FIRST(B) is in

FOLLOW(A) except ℇ.

 if α is a non-terminal and has a production α → AB, where B ℇ, then FOLLOW(A)

is in FOLLOW(α).

Follow set can be seen as: FOLLOW(α) = { t | S *αt*}

Limitations of Syntax Analyzers

Syntax analyzers receive their inputs, in the form of tokens, from lexical
analyzers. Lexical analyzers are responsible for the validity of a token
supplied by the syntax analyzer. Syntax analyzers have the following
drawbacks -

 it cannot determine if a token is valid,

 it cannot determine if a token is declared before it is being used,

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

24 | P a g e

 it cannot determine if a token is initialized before it is being used,

 it cannot determine if an operation performed on a token type is valid or not.

These tasks are accomplished by the semantic analyzer, which we shall

study in Semantic Analysis.

Types of 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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

25 | P a g e

E → E + T

E → E * T

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

Top-Down-Parser;
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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

26 | P a g e

Recursive Descent Parsing

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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

27 | P a g e

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.

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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

28 | P a g e

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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

29 | P a g e

might be instances where there is no production matching the input string,

making the parsing procedure to fail.

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.

Initial State : $S on stack (with S being start symbol)

ω$ in the input buffer

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

30 | P a g e

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.

 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).

Bottum up parser:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

31 | P a g e

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.

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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

32 | P a g e

 SLR(1) – Simple LR Parser:

o Works on smallest class of grammar

o Few number of states, hence very small table

o Simple and fast construction

 LR(1) – LR Parser:

o Works on complete set of LR(1) Grammar

o Generates large table and large number of states

o Slow construction

 LALR(1) – Look-Ahead LR Parser:

o Works on intermediate size of grammar

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

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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

33 | P a g e

return

else

error()

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

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

Continuously pops a nonterminal off Tries to recognize a right hand side on

the stack, and pushes the the stack, pops it, and pushes the
corresponding right hand side. corresponding nonterminal.

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

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

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

Error Recovery
A parser should be able to detect and report any error in the program. It
is expected that when an error is encountered, the parser should be able
to handle it and carry on parsing the rest of the input. Mostly it is expected

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

34 | P a g e

from the parser to check for errors but errors may be encountered at
various stages of the compilation process. A program may have the
following kinds of errors at various stages:

 Lexical : name of some identifier typed incorrectly

 Syntactical : missing semicolon or unbalanced parenthesis

 Semantical : incompatible value assignment

 Logical : code not reachable, infinite loop

There are four common error-recovery strategies that can be implemented

in the parser to deal with errors in the code.

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. 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.

Abstract Syntax Trees

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

35 | P a g e

Parse tree representations are not easy to be parsed by the compiler, as

they contain more details than actually needed. Take the following parse
tree as an example:

If watched closely, we find most of the leaf nodes are single child to their
parent nodes. This information can be eliminated before feeding it to the
next phase. By hiding extra information, we can obtain a tree as shown
below:

Abstract tree can be represented as:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

36 | P a g e

ASTs are important data structures in a compiler with least unnecessary

information. ASTs are more compact than a parse tree and can be easily
used by a compiler.

Samentic Analysis
We have learnt how a parser constructs parse trees in the syntax analysis
phase. The plain parse-tree constructed in that phase is generally of no
use for a compiler, as it does not carry any information of how to evaluate
the tree. The productions of context-free grammar, which makes the rules
of the language, do not accommodate how to interpret them.

For example

E → E + T

The above CFG production has no semantic rule associated with it, and it
cannot help in making any sense of the production.

Semantics
Semantics of a language provide meaning to its constructs, like tokens and
syntax structure. Semantics help interpret symbols, their types, and their
relations with each other. Semantic analysis judges whether the syntax
structure constructed in the source program derives any meaning or not.

CFG + semantic rules = Syntax Directed Definitions

For example:

int a = “value”;

should not issue an error in lexical and syntax analysis phase, as it is

lexically and structurally correct, but it should generate a semantic error
as the type of the assignment differs. These rules are set by the grammar
of the language and evaluated in semantic analysis. The following tasks
should be performed in semantic analysis:

 Scope resolution

 Type checking

 Array-bound checking

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

37 | P a g e

Semantic Errors
We have mentioned some of the semantics errors that the semantic
analyzer is expected to recognize:

 Type mismatch

 Undeclared variable

 Reserved identifier misuse.

 Multiple declaration of variable in a scope.

 Accessing an out of scope variable.

 Actual and formal parameter mismatch.

Attribute Grammar
Attribute grammar is a special form of context-free grammar where some
additional information (attributes) are appended to one or more of its non-
terminals in order to provide context-sensitive information. Each attribute
has well-defined domain of values, such as integer, float, character, string,
and expressions.

Attribute grammar is a medium to provide semantics to the context-free

grammar and it can help specify the syntax and semantics of a
programming language. Attribute grammar (when viewed as a parse-tree)
can pass values or information among the nodes of a tree.

Example:

E → E + T { E.value = E.value + T.value }

The right part of the CFG contains the semantic rules that specify how the
grammar should be interpreted. Here, the values of non-terminals E and
T are added together and the result is copied to the non-terminal E.

Semantic attributes may be assigned to their values from their domain at

the time of parsing and evaluated at the time of assignment or conditions.
Based on the way the attributes get their values, they can be broadly
divided into two categories : synthesized attributes and inherited
attributes.

Synthesized attributes
These attributes get values from the attribute values of their child nodes.
To illustrate, assume the following production:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

38 | P a g e

S → ABC

If S is taking values from its child nodes (A,B,C), then it is said to be a

synthesized attribute, as the values of ABC are synthesized to S.

As in our previous example (E → E + T), the parent node E gets its value
from its child node. Synthesized attributes never take values from their
parent nodes or any sibling nodes.

Inherited attributes
In contrast to synthesized attributes, inherited attributes can take values
from parent and/or siblings. As in the following production,

S → ABC

A can get values from S, B and C. B can take values from S, A, and C.
Likewise, C can take values from S, A, and B.

Expansion : When a non-terminal is expanded to terminals as per a

grammatical rule

Reduction : When a terminal is reduced to its corresponding non-terminal

according to grammar rules. Syntax trees are parsed top-down and left to
right. Whenever reduction occurs, we apply its corresponding semantic
rules (actions).

Semantic analysis uses Syntax Directed Translations to perform the above

tasks.

Semantic analyzer receives AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) from its previous
stage (syntax analysis).

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

39 | P a g e

Semantic analyzer attaches attribute information with AST, which are

called Attributed AST.

Attributes are two tuple value, <attribute name, attribute value>

For example:

int value = 5;

<type, “integer”>

<presentvalue, “5”>

For every production, we attach a semantic rule.

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

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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

40 | P a g e

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.

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).

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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

41 | P a g e

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.

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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

42 | P a g e

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
tablewhich can be accessed by all the procedures and scope symbol
tables that are created for each scope in the program.

To determine the scope of a name, symbol tables are arranged in

hierarchical structure as shown in the example below:

. . .

int value=10;

void pro_one()

int one_1;

int one_2;

{ \

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

43 | P a g e

int one_3; |_ inner scope 1

int one_4; |

} /

int one_5;

{ \

int one_6; |_ inner scope 2

int one_7; |

} /

void pro_two()

int two_1;

int two_2;

{ \

int two_3; |_ inner scope 3

int two_4; |

} /

int two_5;

. . .

The above program can be represented in a hierarchical structure of

symbol tables:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

44 | P a g e

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.

ICG
A source code can directly be translated into its target machine code, then
why at all we need to translate the source code into an intermediate code
which is then translated to its target code? Let us see the reasons why we
need an intermediate code.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

45 | P a g e

 If a compiler translates the source language to its target machine language

without having the option for generating intermediate code, then for each new
machine, a full native compiler is required.

 Intermediate code eliminates the need of a new full compiler for every unique
machine by keeping the analysis portion same for all the compilers.

 The second part of compiler, synthesis, is changed according to the target

machine.

 It becomes easier to apply the source code modifications to improve code

performance by applying code optimization techniques on the intermediate
code.

Intermediate Representation
Intermediate codes can be represented in a variety of ways and they have
their own benefits.

 High Level IR - High-level intermediate code representation is very close to

the source language itself. They can be easily generated from the source code
and we can easily apply code modifications to enhance performance. But for
target machine optimization, it is less preferred.

 Low Level IR - This one is close to the target machine, which makes it suitable
for register and memory allocation, instruction set selection, etc. It is good for
machine-dependent optimizations.

Intermediate code can be either language specific (e.g., Byte Code for
Java) or language independent (three-address code).

Three-Address Code
Intermediate code generator receives input from its predecessor phase,
semantic analyzer, in the form of an annotated syntax tree. That syntax
tree then can be converted into a linear representation, e.g., postfix

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

46 | P a g e

notation. Intermediate code tends to be machine independent code.

Therefore, code generator assumes to have unlimited number of memory
storage (register) to generate code.

For example:

a = b + c * d;

The intermediate code generator will try to divide this expression into sub-
expressions and then generate the corresponding code.

r1 = c * d;

r2 = b + r1;

a = r2

r being used as registers in the target program.

A three-address code has at most three address locations to calculate the

expression. A three-address code can be represented in two forms :
quadruples and triples.

Quadruples
Each instruction in quadruples presentation is divided into four fields:
operator, arg1, arg2, and result. The above example is represented below
in quadruples format:

Op arg1 arg2 result

* c d r1

+ b r1 r2

+ r2 r1 r3

= r3 a

Triples
Each instruction in triples presentation has three fields : op, arg1, and
arg2.The results of respective sub-expressions are denoted by the position

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

47 | P a g e

of expression. Triples represent similarity with DAG and syntax tree. They
are equivalent to DAG while representing expressions.

Op arg1 arg2

* c d

+ b (0)

+ (1) (0)

= (2)

Triples face the problem of code immovability while optimization, as the

results are positional and changing the order or position of an expression
may cause problems.

Indirect Triples
This representation is an enhancement over triples representation. It uses
pointers instead of position to store results. This enables the optimizers to
freely re-position the sub-expression to produce an optimized code.

Declarations
A variable or procedure has to be declared before it can be used.
Declaration involves allocation of space in memory and entry of type and
name in the symbol table. A program may be coded and designed keeping
the target machine structure in mind, but it may not always be possible to
accurately convert a source code to its target language.

Taking the whole program as a collection of procedures and sub-

procedures, it becomes possible to declare all the names local to the
procedure. Memory allocation is done in a consecutive manner and names
are allocated to memory in the sequence they are declared in the program.
We use offset variable and set it to zero {offset = 0} that denote the base
address.

The source programming language and the target machine architecture

may vary in the way names are stored, so relative addressing is used.
While the first name is allocated memory starting from the memory

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

48 | P a g e

location 0 {offset=0}, the next name declared later, should be allocated

memory next to the first one.

Example:

We take the example of C programming language where an integer

variable is assigned 2 bytes of memory and a float variable is assigned 4
bytes of memory.

int a;

float b;

Allocation process:

{offset = 0}

int a;

id.type = int

id.width = 2

offset = offset + id.width

{offset = 2}

float b;

id.type = float

id.width = 4

offset = offset + id.width

{offset = 6}

To enter this detail in a symbol table, a procedure enter can be used. This
method may have the following structure:

enter(name, type, offset)

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

49 | P a g e

This procedure should create an entry in the symbol table, for

variable name, having its type set to type and relative address offset in its
data area.

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.

 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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

50 | P a g e

[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;

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:

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

51 | P a g e

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:

...

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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

52 | P a g e

...

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.

Code Generator
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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

53 | P a g e

 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 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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

54 | P a g e

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.

 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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

55 | P a g e

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.

 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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

56 | P a g e

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 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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

57 | P a g e

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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

58 | P a g e

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:

 Either never executed or unreachable,

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

59 | P a g e

 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.

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.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

60 | P a g e

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]

[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

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal

61 | P a g e

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

...

tmp = y OP z;

c = tmp;

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

only once.

Organized By:Matloob Hussain Sahmal