Compiler Construction

(CSC-320)
Lecture # 03
Course Instructor: M. Ramzan Shahid Khan

Department of Computer Science,

Namal University Mianwali
Fall Semester, 2024
Topics
• Phases of Compiler

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What are the Phases of Compiler Design?
• Compiler Operates in various phases

• Each phase transforms the source program from one representation

to another.

• Every phase takes inputs from its previous stage and feeds its output
to the next phase of the compiler.

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 The Phases of a Compiler
Phase Output Sample
Programmer Source string A=B+C;
Scanner (performs lexical Token string ‘A’, ‘=’, ‘B’, ‘+’, ‘C’, ‘;’
analysis) And symbol table for identifiers
;
Parser (performs syntax Parse tree or abstract syntax tree |
analysis based on the grammar =
/ \
of the programming language) A +
/ \
B C

Semantic analyzer (type Parse tree or abstract syntax tree

checking, etc)
Intermediate code generator Three-address code, quads, or int2fp B t1
RTL (Register Transfer Level) + t1 C t2
:= t2 A
Optimizer Three-address code, quads, or int2fp B t1
RTL (Register Transfer Level) + t1 #2.3 A
Code generator Assembly code MOVF #2.3,r1
ADDF2 r1,r2
MOVF r2,A
Peephole optimizer Assembly code ADDF2 #2.3,r2
MOVF r2,A
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The Grouping of Phases

• Compiler front and back ends:

• Analysis (machine independent front end)
• Synthesis (machine dependent back end)
• Passes
• A collection of phases may be repeated only once (single pass) or
multiple times (multi pass)
• Single pass: usually requires everything to be defined before being used
in source program
• Multi pass: compiler may have to keep entire program representation in
memory

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The Analysis-Synthesis Model of Compilation

•There are two parts to compilation:

•Analysis determines the operations implied by the source program
which are recorded in a tree structure

•Synthesis takes the tree structure and translates the operations therein
into the target program

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Other Tools that Use the Analysis-Synthesis
Model
• Editors (syntax highlighting)
• Pretty printers (e.g. doxygen)
• Static checkers (e.g. lint and splint)
• Interpreters
• Text formatters (e.g. TeX and LaTeX)
• Silicon compilers (e.g. VHDL)
• Query interpreters/compilers (Databases)

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Compiler-Construction Tools
1.Parser generators that automatically produce syntax analyzers from a
grammatical description of a programming language.
2.Scanner generators that produce lexical analyzers from a regular-expression
description of the tokens of a language.
3.Syntax-directed translation engines that produce collections of routines for
walking a parse tree and generating intermediate code.
4.Code-generator generators that produce a code generator from a collection
of rules for translating each operation of the intermediate language into the
machine language for a target machine.
5.Data-flow analysis engines that facilitate the gathering of information about
how values are transmitted from one part of a program to each other part.
Data-flow analysis is a key part of code optimization.
6.Compiler-construction toolkits that provide an integrated set of routines for
constructing various phases of a compiler. 8
Compiler-Construction Tools
Software development tools are available to implement one or
more compiler phases:
• Scanner generators (JFlex)
https://www.jflex.de/#:~:text=JFlex%20is%20designed%20to%20
work,or%20as%20a%20standalone%20tool.
• Parser generators
• Syntax-directed translation engines
• Automatic code generators
• Data-flow engines

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Phases of Compiler
• There are 6 phases involved in the construction of a Compiler.

• Each of this phase help in converting the high-level language into the machine code.

• The phases of compiler are:

1. Lexical Analysis (Also Called Scanner)
2. Syntax Analysis
3. Semantic Analysis
4. Intermediate Code Generator
5. Code Optimizer
6. Code Generator

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 Phases of Compiler
Symbol Table

High Level Lexical Syntax Intermediate Code Code Machine

Language Analyser Analyser Code Generator Optimizer Generator Code

Error Handler

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Phases of Compiler
• All these phases convert the Source Code by

• Dividing into Tokens,

• Creating Parse Trees, and

• Optimizing the Source Code by different Phases

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Phase 1: Lexical Analysis
• Lexical Analysis is the first phase when compiler scans the source
code.

• This process can be

• Left to right
• Character by character, and
• Group these characters into tokens.

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Phase 1: Lexical Analysis
• Here, the character stream from the source program is grouped in
meaningful sequences by identifying the tokens.

• It makes the entry of the corresponding tickets into the symbol table
and passes that token to next phase.

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Phase 1: Lexical Analysis
The primary functions of this phase are:

• Identify the lexical units in a source code

• Classify lexical units into classes like

• Constants,
• Reserved Words, and
• Enter them in different tables
• It will ignore comments in the source program
• Identify token which is not a part of the language

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Phase 1: Lexical Analysis - Example
X = Y + 10

Tokens:

X Identifier
= Assignment Operator
Y Identifier
+ Addition Operator
10 Number

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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis
• Syntax Analysis is all about discovering structure in code.

• It determines whether or not a text follows the expected format.

• The main aim of this phase is to make sure that the source code was
written by the programmer is correct or not.

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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis
• Syntax analysis is based on the rules based on the specific
programming language by constructing the Parse Tree with the help
of tokens.

• It also determines the structure of source language and grammar or

syntax of the language.

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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis
Here, is a list of tasks performed in this phase:

• Obtain tokens from the lexical analyser

• Check if the expression is syntactically correct or not

• Report all syntax errors

• Construct a hierarchical structure which is known as a Parse Tree

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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis - Example
Any identifier/ number is an expression

If X is an identifier and Y + 10 is an expression,

Then

X = Y + 10 is a statement.

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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis - Example
Consider Parse Tree for the Following Example:

(a+b)*c
*

+ c

a b
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Phase 2: Syntax Analysis - Example
In Parse Tree

• Interior Node: Record with an operator filed and two files for children

• Leaf: Records with 2/ more fields; One for Token and Other Information about the Token

• Ensure that the components of the program fit together meaningfully

• Gathers type information and checks for type compatibility

• Checks operands are permitted by the source language

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Phase 3: Semantic Analysis
• Semantic analysis checks the semantic consistency of the code.

• It uses the syntax tree of the previous phase along with the symbol
table to verify that the given source code is semantically consistent.

• It also checks whether the code is conveying an appropriate

meaning.

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Phase 3: Semantic Analysis
• Semantic Analyser will check for

• Type Mismatches,

• Incompatible Operands,

• A function called with improper arguments,

• An undeclared variable, etc.

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Phase 3: Semantic Analysis
Functions of Semantic Analyses Phase are:

• Helps you to store type information gathered and save it in symbol

table or syntax tree

• Allows you to perform type checking

• In the case of Type Mismatch, where there are no exact type

correction rules which satisfy the desired operation a Semantic Error
is shown
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Phase 3: Semantic Analysis
• Collects type information and checks for type compatibility

• Checks if the source language permits the operands or not

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Phase 3: Semantic Analysis - Example
float X = 20.2;
float Y = X * 30;

In the above code, the semantic analyse will typecast the integer 30 to
float 30.0 before multiplication.

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Phase 4: Intermediate Code Generation
• Once the semantic analysis phase is over the compiler, generates
intermediate code for the target machine.

• It represents a Program for some Abstract Machine.

• Intermediate Code is between the High-Level and Machine Level

Language.

• This intermediate code needs to be generated in such a manner that

makes it easy to translate it into the target machine code.
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Phase 4: Intermediate Code Generation
Functions on Intermediate Code Generation:

• It should be generated from the semantic representation of the

source program

• Holds the values computed during the process of translation

• Helps you to translate the intermediate code into target language

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Phase 4: Intermediate Code Generation
• Allows you to maintain precedence ordering of the source language

• It holds the correct number of Operands of the instruction

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Phase 4: Intermediate Code Generation –
Example
total = count + rate * 5

Intermediate code with the help of address code method is:

t1 := int_to_float(5)
t2 := rate * t1
t3 := count + t2
total := t3

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Phase 5: Code Optimization
• The next phase is Code Optimization

• This phase removes unnecessary code line and arranges the

sequence of statements to speed up the execution of the program
without wasting resources.

• The main goal of this phase is to improve on the intermediate code

to generate a code that runs faster and occupies less space.

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Phase 5: Code Optimization
The primary functions of this phase are:

• It helps you to establish a trade-off between execution and

compilation speed

• Improves the running time of the target program

• Generates streamlined code still in intermediate representation

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Phase 5: Code Optimization
• Removing unreachable code and getting rid of unused variables

• Removing statements which are not altered from the loop

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Phase 5: Code Optimization - Example
a = int_to_float(10)
b=c*a
d=e+b
f=d

Can become

b = c * 10.0
f=e+b

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Phase 6: Code Generation
• Code Generation is the last and final phase of a compiler.

• It gets inputs from code optimization phases and produces the page
code or object code as a result.

• The objective of this phase is to allocate storage and generate

relocatable machine code.

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Phase 6: Code Generation
• It also allocates memory locations for the variable.

• The instructions in the intermediate code are converted into

machine instructions.

• This phase converts the optimize or intermediate code into the target
language.

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Phase 6: Code Generation
• The target language is the machine code.

• Therefore, all the memory locations and registers are also selected
and allotted during this phase.

• The code generated by this phase is executed to take inputs and

generate expected outputs.

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Phase 6: Code Generation - Example
a = b + 60.0

Would be possibly translated to registers.

MOVF a, R1
MULF #60.0, R2
ADDF R1, R2

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Symbol Table Management
• A Symbol Table contains a record for each identifier with fields for the
attributes of the identifier.

• This component makes it easier for the compiler to search the

identifier record and retrieve it quickly.

• The symbol table also helps you for the scope management.

• The symbol table and error handler interact with all the phases and
symbol table update correspondingly.
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Error Handling Routine
In the compiler design process error may occur in all the below-given
phases:

• Lexical Analyser: Wrongly Spelled Tokens

• Syntax Analyser: Missing Parenthesis

• Intermediate Code Generator: Mismatched Operands for an Operator

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Error Handling Routine
• Code Optimizer: When the statement is not reachable

• Code Generator: When the memory is full or proper registers are not
allocated

• Symbol Tables: Error of Multiple Declared Identifiers

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Error Handling Routine
• Most common errors are:

• Invalid character sequence in scanning,

• Invalid token sequences in type,

• Scope error, and

• Parsing in semantic analysis

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Error Handling Routine
• The error may be encountered in any of the above phases.

• After finding errors, the phase needs to deal with the errors to
continue with the compilation process.

• These errors need to be reported to the error handler which handles

the error to perform the compilation process.

• Generally, the errors are reported in the form of message.

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Summary
• Compiler operates in various phases each phase transforms the
source program from one representation to another

• Six phases of Compiler Design are

1. Lexical Analysis
2. Syntax Analysis
3. Semantic Analysis
4. Intermediate Code Generator
5. Code Optimizer
6. Code Generator

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Summary
• Lexical Analysis is the first phase when compiler scans the source
code.

• Syntax Analysis is all about discovering structure in text.

• Semantic Analysis checks the semantic consistency of the code

• Once the semantic analysis phase is over the compiler, generate

intermediate code for the target machine
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Summary
• Code Optimization Phase removes unnecessary code line and
arranges the sequence of statements

• Code Generation Phase gets inputs from code optimisation phase and
produces the page code or object code as a result

• A Symbol Table contains a record for each identifier with fields for the
attributes of the identifier

• Error Handling routine handles error and reports during many phases
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