Lexical Analysis

Outline
Role of lexical analyzer
Specification of tokens
Recognition of tokens
Lexical analyzer generator
Finite automata
Design of lexical analyzer generator

pass token
and attribute value

read char
Source
program

Lexical
analyzer
put back
char

Read entire
program into
memory

id
Symbol Table

Compiler Construction

Parser
get next

The role of lexical

analyzer
Source
program

Lexical
Analyzer

token

Parser
getNextToken

Symbol
table

To semantic
analysis

Other tasks
Stripping out from the source program

comment and white space in the form of

blank, tab and newline characters .
Correlate error messages with source program
(e.g., line number of error).

Lexical analyzer
operations)

scanning (simple

lexical analysis(complex)

Why to separate Lexical

analysis
and
parsing
1. Simplicity of design
Eliminate the white space and comment lines
before parsing

1. Improving compiler efficiency

A large amount of time is being spent on
reading the source program and generating
the tokens

1. Enhancing compiler portability

The representation of special or non
standard symbols can be isolated in the
lexical analyzer

Tokens, Patterns and

Lexemes
Pattern: A rule that describes a set of strings
Token: A set of strings in the same pattern
Lexeme: The sequence of characters of a token

Example
Token

Informal description

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

Letter followed by letter and digits

Any numeric constant
Anything but sorrounded by

Sample lexemes
if
else
<=, !=
pi, score, D2
3.14159, 0, 6.02e23
core dumped

 E = C1 * 10

Token

Attribute

ID

Index to symbol table entry E

=
ID

Index to symbol table entry C1

*
NUM

10
Compiler Construction

Lexical Error and

Error detection
Recovery
Error reporting
Error recovery

Delete the current character and restart scanning at

the next character
Delete the first character read by the scanner and
resume scanning at the character following it.

Compiler Construction

Input buffering
Sometimes lexical analyzer needs to look

ahead some symbols to decide about the

token to return
In C language: we need to look after -, = or < to

decide what token to return

We need to introduce a two buffer scheme to

handle large look-aheads safely

E = M * C * * 2 eof

Specification of Tokens
Regular expressions are an important notation for specifying
lexeme patterns. While they cannot express all possible
patterns, they are very effective in specifying those types
of patterns that we actually need for tokens.

Compiler Construction

Specification of tokens
In theory of compilation regular expressions

are used to formalize the specification of

tokens
Regular expressions are means for specifying
regular languages
Example:

Letter(letter| digit)*

Each regular expression is a pattern

specifying the form of strings

Regular expressions
is a regular expression, L() = {}
If a is a symbol in then a is a regular
expression, L(a) = {a}
(r) | (s) is a regular expression denoting the
language L(r) L(s)
(r)(s) is a regular expression denoting the
language L(r)L(s)
(r)* is a regular expression denoting (L(r))*
R* = R concatenated with itself 0 or more
times
= {} R RR RRR

Extensions
One or more instances: (r)+
Zero of one instances: r?
Character classes: [ abc ]
Example:
letter_ -> [A-Z , a-z_]
digit
id

-> [0-9]
-> letter(letter | digit)*

Regular definitions
d1 -> r1
d2 -> r2

d n -> r

Example:
letter -> A | B | | Z | a | b | | z | _
digit
-> 0 | 1 | | 9
id
-> letter(letter| digit)*

Operations on Languages

Example:
Let L be the set of letters {A, B, . . . , Z, a, b, . . . , z ) and let D
be the set of digits {0,1,.. .9). L and D are, respectively, the
alphabets of uppercase and lowercase letters and of digits.
other languages can be constructed from L and D, using the
operators illustrated above

Operations on Languages
1. L U D is the set of letters and digits - strictly speaking the
language with 62 (52+10) strings of length one, each of which
strings is either one letter or one digit.
2. LD is the set of 520 strings of length two, each consisting of
one letter followed by one digit.(1052).
Ex: A1, a1,B0,etc
3. L4 is the set of all 4-letter strings. (ex: aaba, bcef)
4. L* is the set of all strings of letters, including e, the empty
string.
5. L(L U D)* is the set of all strings of letters and digits beginning
with a letter.
6. D+ is the set of all strings of one or more digits.
Compiler Construction

Terms for Parts of Strings

Compiler Construction

Specification of Tokens
Algebraic laws of regular expressions
1) |= |
2) |(|)=(|)| () =( )
3) (| )= |
(|)= |
4) = =
5)(*)*=*
6) *= |
* = *
7) (|)*= (* | *)*= (* *)*

Recognition of Tokens
Task of recognition of token in a lexical analyzer

Isolate the lexeme for the next token in the

input buffer

Produce as output a pair consisting of the

appropriate token and attribute-value, such
as <id,pointer to table entry> , using the
translation table given in the Fig in next page

Recognition of Tokens
Task of recognition of token in a lexical analyzer

Regular
expression
if
id

Token

<

relop

if
id

Attributevalue
Pointer to
table entry
LT

Recognition of Tokens
Methods to recognition of token

Use Transition Diagram

Recognition of tokens
Starting point is the language grammar to

understand the tokens:

Grammar for branching statement
stmt -> if expr then stmt
| if expr then stmt else stmt
|
expr -> term relop term
| term
term -> id
| number

Recognition of tokens
(cont.)
The next step is to formalize the patterns:
digit
-> [0-9]
digits -> digit+
number -> digits(.digits)? (E[+|-]? digits)?
letter -> [A-Z a-z_]
id
-> letter (letter | digit)*
If
-> if
Then
-> then
Else
-> else
Relop -> < | > | <= | >= | = | <>

We also need to handle whitespaces:

ws -> (blank | tab | newline)+

Ex :RELOP = < | <= | = | <> | > | >=

=
1
<
=

start
0

>
other

return(relop,LE)

return(relop,NE)

return(relop,LT)

return(relop,EQ)
>
6
# indicates input retraction
Compiler Construction

=
other

return(relop,GE)

# return(relop,GT)

 Ex2:

ID = letter(letter | digit) *

Transition Diagram:

letter or digit
letter

start
9

other
10

11
return(id)

# indicates input retraction

Compiler Construction

Transition diagrams
(cont.)
Transition diagram for whitespace

letter or digit
letter

start
9

other
10

11

return(id)

switch (state) {
case 9:
if (isletter( c) ) state = 10; else state =
failure();
break;
case 10:
c = nextchar();
if (isletter( c) || isdigit( c) ) state = 10;
else state 11
case 11: retract(1); insert(id); return;

Architecture of a transition-diagrambased lexical analyzer

TOKEN getRelop()
{
TOKEN retToken = new (RELOP)
while (1) {
/* repeat character processing until a
return or failure occurs
*/
switch(state) {
case 0: c= nextchar();
if (c == <) state = 1;
else if (c == =) state = 5;
else if (c == >) state = 6;
else fail();
/* lexeme is not a relop */
break;
case 1:

case 8: retract();
retToken.attribute = GT;
return(retToken);
}

Lexical Analyzer
Generator - Lex
Lex Source
program
lex.l
lex.yy.c

Input stream

Lexical
Compiler

lex.yy.c

C
compiler

a.out

a.out

Sequence
of tokens

Structure of Lex
programs
declarations
%%
translation rules
%%
auxiliary functions

Pattern

{Action}

Example

%{
/* definitions of manifest constants
LT, LE, EQ, NE, GT, GE,
IF, THEN, ELSE, ID, NUMBER, RELOP */
%}
/* regular
delim
ws
letter
digit
id
number

definitions
[ \t\n]
{delim}+
[A-Za-z]
[0-9]
{letter}({letter}|{digit})*
{digit}+(\.{digit}+)?(E[+-]?{digit}+)?

%%
{ws}
{/* no action and no return */}
if
{return(IF);}
then
{return(THEN);}
else
{return(ELSE);}
{id}
{yylval = (int) installID(); return(ID); }
{number}
{yylval = (int) installNum();
return(NUMBER);}

Int installID() {/* funtion to install

the lexeme, whose first
character is pointed to by
yytext, and whose length is
yyleng, into the symbol table
and return a pointer thereto */
}
Int installNum() { /* similar to
installID, but puts numerical
constants into a separate
table */
}

Finite Automata
Regular expressions = specification
Finite automata = implementation
A finite automaton consists of
An input alphabet
A set of states S
A start state n
A set of accepting states F S
A set of transitions state input state
35

Finite Automata
Transition

s1 a s2
Is read

In state s1 on input a go to state s2

If end of input
If in accepting state => accept, othewise =>
reject
If no transition possible => reject
36

Finite Automata State Graphs

A state

The start state

An accepting state
A transition

37

A
Simple
Example
A finite automaton that accepts only 1
1

A finite automaton accepts a string if we can

follow transitions labeled with the characters

in the string from the start to some accepting
state

38

Another
Simple
Example
A finite automaton accepting any number of
1s followed by a single 0
Alphabet: {0,1}
1
0

Check that 1110 is accepted but 110 is

not
39

And
Another
Example
Alphabet {0,1}
What language does this recognize?
0

1
0
1

40

And Another Example

Alphabet still { 0, 1 }
1
1

The operation of the automaton is not

completely defined by the input

On input 11 the automaton could be in either

state
41

Epsilon
Moves
Another kind of transition: -moves
A

Machine can move from state A to state B

without reading input

42

Deterministic and
Nondeterministic
Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA)
One transition per input per state
Automata
No -moves
Nondeterministic Finite Automata (NFA)
Can have multiple transitions for one input in a
given state
Can have -moves
Finite automata have finite memory
Need only to encode the current state
43

Execution of Finite
Automata
A DFA can take only one path through the
state graph
Completely determined by input

NFAs can choose

Whether to make -moves
Which of multiple transitions for a single input
to take

44

Acceptance of NFAs
An NFA can get into multiple states
1
0

Input:

Rule: NFA accepts if it can get in a final state

45

NFA vs. DFA (1)

NFAs and DFAs recognize the same set of

languages (regular languages)

DFAs are easier to implement

There are no choices to consider

46

NFA vs. DFA (2)

For a given language the NFA can be simpler

than the DFA

1

NFA

0
1

DFA

1
1

DFA can be exponentially larger than NFA

47

Regular Expressions to
High-level sketch
Finite Automata
NFA
Regular
expressions

DFA

Lexical
Specification

Table-driven
Implementation of DFA

48

Regular Expressions to
For each
NFA
(1)
kind of rexp, define an NFA
Notation: NFA for rexp A

For
For input a

49

Regular Expressions to
For AB(2)
NFA

For A | B

B
A

50

Regular Expressions to
NFA
For A*(3)

51

Example of RegExp ->

NFA
conversion
Consider
the regular expression
(1 | 0)*1
The NFA is

C 1

0 F
D

52

Next
NFA
Regular
expressions

DFA

Lexical
Specification

Table-driven
Implementation of DFA

53

NFA to DFA. The Trick

Simulate the NFA
Each state of resulting DFA
= a non-empty subset of states of the NFA
Start state
= the set of NFA states reachable through moves from NFA start state

Add a transition S a S to DFA iff

S is the set of NFA states reachable from the
states in S after seeing the input a

considering -moves as well

54

NFA -> DFA

Example

C 1

0 F
D

0
ABCDHI

FGABCDHI

1
EJGABCDHI

0
1

55

NFA to DFA. Remark

An NFA may be in many states at any time
How many different states ?
If there are N states, the NFA must be in some

subset of those N states

How many non-empty subsets are there?
2N - 1 = finitely many, but exponentially many
56

Implementation
A DFA can be implemented by a 2D table T
One dimension is states
Other dimension is input symbols
For every transition Si a Sk define T[i,a] = k
DFA execution
If in state Si and input a, read T[i,a] = k and
skip to state Sk
Very efficient

57

Table Implementation of
0
a DFA
T
0

58

Implementation (Cont.)
NFA -> DFA conversion is at the heart of tools

such as flex or jflex

But, DFAs can be huge
In practice, flex-like tools trade off speed for

space in the choice of NFA and DFA

representations

59

Readings
Chapter 3 of the book