BNF

By: Asim Ali Khan

18-May-15
 Metalanguages

 A metalanguage is a language used to talk about a language

(usually a different one)
 We can use English as its own metalanguage (e.g. describing English
grammar in English)
 We need a formal, precise means of describing the syntax of
programming languages
 For decades, BNF has met that need
 One of the irritating things about Java is that it has no official BNF
definition—hence, it‟s sometimes hard to tell what is legal syntax
 It is essential to distinguish between the metalanguage terms
and the object language terms
 For example, BNF uses the | symbol, as do many programming
languages—so if we see a |, what is it?
 BNF

 BNF stands for either Backus-Naur Form or Backus Normal

Form
 BNF is a metalanguage that is frequently used to describe the
grammar of a programming language
 BNF is formal and precise
 BNF is essential in compiler construction
 If you know about “context-free grammars (CFGs),” BNF is
one way of defining CFGs
 There are many dialects of BNF in use, but…
 …the differences are almost always minor
 BNF metasymbols
 Anything enclosed in < > is a nonterminal that needs to be further
expanded, e.g. <variable>
 That is, if you see <variable> in the description of a programming
language, that means “a variable goes here”
 Symbols not enclosed in < > are terminals; they represent
themselves, e.g. if, while, (
 That is, if you see while in the description of a programming language,
that means “the actual word „while‟ goes here”
 The symbol ::= means is defined as
 The symbol | means or; it separates alternatives, for example,
<addop> ::= + | -
 That is, if you see an <addop>, it means “either a „+‟ or a „-‟ goes here”
 BNF uses recursion
 <integer> ::= <digit> | <integer> <digit>
or
<integer> ::= <digit> | <digit> <integer>
 Many people find recursion confusing
 “Extended BNF” (which we‟ll talk about shortly)
allows repetition as well as recursion
 Repetition is often easier to implement (with a loop)
than recursion, so Extended BNF has become popular
 BNF Examples I
 <digit> ::=
0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
 This defines the metasymbol „<digit>‟
 What it means is, “If the description of the syntax says „<digit>‟, you need
an actual digit in this location”
 <if statement> ::=
if ( <condition> ) <statement>
| if ( <condition> ) <statement>
else <statement>
 The symbols if, (, ), and else are terminals—they stand for themselves
 <if statement>, <condition>, and <statement> are metasymbols
 If you see an <if statement>, you should replace it by either
if (<condition>) <statement>
or with
if (<condition>) <statement> else <statement>
 Next, you need to replace <condition> and <statement> with their
definitions
 BNF Examples II
 <unsigned integer> ::=
<digit> | <unsigned integer> <digit>

 <integer> ::=
<unsigned integer>
| + <unsigned integer>
| - <unsigned integer>
 BNF Examples III

 <identifier> ::=
<letter>
| <identifier> <letter>
| <identifier> <digit>

 <block> ::= { <statement list> }

 <statement list> ::=

<statement>
| <statement list> <statement>
 BNF Examples IV
 <statement> ::=
<block>
| <assignment statement>
| <break statement>
| <continue statement>
| <do statement>
| <for loop>
| <goto statement>
| <if statement>
| ...
 Extended BNF

 Dialects differ, but the following are pretty standard:

 [ ] enclose an optional part of the rule
 Example:
<if statement> ::=
if ( <condition> ) <statement>
[ else <statement> ]

 { } mean the enclosed can be repeated any number of

times (including zero)
 Example:
<parameter list> ::= ( )
| ( { <parameter> , } <parameter> )
 Variations
 The preceding notation is the original and most
common notation
 BNF was designed before we had boldface, color, more
than one font, etc.
 A typical modern variation might:
 Use boldface to indicate multi-character terminals
 Quote single-character terminals (because boldface isn‟t so
obvious in this case)
 Example:
 if_statement ::=
if "(" condition ")" statement [ else statement ]
 Limitations of BNF
 No easy way to impose length limitations, such as
maximum length of variable names
 No way to impose distributed requirements, such as, a
variable must be declared before it is used
 Describes only syntax, not semantics
 Nothing clearly better has been devised
 The meta-symbols of BNF are:::=meaning "is defined
as"|meaning "or"< >angle brackets used to surround
category names.The angle brackets distinguish syntax
rules names (also called non-terminal symbols) from
terminal symbols which are written exactly as they are
to be represented.
 A BNF rule defining a nonterminal has the
form:nonterminal ::= sequence_of_alternatives
consisting of strings of terminals or nonterminals
separated by the meta-symbol | For example, the BNF
production for a mini-language is:<program> ::=
program <declaration_sequence> begin
<statements_sequence> end ; This shows that a mini-
language program consists of the keyword "program"
followed by the declaration sequence, then the keyword
"begin" and the statements sequence, finally the
keyword "end" and a semicolon.(end of quotation)