Compiler Design

Chapter 7: Run Time- Environments

Instructor: Fikru T. (MSc.)

Email: [email protected]

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 Symbol Table
• Symbol table is an important data structure used in a compiler.
• Symbol table is used to store the information about the occurrence of various
entities such as objects, classes, variable name, interface, function name etc.
• It is used by both the analysis and synthesis phases.
• The symbol table used for following purposes:
ü It is used to store the name of all entities in a structured form at one place.

ü It is used to determine the scope of a name.

ü It is used to implement type checking by verifying assignments and
expressions in the source code are semantically correct.
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• A symbol table can either be linear or a hash table.
• Using the following format, it maintains the entry for each name.
<symbol name, type, attribute>
• For example, suppose a variable store the information about the following
variable declaration:
static int salary
• then, it stores an entry in the following format:
<salary, int, static>
• The clause attribute contains the entries related to the name.

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Implementation
• The symbol table can be implemented in the unordered list if the
compiler is used to handle the small amount of data.
• A symbol table can be implemented in one of the following techniques:
1. Linear (sorted or unsorted) list
2. Hash table
3. Binary search tree
• Symbol table are mostly implemented as hash table.

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Operations
• The symbol table provides the following operations:
1. Insert ()
– is more frequently used in the analysis phase when the tokens are identified and
names are stored in the table.
– is used to insert the information in the symbol table like the unique name occurring
in the source code.
– In the source code, the attribute for a symbol is the information associated with that
symbol.
– The information contains the state, value, type and scope about the symbol.
– The insert () function takes the symbol and its value in the form of argument.
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– For example: int x; insert (x, int)
2. lookup()
– is used to search a name.
– It is used to determine:
• The existence of symbol in the table.
• The declaration of the symbol before it is used.
• Check whether the name is used in the scope.
• Initialization of the symbol.
• Checking whether the name is declared multiple times.
– The basic format of lookup() function is as follows:
lookup (symbol)
– This format is varies according to the programming language. 6
 Hash Table
– Hashing is an important procedure used to search the records of the symbol table.
– This method is superior to the list organization.
– In the hashing scheme, two tables are maintained:
1. Hash Table
2. Symbol Table
– The hash table consists of K entries from 0 to K−1.
– These entries are a pointer to the symbol table pointing to the names of the symbol table.
– It can decide whether "Name" is in the symbol table we use a hash function 'h'
including h (Name) will result in an integer between 0 to K − 1.

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 Hash Table Cont.…
– Using this position, we can access the exact locations of the name in the symbol table.
– The hash function should result in the distribution of the name in the symbol table.
– The hash function should be that there will be a minimum number of collisions.
– Collision is a situation where the hash function results in the same location for storing
names.
– There are various collision resolution techniques are open addressing, chaining, and
rehashing.
Complexity
– This scheme gives the capability of performing m access on n names in time proportional
to n(n + m)/k for any constant k of our choice.
– Since k can be made as large as we like. 8
 Hash Table Cont.…
– This approach is usually superior to linear lists or search trees and is the technique of
option for symbol tables in most situations, especially if storage is not incredibly costly.

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 Representing Scope Information
– In the source program, every name possesses a region of validity, called the scope of
that name.
– The rules in a block-structured language are as follows:

1. If a name declared within block B then it will be valid only within B.

2. If B1 block is nested within B2 then the name that is valid for block
B2 is also valid for B1 unless the name's identifier is re-declared in B1.
• These scope rules need a more complicated organization of symbol table
than a list of associations between names and attributes.

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• Tables are organized into stack and each table contains the list of names
and their associated attributes.
• When the name's reference is translated then each table is searched,
starting from the each table on the stack.
• Whenever a new block is entered then a new table is entered onto the
stack.
• The new table holds the name that is declared as local to this block.
• When the declaration is compiled then the table is searched for a name.
• If the name is not found in the table then the new name is inserted.
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• For example:

Figure: Symbol table organization that complies with static scope information 12
rules