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Compiler Design Unit-2 - 2

The document discusses different types of top-down parsing techniques including recursive descent parsing, backtracking, predictive parsing, and LL parsing. Recursive descent parsing constructs a parse tree recursively from the top moving down but may require backtracking. Predictive parsing is a form of recursive descent that does not require backtracking by using a lookahead pointer and only allowing LL(k) grammars. LL parsing accepts LL grammars and can be implemented using recursive descent or table-driven approaches.

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20 views

Compiler Design Unit-2 - 2

The document discusses different types of top-down parsing techniques including recursive descent parsing, backtracking, predictive parsing, and LL parsing. Recursive descent parsing constructs a parse tree recursively from the top moving down but may require backtracking. Predictive parsing is a form of recursive descent that does not require backtracking by using a lookahead pointer and only allowing LL(k) grammars. LL parsing accepts LL grammars and can be implemented using recursive descent or table-driven approaches.

Uploaded by

sumit sharma
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPILER DESIGN (KCS-502)

UNIT-2 (Lecture-2)

Compiler Design: Top-Down Parsing


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:

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

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COMPILER DESIGN (KCS-502)

For an input string: read, a top-down parser, will behave like this:
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.

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COMPILER DESIGN (KCS-502)

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 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).

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