Abstract syntax tree

An abstract syntax tree (AST) is a

data structure used in computer
science to represent the structure of a
program or code snippet. It is a tree
representation of the abstract syntactic
structure of text (often source code)
written in a formal language. Each
node of the tree denotes a construct
occurring in the text. It is sometimes
called just a syntax tree.

The syntax is "abstract" in the sense

that it does not represent every detail
appearing in the real syntax, but rather
just the structural or content-related
details. For instance, grouping
parentheses are implicit in the tree
structure, so these do not have to be
represented as separate nodes.
Likewise, a syntactic construct like an
if-condition-then statement may be
denoted by means of a single node
with three branches. An abstract syntax tree for the following code for the Euclidean
algorithm:
This distinguishes abstract syntax
trees from concrete syntax trees, while b ≠ 0:
if a > b:
traditionally designated parse trees. a := a - b
Parse trees are typically built by a else:
b := b - a
parser during the source code return a
translation and compiling process.
Once built, additional information is
added to the AST by means of
subsequent processing, e.g., contextual analysis.

Abstract syntax trees are also used in program analysis and program transformation systems.

Application in compilers
Abstract syntax trees are data structures widely used in compilers to represent the structure of program
code. An AST is usually the result of the syntax analysis phase of a compiler. It often serves as an
intermediate representation of the program through several stages that the compiler requires, and has a
strong impact on the final output of the compiler.

Motivation
An AST has several properties that aid the further steps of the compilation process:

An AST can be edited and enhanced with information such as properties and annotations
for every element it contains. Such editing and annotation is impossible with the source
code of a program, since it would imply changing it.
Compared to the source code, an AST does not include inessential punctuation and
delimiters (braces, semicolons, parentheses, etc.).
An AST usually contains extra information about the program, due to the consecutive stages
of analysis by the compiler. For example, it may store the position of each element in the
source code, allowing the compiler to print useful error messages.
Languages are often ambiguous by nature. In order to avoid this ambiguity, programming languages are
often specified as a context-free grammar (CFG). However, there are often aspects of programming
languages that a CFG can't express, but are part of the language and are documented in its specification.
These are details that require a context to determine their validity and behaviour. For example, if a
language allows new types to be declared, a CFG cannot predict the names of such types nor the way in
which they should be used. Even if a language has a predefined set of types, enforcing proper usage
usually requires some context. Another example is duck typing, where the type of an element can change
depending on context. Operator overloading is yet another case where correct usage and final function are
context-dependent.

Design
The design of an AST is often closely linked with the design of a compiler and its expected features.

Core requirements include the following:

Variable types must be preserved, as well as the location of each declaration in source
code.
The order of executable statements must be explicitly represented and well defined.
Left and right components of binary operations must be stored and correctly identified.
Identifiers and their assigned values must be stored for assignment statements.
These requirements can be used to design the data structure for the AST.

Some operations will always require two elements, such as the two terms for addition. However, some
language constructs require an arbitrarily large number of children, such as argument lists passed to
programs from the command shell. As a result, an AST used to represent code written in such a language
has to also be flexible enough to allow for quick addition of an unknown quantity of children.

To support compiler verification it should be possible to unparse an AST into source code form. The
source code produced should be sufficiently similar to the original in appearance and identical in
execution, upon recompilation. The AST is used intensively during semantic analysis, where the compiler
checks for correct usage of the elements of the program and the language. The compiler also generates
symbol tables based on the AST during semantic analysis. A complete traversal of the tree allows
verification of the correctness of the program.
After verifying correctness, the AST serves as the base for code generation. The AST is often used to
generate an intermediate representation (IR), sometimes called an intermediate language, for the code
generation.

Other usages

AST differencing
AST differencing, or for short tree differencing, consists of computing the list of differences between two
ASTs.[1] This list of differences is typically called an edit script. The edit script directly refers to the AST
of the code. For instance, an edit action may result in the addition of a new AST node representing a
function.

Clone detection
An AST is a powerful abstraction to perform code clone detection.[2]

See also
Abstract semantic graph (ASG), also called term graph
Composite pattern
Control-flow graph
Directed acyclic graph (DAG)
Document Object Model (DOM)
Expression tree
Extended Backus–Naur form
Lisp, a family of languages written in trees, with macros to manipulate code trees
Parse tree, also known as concrete syntax tree
Semantic resolution tree (SRT)
Shunting-yard algorithm
Symbol table
TreeDL
Abstract Syntax Tree Interpreters

References
1. Fluri, Beat; Wursch, Michael; PInzger, Martin; Gall, Harald (2007). "Change Distilling:Tree
Differencing for Fine-Grained Source Code Change Extraction" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ts
e.2007.70731). IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. 33 (11): 725–743.
doi:10.1109/tse.2007.70731 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2Ftse.2007.70731). ISSN 0098-5589
(https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0098-5589). S2CID 13659557 (https://api.semanticscholar.
org/CorpusID:13659557).
2. Koschke, Rainer; Falke, Raimar; Frenzel, Pierre (2006). "Clone Detection Using Abstract
Syntax Suffix Trees" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/wcre.2006.18). 2006 13th Working
 Conference on Reverse Engineering. IEEE. pp. 253–262. doi:10.1109/wcre.2006.18 (https://
doi.org/10.1109%2Fwcre.2006.18). ISBN 0-7695-2719-1. S2CID 6985484 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:6985484).

Further reading
Jones, Joel. "Abstract Syntax Tree Implementation Idioms" (http://web.archive.org/web/2024
0721094334/http://hillside.net:80/plop/plop2003/Papers/Jones-ImplementingASTs.pdf)
(PDF). Archived from the original (http://www.hillside.net/plop/plop2003/Papers/Jones-Imple
mentingASTs.pdf) (PDF) on 21 July 2024. (overview of AST implementation in various
language families)
Neamtiu, Iulian; Foster, Jeffrey S.; Hicks, Michael (May 17, 2005). Understanding Source
Code Evolution Using Abstract Syntax Tree Matching. MSR'05. Saint Louis, Missouri: ACM.
CiteSeerX 10.1.1.88.5815 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.88.58
15).
Würsch, Michael. Improving Abstract Syntax Tree based Source Code Change Detection (ht
tp://www.ifi.uzh.ch/seal/research/tools/archive/changeDetection.html) (Diploma thesis).
Lucas, Jason (16 August 2006). "Thoughts on the Visual C++ Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)"
(https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/thoughts-on-the-visual-c-abstract-syntax-tree-ast/).

External links
AST View (http://www.eclipse.org/jdt/ui/astview/index.php): an Eclipse plugin to visualize a
Java abstract syntax tree
"Abstract Syntax Tree and Java Code Manipulation in the Eclipse IDE" (http://www.eclipse.o
rg/articles/Article-JavaCodeManipulation_AST/index.html). eclipse.org.
"CAST representation" (http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/flick/current/doc/guts/gutsch6.html).
cs.utah.edu.
eli project (http://eli-project.sourceforge.net/elionline/idem_3.html): Abstract Syntax Tree
Unparsing
"Architecture‑Driven Modernization — ADM: Abstract Syntax Tree Metamodeling — ASTM"
(http://www.omg.org/spec/ASTM/). (OMG standard).
JavaParser (https://javaparser.org): The JavaParser library provides you with an Abstract
Syntax Tree of your Java code. The AST structure then allows you to work with your Java
code in an easy programmatic way.
Spoon (https://github.com/INRIA/spoon): A library to analyze, transform, rewrite, and
transpile Java source code. It parses source files to build a well-designed AST with powerful
analysis and transformation API.
AST Explorer (https://astexplorer.net): A website to help visualize ASTs in several popular
languages such as Go, Python, Java, and JavaScript.

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