Bottom-Up Parsing

• A bottom-up parser creates the parse tree of the given input starting
from leaves towards the root.
• A bottom-up parser tries to find the right-most derivation of the given
input in the reverse order.
S  ...   (the right-most derivation of )
 (the bottom-up parser finds the right-most derivation in the reverse order)
• Bottom-up parsing is also known as shift-reduce parsing because its
two main actions are shift and reduce.
– At each shift action, the current symbol in the input string is pushed to a stack.
– At each reduction step, the symbols at the top of the stack (this symbol sequence is the right
side of a production) will replaced by the non-terminal at the left side of that production.
– There are also two more actions: accept and error.

CS416 Compiler Design 1

 Shift-Reduce Parsing
• A shift-reduce parser tries to reduce the given input string into the starting symbol.

a string  the starting symbol

reduced to

• At each reduction step, a substring of the input matching to the right side of a
production rule is replaced by the non-terminal at the left side of that production rule.
• If the substring is chosen correctly, the right most derivation of that string is created in
the reverse order.

Rightmost Derivation: * 
S
rm

Shift-Reduce Parser finds: rm 

rm  ...  S

CS416 Compiler Design 2

 Shift-Reduce Parsing -- Example
S  aABb input string: aaabb
A  aA | a aaAbb
B  bB | b aAbb  reduction
aABb
S

 aABb 
S rm  aaAbb 
rm aAbb rm rm aaabb

Right Sentential Forms

• How do we know which substring to be replaced at each reduction step?

CS416 Compiler Design 3

 Handle
• Informally, a handle of a string is a substring that matches the right side
of a production rule.
– But not every substring matches the right side of a production rule is handle

• A handle of a right sentential form  ( ) is

a production rule A   and a position of 
where the string  may be found and replaced by A to produce
the previous right-sentential form in a rightmost derivation of .
*
S rm A 
rm


• If the grammar is unambiguous, then every right-sentential form of the

grammar has exactly one handle.
• We will see that  is a string of terminals.
CS416 Compiler Design 4
 Handle Pruning
• A right-most derivation in reverse can be obtained by handle-pruning.

S=0 
rm 1 
rm 2 
rm ... 
rm n-1 
rm n= 
input string

• Start from n, find a handle Ann in n,

and replace n in by An to get n-1.
• Then find a handle An-1n-1 in n-1, and
replace n-1 in by An-1 to get n-2.
• Repeat this, until we reach S.

CS416 Compiler Design 5

 A Shift-Reduce Parser
E  E+T | T Right-Most Derivation of id+id*id
T  T*F | F E  E+T  E+T*F  E+T*id  E+F*id
F  (E) | id  E+id*id  T+id*id  F+id*id  id+id*id

Right-Most Sentential Form Reducing Production

id+id*id F  id
F+id*id TF
T+id*id ET
E+id*id F  id
E+F*id TF
E+T*id F  id
E+T*F T  T*F
E+T E  E+T
E
Handles are red and underlined in the right-sentential forms.
CS416 Compiler Design 6
 A Stack Implementation of A Shift-Reduce Parser
• There are four possible actions of a shift-parser action:

1. Shift : The next input symbol is shifted onto the top of the stack.
2. Reduce: Replace the handle on the top of the stack by the non-
terminal.
3. Accept: Successful completion of parsing.
4. Error: Parser discovers a syntax error, and calls an error recovery
routine.

• Initial stack just contains only the end-marker $.

• The end of the input string is marked by the end-marker $.

CS416 Compiler Design 7

 A Stack Implementation of A Shift-Reduce Parser
Stack Input Action
$ id+id*id$shift
$id +id*id$ reduce by F  id Parse Tree
$F +id*id$ reduce by T  F
$T +id*id$ reduce by E  T E 8
$E +id*id$ shift
$E+ id*id$ shift E 3 + T 7
$E+id *id$ reduce by F  id
$E+F *id$ reduce by T  F T 2 T 5 * F6
$E+T *id$ shift
$E+T* id$ shift F 1 F 4 id
$E+T*id $ reduce by F  id
$E+T*F $ reduce by T  T*F id id
$E+T $ reduce by E  E+T
$E $ accept

CS416 Compiler Design 8

 Conflicts During Shift-Reduce Parsing
• There are context-free grammars for which shift-reduce parsers cannot
be used.
• Stack contents and the next input symbol may not decide action:
– shift/reduce conflict: Whether make a shift operation or a reduction.
– reduce/reduce conflict: The parser cannot decide which of several
reductions to make.
• If a shift-reduce parser cannot be used for a grammar, that grammar is
called as non-LR(k) grammar.

left to right right-most k lookhead

scanning derivation

• An ambiguous grammar can never be a LR grammar.

CS416 Compiler Design 9
 Shift-Reduce Parsers
• There are two main categories of shift-reduce parsers

1. Operator-Precedence Parser
– simple, but only a small class of grammars.
CFG
LR
LALR

2. LR-Parsers SLR
– covers wide range of grammars.
• SLR – simple LR parser
• LR – most general LR parser
• LALR – intermediate LR parser (lookhead LR parser)
– SLR, LR and LALR work same, only their parsing tables are different.

CS416 Compiler Design 10

 LR Parsers

• The most powerful shift-reduce parsing (yet efficient) is:

LR(k) parsing.

left to right right-most k lookhead

scanning derivation (k is omitted  it is 1)

• LR parsing is attractive because:

– LR parsing is most general non-backtracking shift-reduce parsing, yet it is still efficient.
– The class of grammars that can be parsed using LR methods is a proper superset of the
class of grammars that can be parsed with predictive parsers.
LL(1)-Grammars  LR(1)-Grammars
– An LR-parser can detect a syntactic error as soon as it is possible to do so a left-to-right
scan of the input.

CS416 Compiler Design 11

 LR Parsers
• LR-Parsers
– covers wide range of grammars.
– SLR – simple LR parser
– LR – most general LR parser
– LALR – intermediate LR parser (look-head LR parser)
– SLR, LR and LALR work same (they used the same algorithm),
only their parsing tables are different.

CS416 Compiler Design 12

 LR Parsing Algorithm

input a1 ... ai ... an $

stack
Sm
Xm
LR Parsing Algorithm output
Sm-1
Xm-1
.
. Action Table Goto Table
S1 terminals and $ non-terminal
s s
X1 t four different t each item is
a actions a a state number
S0 t t
e e
s s
CS416 Compiler Design 13
 A Configuration of LR Parsing Algorithm
• A configuration of a LR parsing is:

( So X1 S1 ... Xm Sm, ai ai+1 ... an $ )

Stack Rest of Input

• Sm and ai decides the parser action by consulting the parsing action

table. (Initial Stack contains just So )

• A configuration of a LR parsing represents the right sentential form:

X1 ... Xm ai ai+1 ... an $

CS416 Compiler Design 14

 Actions of A LR-Parser
1. shift s -- shifts the next input symbol and the state s onto the stack
( So X1 S1 ... Xm Sm, ai ai+1 ... an $ )  ( So X1 S1 ... Xm Sm ai s, ai+1 ... an $ )

2. reduce A (or rn where n is a production number)

– pop 2|| (=r) items from the stack;
– then push A and s where s=goto[sm-r,A]
( So X1 S1 ... Xm Sm, ai ai+1 ... an $ )  ( So X1 S1 ... Xm-r Sm-r A s, ai ... an $ )

– Output is the reducing production reduce A

3. Accept – Parsing successfully completed

4. Error -- Parser detected an error (an empty entry in the action table)
CS416 Compiler Design 15
 Reduce Action
• pop 2|| (=r) items from the stack; let us assume that  = Y1Y2...Yr
• then push A and s where s=goto[sm-r,A]

( So X1 S1 ... Xm-r Sm-r Y1 Sm-r ...Yr Sm, ai ai+1 ... an $ )

 ( So X1 S1 ... Xm-r Sm-r A s, ai ... an $ )

• In fact, Y1Y2...Yr is a handle.

X1 ... Xm-r A ai ... an $  X1 ... Xm Y1...Yr ai ai+1 ... an $

CS416 Compiler Design 16

 (SLR) Parsing Tables for Expression Grammar
Action Table Goto Table
1) E  E+T state id + * ( ) $ E T F
0 s5 s4 1 2 3
2) ET
1 s6 acc
3) T  T*F 2 r2 s7 r2 r2
4) TF 3 r4 r4 r4 r4
5) F  (E) 4 s5 s4 8 2 3
6) F  id 5 r6 r6 r6 r6
6 s5 s4 9 3
7 s5 s4 10
8 s6 s11
9 r1 s7 r1 r1
10 r3 r3 r3 r3
11 r5 r5 r5 r5

CS416 Compiler Design 17

 Actions of A (S)LR-Parser -- Example
stack input action output
0 id*id+id$ shift 5
0id5 *id+id$ reduce by Fid Fid
0F3 *id+id$ reduce by TF TF
0T2 *id+id$ shift 7
0T2*7 id+id$ shift 5
0T2*7id5 +id$ reduce by Fid Fid
0T2*7F10 +id$ reduce by TT*F TT*F
0T2 +id$ reduce by ET ET
0E1 +id$ shift 6
0E1+6 id$ shift 5
0E1+6id5 $ reduce by Fid Fid
0E1+6F3 $ reduce by TF TF
0E1+6T9 $ reduce by EE+T EE+T
0E1 $ accept

CS416 Compiler Design 18

 Constructing SLR Parsing Tables – LR(0) Item
• An LR(0) item of a grammar G is a production of G a dot at the some
• position of the right side.
Ex: A  aBb Possible LR(0) Items:
. .
A  aBb

..
(four different possibility)
A  aB b
A  aBb
A  a Bb

• Sets of LR(0) items will be the states of action and goto table of the SLR
parser.
• A collection of sets of LR(0) items (the canonical LR(0) collection) is
the basis for constructing SLR parsers.
• Augmented Grammar:
G’ is G with a new production rule S’S where S’ is the new starting
symbol.
CS416 Compiler Design 19
 The Closure Operation
• If I is a set of LR(0) items for a grammar G, then closure(I) is the
set of LR(0) items constructed from I by the two rules:

..
1. Initially, every LR(0) item in I is added to closure(I).
2. If A   B is in closure(I) and B is a production rule of G;
then B  will be in the closure(I).
We will apply this rule until no more new LR(0) items can be
added to closure(I).

CS416 Compiler Design 20

 The Closure Operation -- Example
E’  E closure({E’  E}) = .
E  E+T { E’  E .
.
kernel items
ET E  E+T
T  T*F E T .
TF T  T*F .
F  (E) T F .
F  id F  (E) .
F  id } .

CS416 Compiler Design 21

 Goto Operation
• If I is a set of LR(0) items and X is a grammar symbol (terminal or non-
terminal),
–
.
then goto(I,X) is defined as follows:
If A   X in I
.
then every item in closure({A  X }) will be in goto(I,X).

Example:
.. .. .
I ={ E’  E, E  E+T, E  T,

. .. .
T  T*F, T  F,
F  (E), F  id }

.. .
goto(I,E) = { E’  E , E  E +T }
goto(I,T) = { E  T , T  T *F }

.. .. . .
goto(I,F) = {T  F }
goto(I,() = { F  ( E), E  E+T, E  T, T  T*F, T  .
F,

.
F  (E), F  id }
goto(I,id) = { F  id }

CS416 Compiler Design 22

 Construction of The Canonical LR(0) Collection
• To create the SLR parsing tables for a grammar G, we will create the
canonical LR(0) collection of the grammar G’.

• Algorithm:
.
C is { closure({S’ S}) }
repeat the followings until no more set of LR(0) items can be added to C.
for each I in C and each grammar symbol X
if goto(I,X) is not empty and not in C
add goto(I,X) to C

• goto function is a DFA on the sets in C.

CS416 Compiler Design 23

 The Canonical LR(0) Collection -- Example
I0: E’  .EI1: E’  E.I6: E  E+.T I9: E  E+T.
E  .E+T E  E.+T T  .T*F T  T.*F
E  .T T  .F
T  .T*F I2: E  T. F  .(E) I10: T  T*F.
T  .F T  T.*F F  .id
F  .(E)
F  .id I3: T  F. I7: T  T*.F I11: F  (E).
F  .(E)
I4: F  (.E) F  .id
E  .E+T
E  .T I8: F  (E.)
T  .T*F E  E.+T
T  .F
F  .(E)
F  .id

I5: F  id.

CS416 Compiler Design 24

 Transition Diagram (DFA) of Goto Function

E + T
I0 I1 I6 I9 * to I7
F
( to I3
T
id to I4
*
to I5
F I2 I7 F
( I10
(
I3 id
to I4
E to I5
id Iid
4 T I8 )

F to I2 +
I11
I5 ( to I3
to I6
to I4
CS416 Compiler Design 25
 Constructing SLR Parsing Table
(of an augumented grammar G’)

1. Construct the canonical collection of sets of LR(0) items for G’.

C{I0,...,In}
2. Create the parsing action table as follows
• If a is a terminal, A.a in Ii and goto(Ii,a)=Ij then action[i,a] is shift j.
• If A. is in Ii , then action[i,a] is reduce A for all a in FOLLOW(A)
where AS’.
• If S’S. is in Ii , then action[i,$] is accept.
• If any conflicting actions generated by these rules, the grammar is not SLR(1).

3. Create the parsing goto table

• for all non-terminals A, if goto(Ii,A)=Ij then goto[i,A]=j

4. All entries not defined by (2) and (3) are errors.

5. Initial state of the parser contains S’.S
CS416 Compiler Design 26
Parsing Tables of Expression Grammar
Action Table Goto Table
state id + * ( ) $ E T F
0 s5 s4 1 2 3
1 s6 acc
2 r2 s7 r2 r2
3 r4 r4 r4 r4
4 s5 s4 8 2 3
5 r6 r6 r6 r6
6 s5 s4 9 3
7 s5 s4 10
8 s6 s11
9 r1 s7 r1 r1
10 r3 r3 r3 r3
11 r5 r5 r5 r5

CS416 Compiler Design 27

 SLR(1) Grammar
• An LR parser using SLR(1) parsing tables for a grammar G is called as
the SLR(1) parser for G.
• If a grammar G has an SLR(1) parsing table, it is called SLR(1)
grammar (or SLR grammar in short).
• Every SLR grammar is unambiguous, but every unambiguous grammar
is not a SLR grammar.

CS416 Compiler Design 28

 shift/reduce and reduce/reduce conflicts
• If a state does not know whether it will make a shift operation or
reduction for a terminal, we say that there is a shift/reduce conflict.

• If a state does not know whether it will make a reduction operation

using the production rule i or j for a terminal, we say that there is a
reduce/reduce conflict.

• If the SLR parsing table of a grammar G has a conflict, we say that that
grammar is not SLR grammar.

CS416 Compiler Design 29

 Conflict Example
S  L=R I0: S’  .S I1:S’  S. I6:S  L=.R I9: S  L=R.
SR S  .L=R R  .L
L *R S  .R I2:S  L.=R L .*R
L  id L  .*R R  L. L  .id
RL L  .id
R  .L I3:S  R.

I4:L  *.R I7:L  *R.

Problem R  .L
FOLLOW(R)={=,$} L .*R I8:R  L.
= shift 6 L  .id
reduce by R  L
shift/reduce conflict I5:L  id.

CS416 Compiler Design 30

 Conflict Example2
S  AaAb I0: S’  .S
S  BbBa S  .AaAb
A S  .BbBa
B A.
B.

Problem
FOLLOW(A)={a,b}
FOLLOW(B)={a,b}
a reduce by A   b reduce by A  
reduce by B   reduce by B  
reduce/reduce conflict reduce/reduce conflict

CS416 Compiler Design 31

 Constructing Canonical LR(1) Parsing Tables
• In SLR method, the state i makes a reduction by A when the current
token is a:
– if the A. in the Ii and a is FOLLOW(A)

• In some situations, A cannot be followed by the terminal a in

a right-sentential form when  and the state i are on the top stack.
This means that making reduction in this case is not correct.

S  AaAb SAaAbAabab SBbBaBbaba

S  BbBa
A Aab   ab Bba   ba
B AaAb  Aa  b BbBa  Bb  a

CS416 Compiler Design 32

 LR(1) Item
• To avoid some of invalid reductions, the states need to carry more
information.
• Extra information is put into a state by including a terminal symbol as a
second component in an item.
• A LR(1) item is:
A   ,a. where a is the look-head of the LR(1) item
(a is a terminal or end-marker.)

CS416 Compiler Design 33

 LR(1) Item (cont.)
.
• When  ( in the LR(1) item A   ,a ) is not empty, the look-head
does not have any affect.
.
• When  is empty (A   ,a ), we do the reduction by A only if
the next input symbol is a (not for any terminal in FOLLOW(A)).
.
• A state will contain A   ,a where {a ,...,a }  FOLLOW(A)
1 1 n

...
A  .,a n

CS416 Compiler Design 34

 Canonical Collection of Sets of LR(1) Items
• The construction of the canonical collection of the sets of LR(1) items
are similar to the construction of the canonical collection of the sets of
LR(0) items, except that closure and goto operations work a little bit
different.

closure(I) is: ( where I is a set of LR(1) items)

– every LR(1) item in I is in closure(I)
.
– if A B,a in closure(I) and B is a production rule of G;
then B.,b will be in the closure(I) for each terminal b in
FIRST(a) .

CS416 Compiler Design 35

 goto operation

• If I is a set of LR(1) items and X is a grammar symbol

(terminal or non-terminal), then goto(I,X) is defined as
follows:
– If A  .X,a in I
then every item in closure({A  X.,a}) will be
in goto(I,X).

CS416 Compiler Design 36

 Construction of The Canonical LR(1) Collection
• Algorithm:
C is { closure({S’.S,$}) }
repeat the followings until no more set of LR(1) items can be added to C.
for each I in C and each grammar symbol X
if goto(I,X) is not empty and not in C
add goto(I,X) to C

• goto function is a DFA on the sets in C.

CS416 Compiler Design 37

 A Short Notation for The Sets of LR(1) Items
• A set of LR(1) items containing the following items
.
A   ,a1
...
A  .,a n

can be written as

.
A   ,a1/a2/.../an

CS416 Compiler Design 38

 Canonical LR(1) Collection -- Example
S  AaAb I0: S’  .S ,$ S I1: S’  S. ,$
S  BbBa S  .AaAb ,$ A
a to I4
A S  .BbBa ,$ I2: S  A.aAb ,$
B A  . ,a B
b to I5
B  . ,b I3: S  B.bBa ,$

A a
I4: S  Aa.Ab ,$ I6: S  AaA.b ,$ I8: S  AaAb. ,$
A  . ,b

B b
I5: S  Bb.Ba ,$ I7: S  BbB.a ,$ I9: S  BbBa. ,$
B  . ,a

CS416 Compiler Design 39

 Canonical LR(1) Collection – Example2
S’  S I0:S’  .S,$ I1:S’  S.,$ I4:L  *.R,$/= R to I7
1) S  L=R S  .L=R,$ S * R  .L,$/= L
to I8
2) S  R S  .R,$ L I2:S  L.=R,$ to I6 L .*R,$/= *
3) L *R L  .*R,$/= R  L.,$ L  .id,$/=
to I4
id
4) L  id R to I5
L  .id,$/= I3:S  R.,$ id
I5:L  id.,$/=
5) R  L R  .L,$

I9:S  L=R.,$
R I13:L  *R.,$
I6:S  L=.R,$ to I9
L I10:R  L.,$
R  .L,$ to I10
L  .*R,$ * I4 and I11
to I11 R
L  .id,$ I11:L  *.R,$ to I13
id L
to I12 R  .L,$ to I10 I5 and I12
I7:L  *R.,$/= L .*R,$ *
to I11
L  .id,$ id I7 and I13
I8: R  L.,$/= to I12
I12:L  id.,$ I8 and I10
CS416 Compiler Design 40
 Construction of LR(1) Parsing Tables
1. Construct the canonical collection of sets of LR(1) items for G’.
C{I0,...,In}

2. Create
•
.
the parsing action table as follows
If a is a terminal, A a,b in Ii and goto(Ii,a)=Ij then action[i,a] is shift j.
•
.
If A ,a is in Ii , then action[i,a] is reduce A where AS’.
•
.
If S’S ,$ is in Ii , then action[i,$] is accept.
• If any conflicting actions generated by these rules, the grammar is not LR(1).

3. Create the parsing goto table

• for all non-terminals A, if goto(Ii,A)=Ij then goto[i,A]=j

4. All entries not defined by (2) and (3) are errors.

5. Initial state of the parser contains S’.S,$

CS416 Compiler Design 41
 LR(1) Parsing Tables – (for Example2)
id * = $ S L R
0 s5 s4 1 2 3
1 acc
2 s6 r5
3 r2
4 s5 s4 8 7
5 r4 r4 no shift/reduce or
6 s12 s11 10 9 no reduce/reduce conflict
7
8
r3
r5
r3
r5 
9 r1 so, it is a LR(1) grammar
10 r5
11 s12 s11 10 13
12 r4
13 r3

CS416 Compiler Design 42

 LALR Parsing Tables
• LALR stands for LookAhead LR.

• LALR parsers are often used in practice because LALR parsing tables
are smaller than LR(1) parsing tables.
• The number of states in SLR and LALR parsing tables for a grammar G
are equal.
• But LALR parsers recognize more grammars than SLR parsers.
• yacc creates a LALR parser for the given grammar.
• A state of LALR parser will be again a set of LR(1) items.

CS416 Compiler Design 43

 Creating LALR Parsing Tables

Canonical LR(1) Parser  LALR Parser

shrink # of states

• This shrink process may introduce a reduce/reduce conflict in the

resulting LALR parser (so the grammar is NOT LALR)
• But, this shrink process does not produce a shift/reduce conflict.

CS416 Compiler Design 44

 The Core of A Set of LR(1) Items

.. ..
• The core of a set of LR(1) items is the set of its first component.
Ex: S  L =R,$  S  L =R Core
R  L ,$ RL

• We will find the states (sets of LR(1) items) in a canonical LR(1) parser with same
cores. Then we will merge them as a single state.
. .
.
I1:L  id ,= A new state: I12: L  id ,=

.
 L  id ,$
I2:L  id ,$ have same core, merge them

• We will do this for all states of a canonical LR(1) parser to get the states of the LALR
parser.
• In fact, the number of the states of the LALR parser for a grammar will be equal to the
number of states of the SLR parser for that grammar.

CS416 Compiler Design 45

 Creation of LALR Parsing Tables
• Create the canonical LR(1) collection of the sets of LR(1) items for
the given grammar.
• Find each core; find all sets having that same core; replace those sets
having same cores with a single set which is their union.
C={I0,...,In}  C’={J1,...,Jm} where m  n
• Create the parsing tables (action and goto tables) same as the
construction of the parsing tables of LR(1) parser.
– Note that: If J=I1  ...  Ik since I1,...,Ik have same cores
 cores of goto(I1,X),...,goto(I2,X) must be same.
– So, goto(J,X)=K where K is the union of all sets of items having same cores as goto(I 1,X).

• If no conflict is introduced, the grammar is LALR(1) grammar.

(We may only introduce reduce/reduce conflicts; we cannot introduce
a shift/reduce conflict)

CS416 Compiler Design 46

 Shift/Reduce Conflict
• We say that we cannot introduce a shift/reduce conflict during the
shrink process for the creation of the states of a LALR parser.
• Assume that we can introduce a shift/reduce conflict. In this case, a

.
state of LALR parser must have:
A   ,a and .
B   a,b

A  .,a B  .a,c
• This means that a state of the canonical LR(1) parser must have:
and
But, this state has also a shift/reduce conflict. i.e. The original canonical
LR(1) parser has a conflict.
(Reason for this, the shift operation does not depend on lookaheads)

CS416 Compiler Design 47

 Reduce/Reduce Conflict
• But, we may introduce a reduce/reduce conflict during the shrink
process for the creation of the states of a LALR parser.

.
I1 : A   ,a I2: A   ,b .
.
B   ,b B   ,c .

.
I12: A   ,a/b  reduce/reduce conflict
.
B   ,b/c

CS416 Compiler Design 48

 Canonical LALR(1) Collection – Example2
I0:S’  . I1:S’  S ,$ . .
I411:L  * R,$/=
. .
S’  S S,$ R to I713
1) S  L=R S
S .
L=R,$ S *
I :S  L =R,$ .. R  L,$/=
. L
to I810
. .
2) S  R R,$ L 2 to I6 L *R,$/= *
L R  L ,$ L  id,$/=
.
3) L *R *R,$/= to I411

.
id
4) L  id
5) R  L
L
R .
id,$/=
L,$
R
I3:S  R ,$ id .
I512:L  id ,$/=
to I512

. R I9:S  L=R ,$ .
..
I6:S  L= R,$
R  L,$ L
to I9
to I810
Same Cores
I4 and I11
.
L  *R,$
L  id,$
*

id
to I411
I5 and I12
to I512
.
I713:L  *R ,$/= I7 and I13
.
I810: R  L ,$/=
I8 and I10
CS416 Compiler Design 49
 LALR(1) Parsing Tables – (for Example2)
id * = $ S L R
0 s5 s4 1 2 3
1 acc
2 s6 r5
3 r2
4 s5 s4 8 7
5 r4 r4 no shift/reduce or
6 s12 s11 10 9 no reduce/reduce conflict
7
8
r3
r5
r3
r5 
9 r1 so, it is a LALR(1) grammar

CS416 Compiler Design 50

 Using Ambiguous Grammars
• All grammars used in the construction of LR-parsing tables must be
un-ambiguous.
• Can we create LR-parsing tables for ambiguous grammars ?
– Yes, but they will have conflicts.
– We can resolve these conflicts in favor of one of them to disambiguate the grammar.
– At the end, we will have again an unambiguous grammar.
• Why we want to use an ambiguous grammar?
– Some of the ambiguous grammars are much natural, and a corresponding unambiguous
grammar can be very complex.
– Usage of an ambiguous grammar may eliminate unnecessary reductions.
• Ex.
E  E+T | T
E  E+E | E*E | (E) | id  T  T*F | F
F  (E) | id

CS416 Compiler Design 51

 Sets of LR(0) Items for Ambiguous Grammar
I0: E’ 
E
..E+E
E E I1: E’  E
E  E +E
.. + I 4: E  E + E
E  E+E .. . E
.. .
I7: E  E+E + I
E  E +E *
4

E
E
..E*E E  E *E . *
E  E*E
E  (E) .. id
(
I2 E  E *E
I5

E .id
(E)

(
E  id
I3

( I 5: E  E * E . .
I2: E  ( ..E+E
E) E  E+E ..
(
E

I2
I8: E  E*E + I
..
E  E +E *
4

E  E*E id
E
E ..E*E E
E  (E)
E  id
..
I3 E  E *E
I5

E
.id
(E)
id E
id I6: E  (E ) .. ) I9: E  (E) .
.
I3: E  id
E  E +E
E  E *E . +
* I4
I5

CS416 Compiler Design 52

 SLR-Parsing Tables for Ambiguous Grammar
FOLLOW(E) = { $,+,*,) }

State I7 has shift/reduce conflicts for symbols + and *.

E + E
I0 I1 I4 I7

when current token is +

shift  + is right-associative
reduce  + is left-associative

when current token is *

shift  * has higher precedence than +
reduce  + has higher precedence than *

CS416 Compiler Design 53

 SLR-Parsing Tables for Ambiguous Grammar
FOLLOW(E) = { $,+,*,) }

State I8 has shift/reduce conflicts for symbols + and *.

E * E
I0 I1 I5 I7

when current token is *

shift  * is right-associative
reduce  * is left-associative

when current token is +

shift  + has higher precedence than *
reduce  * has higher precedence than +

CS416 Compiler Design 54

SLR-Parsing Tables for Ambiguous Grammar
Action Goto
id + * ( ) $ E
0 s3 s2 1
1 s4 s5 acc
2 s3 s2 6
3 r4 r4 r4 r4
4 s3 s2 7
5 s3 s2 8
6 s4 s5 s9
7 r1 s5 r1 r1
8 r2 r2 r2 r2
9 r3 r3 r3 r3
CS416 Compiler Design 55
 Error Recovery in LR Parsing
• An LR parser will detect an error when it consults the parsing action
table and finds an error entry. All empty entries in the action table are
error entries.
• Errors are never detected by consulting the goto table.
• An LR parser will announce error as soon as there is no valid
continuation for the scanned portion of the input.
• A canonical LR parser (LR(1) parser) will never make even a single
reduction before announcing an error.
• The SLR and LALR parsers may make several reductions before
announcing an error.
• But, all LR parsers (LR(1), LALR and SLR parsers) will never shift an
erroneous input symbol onto the stack.

CS416 Compiler Design 56

 Panic Mode Error Recovery in LR Parsing
• Scan down the stack until a state s with a goto on a particular
nonterminal A is found. (Get rid of everything from the stack before
this state s).
• Discard zero or more input symbols until a symbol a is found that can
legitimately follow A.
– The symbol a is simply in FOLLOW(A), but this may not work for all situations.
• The parser stacks the nonterminal A and the state goto[s,A], and it
resumes the normal parsing.
• This nonterminal A is normally is a basic programming block (there can
be more than one choice for A).
– stmt, expr, block, ...

CS416 Compiler Design 57

 Phrase-Level Error Recovery in LR Parsing
• Each empty entry in the action table is marked with a specific error
routine.
• An error routine reflects the error that the user most likely will make in
that case.
• An error routine inserts the symbols into the stack or the input (or it
deletes the symbols from the stack and the input, or it can do both
insertion and deletion).
– missing operand
– unbalanced right parenthesis

CS416 Compiler Design 58