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Compiler Design 20mss003

Top-down parsing constructs a parse tree starting from the root and guessing derivations until the input string is matched, primarily using recursive descent and LL parsers. It faces challenges such as left-recursion, which can lead to infinite loops, and backtracking. Left-factoring is a technique used to manipulate grammars for better compatibility with recursive-descent parsing.

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Akshaya V L
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7 views7 pages

Compiler Design 20mss003

Top-down parsing constructs a parse tree starting from the root and guessing derivations until the input string is matched, primarily using recursive descent and LL parsers. It faces challenges such as left-recursion, which can lead to infinite loops, and backtracking. Left-factoring is a technique used to manipulate grammars for better compatibility with recursive-descent parsing.

Uploaded by

Akshaya V L
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Top-down Parsing:

Recursive descent
parsing
Subject:COMPILER DESIGN
ROLL NO:20MSS003
Top-Down Parsing

 Top down parsing is the construction of a Parse tree by starting at


start symbol and “guessing” each derivation until we reach a string
that matches input.
 Top-Down parsing can be viewed as an attempt to find a left most
derivation for an input string.
 Parse tree starts from the root and creating the nodes of the parse
tree in preorder.
 Equivalently, it can be viewed as an attempt to construct the parse
tree rooted at the start symbol of the grammar for the input stream.
 Top-down parsers build parse trees from the top (root) to the bottom
(leaves).
 The parsers that use top-down parsing are
– Recursive descent parser
– LL parser (Left-to-right, Leftmost derivation).
Example:top down parsing

 The grammar:
• S->cAd
• A->ab|a
Input Word (w)=cad.
Problems with Top-down Parsing

 The two problems with top-down parsing are


 1. Left-recursion
 2. Backtracking
Left recursion
 A grammar ‘G’ is said to be left-recursive, if it
has a non-terminal A such that there is a
derivation
 A ->Aα, for some α, ‘A’ left-recursive
grammar can cause a top-down parser to go
into an infinite loop.
Recursive – Descent Parsing

 Recursive – descent parsing is a parsing with backtracking until to get


matched with input sentence.
 A parser that uses a set of recursive procedures to recognize its input
with backtracking is called a recursive-descent parsing.
 A useful method for manipulating grammars into a form suitable for
recursive-descent parsing is left-factoring.
 Left-factoring is the process of factoring out the common prefixes of
alternatives
Example

Ex:
Consider the grammar,
S->i C t S | i C t S e S | a
C ->b
Left-factoring this grammar will yield
S->i C t S S’ | a
S’->e S | ϵ
C ->b

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