Syntax

1
Syntax
2
Syntax

• The syntax of a programming language specifies
  the structure of the language
• The lexical structure specifies how words can be
  constituted from characters
• The syntactic structure specifies how sentences
  can be constituted from words

3
Lexical Structure

• The tokens of a programming language consist of
  the set of all grammatical categories that are
  the building blocks of syntax
• A program is viewed as a stream of tokens

4
Standard Token Categories

• Keywords, such as if and while
• Literals or constants, such as 42 (a numeric
  literal) or "hello" (a string literal)
• Special symbols, such as , lt, or
• Identifiers, such as x24, putchar, or
  monthly_balance

5
White Spaces and Comments

• White spaces and comments are ignored except they
  function as delimiters
• Typical white spaces newlines, tabs, spaces
• Comments
• / /, // \n (C, C, Java)
• -- \n (Ada, Haskell)
• ( ) (Pascal, ML)
• \n (Scheme)

6
C tokens
There are six classes of tokens identifiers,
keywords, constants, string literals, operators,
and other separators. Blanks, horizontal and
vertical tabs, newlines, formfeeds, and comments
as described below (collectively, "white space")
are ignored except as they separate tokens. Some
white space is required to separate otherwise
adjacent identifiers, keywords, and constants. If
the input stream has been separated into tokens
up to a given character, the next token is the
longest string of characters that could
constitute a token.
7
An Example
/ This program counts from 1 to 10. / main(
) int i for (i 1 i lt 10 i)
printf(d\n, i)
8
Backus-Naur Form (BNF)

• BNF is a notation widely used in formal
  definition of syntactic structure
• A BNF is a set of rewriting rules ?, a set of
  terminal symbols ?, a set of nonterminal symbols
  N, and a start symbol S ? N
• Each rule in ? has the following form A ?
  ?where A ? N and ? ? (N ? ?)

9
Backus-Naur Form

• The terminals in ? form the basic alphabet from
  which programs are constructed
• The nonterminals in N identify grammatical
  categories like Identifier, Integer, Expression,
  Statement, Function, Program
• The start symbol S identifies the principal
  grammatical category being defined by the grammar

10
Examples
1. binaryDigit ? 0 binaryDigit ?
1 binaryDigit ? 0 1 2. Integer ? Digit
Integer Digit Digit ? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9
metasymbol or
metasymbol concatenate
11
Derivation

• Integer
• ? Integer Digit
• Integer Digit Digit
• Digit Digit Digit
• 3 Digit Digit
• 3 5 Digit
• 3 5 2

Sentential form
Sentence
12
Parse Tree
Sentential form
13
An Example for an Expression
Assignment ? Identifier Expression Expression ?
Term Expression Term Expression
Term Term ? Factor Term Factor Term /
Factor Factor ? Identifier Literal (
Expression )
14
An Example for an Expression
x 2 y
15
Syntax for a Subset of C
Program ? void main ( ) Declarations Statements
Declarations ? ? Declarations
Declaration Declaration ? Type Identifiers Type
? int boolean Identifiers ? Identifier
Identifiers , Identifier Statements ? ?
Statements Statement Statement ? Block
Assignment IfStatement WhileStatement Block ?
Statements Assignment ? Identifier
Expression IfStatement ? if ( Expression )
Statement if (
Expression ) Statement else Statement WhileStateme
nt ? while ( Expression ) Statement
16
Syntax for a Subset of C
Expression ? Conjuction Expression
Conjuction Conjuction ? Relation Conjuction
Relation Relation ? Addition Relation lt
Addition
Relation lt Addition
Relation gt Addition
Relation gt Addition
Relation Addition
Relation
! Addition Addition ? Term Addition Term
Addition Term Term ? Negation Term Negation
Term / Negation Negation ? Factor !
Factor Factor ? Identifier Literal (
Expression )
17
An Example for a Program
void main ( ) int x x 1
18
Ambiguity

• A grammar is ambiguous if it permits a string to
  be parsed into two or more different parse
  trees AmbExp ? Integer AmbExp AmbExp 2
  - 3 - 4

19
An Example
2 (3 4)
(2 3) 4
20
The Dangling Else Problem
if ( x lt 0 ) if ( y lt 0 ) y y 1 else y
0
21
The Dangling Else Problem
if ( x lt 0 ) if ( y lt 0 ) y y 1 else y 0
22
The Dangling Else Problem

• Solution I use a special keyword fi to
  explicitly close every if statement. For example,
  in AdaIfStatement ? if ( Expression ) Statement
  fi
• if ( Expression )
  Statement else Statement fi
• Solution II use an explicit rule outside the BNF
  syntax. For example, in C, every else clause is
  associated with the closest preceding if
  statement

23
Extended BNF (EBNF)

• EBNF introduces 3 parentheses. It uses to
  denote repetition to simplify the specification
  of recursion, uses to denote the optional
  part, and uses () for grouping

zero or more occurrences
Expression ? Term ( ) Term Term ?
Factor ( / ) Term Factor ? -
Factor number
grouping
optional
24
Abstract Syntax

• The abstract syntax of a language identifies the
  essential syntactic elements in a program without
  describing how they are concretely constructed

while i lt n do begin i i 1 end
while (i lt n) i i 1
Pascal
C
25
Abstract Syntax

• Thinking a loop abstractly, the essential
  elements are a test expression for continuing a
  loop and a body which is the statement to be
  repeated
• All other elements constitute nonessential
  syntactic sugar
• The complete syntax is usually called concrete
  syntax

26
Parse Trees
x 2 y
27
Abstract Syntax Trees
x 2 y

x

y
2