Introduction to

Compiler
Compiler
• Meaning of “Compile”?
• Collect / Gather.
• So compiler is something that collects or
gathers.

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Compiler
• In CS, a program that translates one language to
another.
• Better Definition

A compiler is a program that takes as its input a program written in its

source language and produces an equivalent program written in its target
language.

• Source Language - High-level language (C,C++)

• Target Language – Object code / Machine code.

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Compiler
• A compiler acts as a translator.
• Transforms human-oriented programming
languages into computer oriented machine
language.
• Benefit?
• Gives programmers more time to think on problems.
• Reduces error produced by the programmer.

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Why Study Compiler
• Understand how programming language works.
• Learn about complex software system.
• Create new programming language.
• Develop problem-solving skill.

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Language Processing System
• Compiler alone is not enough to translate a program.
• A language processing system is a set of programs that
are used to translate a program written in a high-level
language into a low-level language that can be executed
by a computer.

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Components of Language
Processing System
• Preprocessor
• Collects source codes
• Expands macros and directives
• Compiler
• Translates the source code into low level language program.
• Assembler
• Translates low level language code into machine code.

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Components of Language
Processing System
• Linker
• Combines the object files produced by the compiler and assembler into an
executable program.
• Loader
• Loads the executable program into the computer's memory and starting its
execution.

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Structure of Compiler
Character stream Semantic
Lexical Analyzer Syntax Analyzer
Analyzer

Symbol Table Intermediate Code

Generator

Machine
Machine Dependent
Code Generator Independent Code
Target machine Code Optimizer
code Optimizer

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Structure of Compiler
• Consider the statement

pos = i + r * 5

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Lexical Analysis
• Reads the stream of characters.
• Groups the character into meaningful sequence
(Lexeme).
• Produces output token of the form:

<token-name, attribute-value>

• Token-name: abstract symbol used in syntax analysis.

• Attribute-value: points to entry in symbol table.

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Lexical Analysis
pos = i + r * 5

• pos is a lexeme
• Mapped into <id, 1>
• id abstract symbol standing for “Identifier”.
• 1 points to symbol table entry for position.
• = is a lexeme
• Mapped into <=>
• No attribute – value needed. Hence omitted.

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Lexical Analysis
pos = i + r * 5

<id,1> <=> <id,2> <+> <id,3><*> <5>

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Syntax Analysis
• Uses first component of the tokens produced by the
lexical analyzer.
• Creates a tree-like intermediate representation.

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Semantic Analysis
• Uses syntax tree and symbol table.
• Checks for semantic consistency.
• Gathers type information.
• Performs type checking.
• Ensures each operator has matching operands.

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Semantic Analysis

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Intermediate Code Generation
• Not a mandatory step.
• An explicit low-level or machine-like intermediate code
is generated.
• Code should maintain two important properties
• Easy to produce
• Easy to translate
• We will study an intermediate form called “Three-
address Code”.

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Intermediate Code Generation
• Three-address code
• At most three operand per instruction.
• Each operand can act as register.
• At most one operator on the right.

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Intermediate Code Generation
pos = i + r * 5

t1 = inttofloat(5)
t2 = id3 * t1
t3 = id2 + t2
id1 = t3

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Code Optimization
• Attempts to improve the intermediate code.
• To produce better target code.
• Better code means
• Faster
• Shorter
• Consume less power

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Code Optimization
• Optimizer can deduce that conversion of 5 to float can be done
once in compile time.
• inttofloat operation can be eliminated.
• Replace 5 with 5.0.
• t3 is used once to transmit its value to id1.

t2 = id3 * 5.0
id1 = id2 + t2

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Code Generation
• Takes an intermediate representation of source program.
• Maps it into target code.
• If target code is machine code register and memory location
might be used.

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Code Generation
t2 = id3 * 5.0
id1 = id2 + t2

LDF R2, id3

MULF R2, R2, #5.0
LDF R1, id2
ADDF R1, R1, R2
STF id1, R1
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Symbol Table
• A data structure containing a record for each variable name,
with fields for the attributes of the name.
• Allows compiler to
• Find record for each name quickly.
• Store or retrieve data quickly.

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Compiler Construction Tools
• Parser Generator.
• Produce syntax analyzer from a grammatical description.
• Scanner Generator
• Produce lexical analyzer from a regular expression description.
• Syntax Directed Translation Engine
• Produces collection of routine for walking a parse tree and
generating intermediate code.
• Code-generator Generator
• Produce code generator from a collection of rules for translating
each operation of the intermediate language into the machine
language for a target machine.

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Compiler Construction Tools
• Data-flow analysis engine
• Gathers information about how values are transmitted from
one part of a program to each other part.
• Key part of code optimization.
• Compiler-construction toolkits
• Provides an integrated set of routines for constructing various
phases of a compiler.

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