Three-Address Code

 Three-address code is
attractive for several reasons:

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Three-Address Code
 absence of destructive operators
gives the compiler freedom to
reuse names and values
 three-address code is reasonably
compact: operations are 1 to 2
bytes; addresses are 4 bytes

2
Syntax-directed Translation
 We now consider syntax-
directed translation schemes
using three-address code for
various programming
constructs
 We start with the assignment
statement
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Production translation scheme
S → id = E { p = lookup(id.name);
emit( p, ‘=’, E.place); }

E → E1 + E2 { E.place = newtemp();
emit( E.place, ‘=’, E1.place,
‘+’, E2.place); }
E → E1  E2 { E.place = newtemp();
emit( E.place, ‘=’, E1.place,
‘’, E2.place); }

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Production translation scheme
E → – E1 { E.place = newtemp();
emit( E.place, ‘=’, ‘–’ ,
E1.place); }

E → ( E1 ) { E.place = E1.place; }

E → id { p = lookup(id.name);
emit( E.place, ‘=’, p ); }

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Assignment Statement
 The tranlation scheme uses a
symbol table for identifiers
and temporaries
 Every time the parser
encounters an identifier, it
installs it in the symbol table.

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Assignment Statement
 The symbol table can be
implemented as a hash table
or using some other efficient
data structure for table.

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Assignment Statement
 The routine lookup(name)
checks if there an entry for the
name in the symbol table
 If the name is found, the
routine returns a pointer to
entry.
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Assignment Statement
 The routine newtemp()
returns a new temporary in
response to successive calls
 Temporaries can be placed in
the symbol table

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Assignment Statement
 The routine emit()
generates a three-address
statement which can either be
held in memory or written to a
file

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Example
Here is the bottom-up parse of
the assignment statement
a = b*-c + b*-c
and the syntax-directed
translation into three-address
code
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AST: a = b*-c + b*-c
=
a +

* *
b - b -

c c

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 a = b*-c + b*-c
Parser action attribute code
id=id  –id + id  –
id
id=E1  –id + id  – E1.place = b
id
id=E1  –E2 + id  – E2.place = c
id
id=E1  E2 + id  – E2.place = t1 = – c
id t1
id=E1 + id  –id E1.place = t2 = 13
t2 bt1
Parser action attribute code
id=E1 + E2  –id E2.place = b
id=E1 + E2  –E3 E3.place = c
id=E1 + E2  E3 E3.place = t3 t3 = – c
id=E1 + E2 E2.place = t4 t4 = bt3
id=E1 E1.place = t5 t5 =
t2+t4
S a = t5

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a = b*-c + b*-c

t1 = –c
t2 = b  t1
t3 = –c
t4 = b  t3
t5 = t2 + t4
a = t5
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Representing Linear Codes
 Three-address codes are often
implemented as a set of
quadruples
 Each quadruple has four fields
• an operator
• two operands (or sources)
• a destination
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Simple Array of Quadruples
Target Op Arg1 Arg2
t1 ← 2
t2 ← y
t3  t1 t2
t4 ← x
t5 – t4 t3
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Array of Pointers to quads
 t1 ← 2
 t2 ← y
 t3  t 1 t2
 t4 ← x
 t5 – t4 t3
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 Linked List of quads
  t1 ← 2
 t2 ← y
 t3  t 1 t2
 t4 ← x
 t5 – t4 t3
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Three-Address Statement Types
Assignment statement
x = y op z
where op is a binary
arithmetic or logical operation

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Three-Address Statement Types
Assignment statement
x = op y
where op is a unary
operation, e.g., unary minus,
logical negation, shift
operators
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Three-Address Statement Types
Copy statement
x = y
where value of y is assigned
to x

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Three-Address Statement Types
Unconditional jump
goto L
The three-address statement
with label L is executed next

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Three-Address Statement Types
Conditional jump
if x relop y goto L
where relop is <, =, >=, etc.
If x stands in relation relop
to y, execute statement with
label L, next otherwise
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Three-Address Statement Types
Indexed assignment
a) x = y[i]
b) x[i] = y
In a), set x to value in location
i memory units beyond
location y.
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Three-Address Statement Types
Indexed assignment
a) x = y[i]
b) x[i] = y
In b), set contents of location
i memory units beyond x to
y.
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 Array of Quadruples
Label Target Op Arg1 Arg2
L1 if_lt c d
L2 goto
L1: x + y z
L3 goto
L2: x – y z
L3: nop
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