Lexical and Syntax Analysis

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key terms related to Lexical and Syntax Analysis in programming languages.

Lexical Analysis

The process of reading source code character from left to right and organizing them into tokens.

Token

Meaningful elements derived from the source code, such as keywords, variable names, numbers, and punctuation.

Lexeme

The sequence of characters matched by a pattern to form a token.

Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA)

A finite state machine that accepts or rejects strings of symbols and is used to recognize tokens during lexical analysis.

Tokenization

The process of breaking the input text into a sequence of tokens.

Token Classification

The categorization of tokens into types such as keywords, identifiers, operators, and punctuation symbols.

Token Validation

The process of checking if each token is valid based on the rules of the programming language.

Parse Tree

A graphical representation of the derivation of a string from the start symbol in Syntax Analysis.

Context-Free Grammar (CFG)

A set of recursive rules used to define the syntax rules of a programming language.

Ambiguity in Grammar

When a grammar can produce more than one parse tree for at least one string, leading to multiple interpretations.

Associativity

Rules that determine the evaluation order of operators when they appear alongside the same operand.

Precedence

The priority of operators, determining which operator will take the operand when different operators are present.

Error Handling

The process of detecting and indicating syntax errors in the input program.

Symbol Table

A data structure that stores information about identifiers used in a program, including type, scope, and location.

Regular Expressions

Patterns used to describe sets of strings, particularly in defining tokens in lexical analysis.

Token Stream

The sequence of tokens generated from lexical analysis, which is sent to the syntax analyzer for further processing.