Skip to Main Content
Language Implementation Patterns
book

Language Implementation Patterns

by Terence Parr
December 2009
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
380 pages
9h 2m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Language Implementation Patterns
Pattern 24Syntax-Directed Interpreter

Purpose

This pattern directly executes source code without building an intermediate representation and without translating it to another language.

The sample implementation for this pattern focuses on building a syntax-directed interpreter for an SQL subset.

Discussion

A syntax-directed interpreter mimics what we do when we trace source code manually. As we step through the code, we parse, validate, and execute instructions. Everything happens in the parser because a syntax-directed interpreter doesn’t create an AST or translate source code to bytecodes or machine code. The interpreter directly feeds off of syntax to execute statements.

The good news is that there are very few “moving parts” in a syntax-directed ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Implementation Patterns

Implementation Patterns

Kent Beck

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781680500097Errata Page