Recursive descent parser: Difference between revisions

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{{More footnotes|date=February 2009}}

In [[computer science]], a '''recursive descent parser''' is a kind of [[top-down parsing|top-down parser]] built from a set of [[mutual recursion|mutually recursive]] procedures (or a non-recursive equivalent) where each such [[procedure (computer science)|procedure]] implements one of the [[Terminal and nonterminal symbols|nonterminals]] of the [[formal grammar|grammar]]. Thus the structure of the resulting program closely mirrors that of the grammar it recognizes.<ref>{{FOLDOC|Recursive+descent+parser}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Recursive Programming Techniques | author=Burge, W.H. | year=1975 | publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company | isbn=0-201-14450-6 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/recursiveprogram0000burg }}</ref>

A ''predictive parser'' is a recursive descent parser that does not require [[backtracking]].<ref name="Watson2017">{{cite book|last=Watson|first=Des|title=A Practical Approach to Compiler Construction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05B0DgAAQBAJ&q=%22predictive+parser%22|date=22 March 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-52789-5}}</ref> Predictive parsing is possible only for the class of [[LL parser|LL(''k'')]] grammars, which are the [[context-free grammar]]s for which there exists some positive integer ''k'' that allows a recursive descent parser to decide which production to use by examining only the next ''k'' tokens of input. The LL(''k'') grammars therefore exclude all [[ambiguous grammar]]s, as well as all grammars that contain [[left recursion]]. Any context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent grammar that has no left recursion, but removal of left recursion does not always yield an LL(''k'') grammar. A predictive parser runs in [[linear time]].

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*[[Spirit Parser Framework]] – a C++ recursive descent parser generator framework requiring no pre-compile step

*[[parboiled (Java)]] – a recursive descent [[Parsing expression grammar|PEG]] parsing library for [[Java (programming language)|Java]]

The C++ front-end of the [[Clang]] compiler contains a hand-written parser based on the recursive-descent parsing algorithm. <ref>How Clang handles the type / variable name ambiguity of C/C++

https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2012/07/05/how-clang-handles-the-type-variable-name-ambiguity-of-cc/</ref>

==See also==