Recursive Descent Parser

Prerequisite – Construction of LL(1) Parsing Table, Classification of top down parsers

Parsing is the process to determine whether the start symbol can derive the program or not. If the Parsing is successful then the program is a valid program otherwise the program is invalid.

There are generally two types of Parsers:

Top-Down Parsers:
- In this Parsing technique we expand the start symbol to the whole program.
- Recursive Descent and LL parsers are the Top-Down parsers.
Bottom-Up Parsers:
- In this Parsing technique we reduce the whole program to start symbol.
- Operator Precedence Parser, LR(0) Parser, SLR Parser, LALR Parser and CLR Parser are the Bottom-Up parsers.

Recursive Descent Parser:

It is a kind of Top-Down Parser. A top-down parser builds the parse tree from the top to down, starting with the start non-terminal. A Predictive Parser is a special case of Recursive Descent Parser, where no Back Tracking is required.
By carefully writing a grammar means eliminating left recursion and left factoring from it, the resulting grammar will be a grammar that can be parsed by a recursive descent parser.

Example:

Before removing left recursion	After removing left recursion
E –> E + T \| T T –> T * F \| F F –> ( E ) \| id	E –> T E’ E’ –> + T E’ \| e T –> F T’ T’ –> * F T’ \| e F –> ( E ) \| id

**Here e is Epsilon
For Recursive Descent Parser, we are going to write one program for every variable.

Example:
Grammar:

C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
 
#define SUCCESS 1
#define FAILED 0
 
// Function prototypes
int E(), Edash(), T(), Tdash(), F();
 
const char *cursor;
char string[64];
 
int main() {
    puts("Enter the string");
    scanf("%s", string); // Read input from the user
    cursor = string;
    puts("");
    puts("Input          Action");
    puts("--------------------------------");
 
    // Call the starting non-terminal E
    if (E() && *cursor == '\0') { // If parsing is successful and the cursor has reached the end
        puts("--------------------------------");
        puts("String is successfully parsed");
        return 0;
    } 
    else {
        puts("--------------------------------");
        puts("Error in parsing String");
        return 1;
    }
}
 
// Grammar rule: E -> T E'
int E() {
    printf("%-16s E -> T E'\n", cursor);
    if (T()) { // Call non-terminal T
        if (Edash()) // Call non-terminal E'
            return SUCCESS;
        else
            return FAILED;
    } 
    else
        return FAILED;
}
 
// Grammar rule: E' -> + T E' | $
int Edash() {
    if (*cursor == '+') {
        printf("%-16s E' -> + T E'\n", cursor);
        cursor++;
        if (T()) { // Call non-terminal T
            if (Edash()) // Call non-terminal E'
                return SUCCESS;
            else
                return FAILED;
        } 
        else
            return FAILED;
    }
    else {
        printf("%-16s E' -> $\n", cursor);
        return SUCCESS;
    }
}
 
// Grammar rule: T -> F T'
int T() {
    printf("%-16s T -> F T'\n", cursor);
    if (F()) { // Call non-terminal F
        if (Tdash()) // Call non-terminal T'
            return SUCCESS;
        else
            return FAILED;
    } 
    else
        return FAILED;
}
 
// Grammar rule: T' -> * F T' | $
int Tdash() {
    if (*cursor == '*') {
        printf("%-16s T' -> * F T'\n", cursor);
        cursor++;
        if (F()) { // Call non-terminal F
            if (Tdash()) // Call non-terminal T'
                return SUCCESS;
            else
                return FAILED;
        } 
        else
            return FAILED;
    } 
    else {
        printf("%-16s T' -> $\n", cursor);
        return SUCCESS;
    }
}
 
// Grammar rule: F -> ( E ) | i
int F() {
    if (*cursor == '(') {
        printf("%-16s F -> ( E )\n", cursor);
        cursor++;
        if (E()) { // Call non-terminal E
            if (*cursor == ')') {
                cursor++;
                return SUCCESS;
            } 
            else
                return FAILED;
        } 
        else
            return FAILED;
    } 
    else if (*cursor == 'i') {
        printf("%-16s F -> i\n", cursor);
        cursor++;
        return SUCCESS;
    } 
    else
        return FAILED;
}

C

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