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In formal language theory, a context-free grammar (CFG) is a formal grammar whose production rules can be applied to a nonterminal symbol regardless of its context. In particular, in a context-free grammar, each production rule is of the form. with a single nonterminal symbol, and a string of terminals and/or nonterminals ( can be empty).
Backus–Naur form. In computer science, Backus–Naur form (/ ˌbækəs ˈnaʊər /) (BNF or Backus normal form) is a notation used to describe the syntax of programming languages or other formal languages. It was developed by John Backus and Peter Naur. BNF can be described as a metasyntax notation for context-free grammars.
Context-free language. In formal language theory, a context-free language (CFL), also called a Chomsky type-2 language, is a language generated by a context-free grammar (CFG). Context-free languages have many applications in programming languages, in particular, most arithmetic expressions are generated by context-free grammars.
Syntax diagram. Syntax diagrams (or railroad diagrams) are a way to represent a context-free grammar. They represent a graphical alternative to Backus–Naur form, EBNF, Augmented Backus–Naur form, and other text-based grammars as metalanguages. Early books using syntax diagrams include the "Pascal User Manual" written by Niklaus Wirth [1 ...
The phrase grammar of most programming languages can be specified using a Type-2 grammar, i.e., they are context-free grammars, [8] though the overall syntax is context-sensitive (due to variable declarations and nested scopes), hence Type-1. However, there are exceptions, and for some languages the phrase grammar is Type-0 (Turing-complete).
Extended Backus–Naur form. In computer science, extended Backus–Naur form (EBNF) is a family of metasyntax notations, any of which can be used to express a context-free grammar. EBNF is used to make a formal description of a formal language such as a computer programming language. They are extensions of the basic Backus–Naur form (BNF ...
A formal grammar describes which strings from an alphabet of a formal language are valid according to the language's syntax. A grammar does not describe the meaning of the strings or what can be done with them in whatever context—only their form. A formal grammar is defined as a set of production rules for such strings in a formal language.
This restriction is non-trivial; not all languages can be generated by context-free grammars. Those that can are called context-free languages. These are exactly the languages that can be recognized by a non-deterministic push down automaton. Context-free languages are the theoretical basis for the syntax of most programming languages.