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A predictive parser is a recursive descent parser that does not require backtracking. [3] Predictive parsing is possible only for the class of LL( k ) grammars, which are the context-free grammars 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 ...
(For example, upon encountering a variable declaration, user-written code could save the name and type of the variable into an external data structure, so that these could be checked against later variable references detected by the parser.)
With many levels of precedence, implementing this grammar with a predictive recursive-descent parser can become inefficient. Parsing a number, for example, can require five function calls: one for each non-terminal in the grammar until reaching primary. An operator-precedence parser can do the same more efficiently. [1]
LL grammars can alternatively be characterized as precisely those that can be parsed by a predictive parser – a recursive descent parser without backtracking – and these can be readily written by hand. This article is about the formal properties of LL grammars; for parsing, see LL parser or recursive descent parser.
In computer programming, a parser combinator is a higher-order function that accepts several parsers as input and returns a new parser as its output. In this context, a parser is a function accepting strings as input and returning some structure as output, typically a parse tree or a set of indices representing locations in the string where parsing stopped successfully.
A TDPL grammar can be viewed as an extremely minimalistic formal representation of a recursive descent parser, in which each of the nonterminals schematically represents a parsing function. Each of these nonterminal-functions takes as its input argument a string to be recognized, and yields one of two possible outcomes:
A parsing expression language is a set of all strings that match some specific parsing expression. [1]: Sec.3.4 A parsing expression grammar is a collection of named parsing expressions, which may reference each other. The effect of one such reference in a parsing expression is as if the whole referenced parsing expression was given in place of ...
Since Packrat is a recursive descent parser, it cannot handle left recursion directly. [5] During the early stages of development, it was found that a production that is left-recursive can be transformed into a right-recursive production. [6] This modification significantly simplifies the task of a Packrat parser.