abstract syntax tree
Parser output diagram
An abstract syntax tree is a data structure representing the grammatical structure of source code.
Compilers and interpreters parse code into these tree forms, where each node represents a construct—a function call, an operator, a variable.
The "abstract" distinguishes it from concrete parse trees by omitting syntactic details like parentheses or semicolons.
Often abbreviated AST.
- parserSyntax-interpreting program
- compilerSource-to-machine-code translator
- nodeConnection point in networks
- treeWoody perennial plant
- traversalAct of moving through
visitor · leaf · branch · root · token · expression · statement · code · code generation · semantic · grammar · parse · child · parent · subtree · recursive · descent · transpiler
- code analysiscode review, code smell, linting, lint, semantic analysis
- compiler IRSSA, quadruples, triples, bytecode
- Interpreter Internalsinterpreter, bytecode, compiler, parser, tokenizer
- parse treesCST, tree structure, tree diagram, subtree, node
- parsingparser, parsing, context-free grammar, BNF, terminals
- tree structuresbinary tree, subtree, tree height, root, leaf
abstract syntax treesource code
Programming instructions before compilation
source text · plain text · raw text · source file · machine code
abstract, syntax, abstraction, abstracts, abstracted, abstracting, abstractly, abstractness, syntactic