Big Bright Pixels

Abstract Syntax Tree

October 06, 2019

An abstract syntax tree (AST) is a program’s parsed source code represented as a tree data structure.

A HTML’s abstract syntax tree, for example, will show how element are related hierarchically, among other bits of data describing each node in the document.

A language compiler, or interpreter, will visit each AST node and might perform further semantic analysis, in the case of some compilers, or interpret the AST, thus executing the program.

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