Ast

Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) is key concept in program evaluation. It is a tree with tokens as its nodes. Tree is a better structure than sequence. Here is why:

1. Operator precedence.
2. Hierarchy

Operator precedence

Consider a following expression : 5 + 7 * 2 + 3. It is obvious to us humans which arithmetic operator. we should calculate first. But it is not that simple for a machine. Hence, we introduce a tree structure:

Now we need to recursively evaluate each child before calculating the result of the overall expression.

Hierarchy

Let’s look at the following python code:

def some_method():
    return 1


class SomeClass:
    field = 1
    other = "other"

    def class_method(self):
        return self

    def other_one(self):
        return "not classMethod"

Here is a sketch of AST representation:

some_method:
    type: function
    children:
        params: ...
        body: ...
SomeClass:
    type: class
    children:
        field:
            type: variable
            children:
                value: ...
        other:
            type: variable
            children:
                value: ...
        class_method:
            type: function
            children:
                params: ...
                body: ...
         other_one:
            type: function
            children:
                params: ...
                body: ...
        

Notice how all the functions of class are on the same level. We could even add fields and functions and classes nodes to separate statements of different kinds:

functions:
    some_method:
        ...
classes:
    SomeClass:
        type: class
        children:
            fields:
                field:
                    ...
                other:
                   ...
            functions:
                class_method:
                    ...
                 other_one:
                    ...

This hierarchical structure is predictable and manageable.

Node structure

AST trees do not have a commonly accepted structure. It’s content varies depending on usage. But I found some general structure of AST node. Nodes usually include.

• node type (declaration of class, method, variable, infix operator, block etc)
• node value: e.g. name of a particular identifier
• children: nodes that a re children of the current one
• meta information: position in the initial file, path to initial file…

Creating AST

A pipeline consists of two steps:

Code (text) -> Tokens -> CST¹-> AST

To create tokens from code, a tokenizer (aka Lexer) is used. Usually it’s pretty straightforward: read until next whitespace, identify obtained token.

To create AST from tokens, we need a parser. I won’t go into much detail here, because parsers are complicated enough for a separate post.

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