parser
NounUS[pahr-ser]/ˈpɑrsɚ/2 syllables
Open English WordNet
Noun (1)
- a computer program that divides code up into functional components“compilers must parse source code in order to translate it into object code”Type of program, programmePart of compiler, compiling program
Word of the day · Nov 15About this word
aberrationnoun
a state or condition markedly different from the norm
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
pars′er noun
One who parses.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
parser parse parsed parsing
<language> An algorithm or program to determine the syntactic structure of ("to parse") a sentence or string of symbols in some language. A parser normally takes as input a sequence of tokens output by a lexical analyser. It may produce some kind of abstract syntax tree as output. A parser may be produced automatically from a grammar by a parser generator such as yacc.
A parser is normally part of some larger program, like a compiler, which takes the output of the parser and attempts to extract meaning from it in some way, e.g. translating it into another language.
(2009-06-26)