C Compiler Lexical Analyzer 🚀

📝 Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• Project Background
• Objectives
• Features
• Technologies
• Getting Started
• Usage
• System Architecture
• Contributing
• License
• Contact
• Acknowledgements

🚀 Project Overview

A robust lexical analyzer for C programming language, designed to convert raw source code into meaningful tokens for compiler processing.

🔍 Project Background

A lexical analyzer (lexer) is a crucial component of a compiler that performs the following key functions:

• Scans source code character by character
• Groups characters into predefined token sets
• Prepares tokens for syntax analysis in subsequent compiler stages

🎯 Project Objectives

The primary goals of this lexical analyzer include:

• Converting abstract character streams into meaningful tokens
• Supporting comprehensive C language syntax parsing
• Providing efficient and accurate token generation
• Implementing robust error handling and debugging mechanisms

✨ Key Features

Comprehensive Token Recognition

• Identifies various C language tokens
• Supports multiple comment styles
• Handles whitespace and special characters

Flexible Input Handling

• Supports standard input
• File-based input processing
• Debugging mode capabilities

Advanced Parsing Mechanisms

• Finite state machine implementation
• Character-level analysis
• Line and column tracking

💻 Technologies Used

• Programming Language: C
• Parsing Technique: Finite State Machine
• Development Tools:
  • GCC Compiler
  • Valgrind (for memory debugging)
  • Make (build automation)

🛠 System Requirements

Hardware Requirements

• Minimum RAM: 2 GB
• Processor: x86_64 architecture
• Disk Space: 100 MB

Software Prerequisites

• GCC Compiler (version 7.0+)
• GNU Make
• Linux/Unix environment (recommended)

Getting Started

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lexical-analyzer.git
cd lexical-analyzer

2. Compile the project

make

🔧 Usage

Basic Usage

./lexer input_file.c

Debugging Mode

./lexer -d input_file.c

🏗️ System Architecture

Lexer Components

Input Buffer

• Temporary storage for source code
• Preprocesses input (comment removal)
• Manages file reading efficiently

Tokenizer

• Converts character streams to tokens
• Tracks line and column positions
• Supports multiple token types

Token Types

• Identifiers
• Keywords
• Operators
• Literals
• Special Symbols

Demo Results

Basic Arithmetic Operations

Complex Operations

Entire Source Code

Video Demo

[Demo Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4PzbtRP8U

🤝 Contributing

• Fork the repository
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
• Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
• Open a Pull Request

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

👥 Contact

Bemnet Mekrebu - bemnetmerkebu17@gmail.com

Project Link: https://github.com/yourusername/lexical-analyzer

🙏 Acknowledgements

• Dr. Tejasvi Parupudi (Project Supervisor)
• CSCE 3600 Class, Spring 2023