lexical analysis
nounUS /ˈlɛksɪkəl əˈnæləsɪs/
1
Computer, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Science, Sciences The conversion of a stream of characters to a stream of meaningful tokens; normally to simplify parsing.
- While it's often not difficult to identify tokens while parsing, having a separate stage for lexical analysis simplifies the structure of your compiler.
- Related terms
- lexical analyzer, parsing, semantic analysis