Abstract Syntax Tree: An Example in C

In a previous blog post, we looked at a simple one-pass compiler written in C. Now, let’s look at how we can design an abstract syntax tree and work with it. An abstract syntax tree (or an AST) is a tree-shaped representation of source code that is convenient for a compiler to operate. A compiler might represent an expression like 4 + 2 * 10 + 3 * (5 + 1) using a tree structure like this: Figure 1