English

Noun

lexical analysis ‎(uncountable)

1. (computer science) 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.

Derived terms

• lex
• lexer

Related terms

• lexical analyzer

See also

• parsing
• semantic analysis

Translations