Symbol Tables
Symbol Tables is an actively used design pattern created in 2004. In computer science, a symbol table is a data structure used by a language translator such as a compiler or interpreter, where each identifier (a.k.a. symbol) in a program's source code is associated with information relating to its declaration or appearance in the source. In other words, the entries of a symbol table store the information related to the entry's corresponding symbol. Read more on Wikipedia...
| 15Years Old |
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- the Symbol Tables wikipedia page
- Symbol Tables first appeared in 2004
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Languages with Symbol Tables include c, python, racket
Example from c:
// Declare an external function
extern double bar(double x);
// Define a public function
double foo(int count)
{
double sum = 0.0;
// Sum all the values bar(1) to bar(count)
for (int i = 1; i <= count; i++)
sum += bar((double) i);
return sum;
}
// Symbol Table:
// Symbol name|Type|Scope
// bar|function, double|extern
// x|double|function parameter
// foo|function, double|global
// count|int|function parameter
// sum|double|block local
// i|int|for-loop statement
Example from python:
# https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2010/09/18/python-internals-symbol-tables-part-1
Example from racket:
;; Some programming languages allow the symbol table to be manipulated at run-time, so that symbols can be added at any time.
Last updated August 9th, 2020