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A generic symbol table implementation in Dart, with support for scopes and constants.

symbol_table #

Pub build status

A generic symbol table implementation in Dart, with support for scopes and constants. The symbol tables produced by this package are hierarchical (in this case, tree-shaped), and utilize basic memoization to speed up repeated lookups.

Variables #

To represent a symbol, use Variable. I opted for the name Variable to avoid conflict with the Dart primitive Symbol.

var foo = new Variable<String>('foo');
var bar = new Variable<String>('bar', value: 'baz');

// Call `lock` to mark a symbol as immutable.
var shelley = new Variable<String>('foo', value: 'bar')..lock();

foo.value = 'bar';
shelley.value = 'Mary'; // Throws a StateError - constants cannot be overwritten.

foo.lock();
foo.value = 'baz'; // Also throws a StateError - Once a variable is locked, it cannot be overwritten.

Visibility #

Variables are public by default, but can also be marked as private or protected. This can be helpful if you are trying to determine which symbols should be exported from a library or class.

myVariable.visibility = Visibility.protected;
myVariable.visibility = Visibility.private;

Symbol Tables #

It's easy to create a basic symbol table:

var mySymbolTable = new SymbolTable<int>();
var doubles = new SymbolTable<double>(values: {
  'hydrogen': 1.0,
  'avogadro': 6.022e23
});

// Create a new variable within the scope.
doubles.create('one');
doubles.create('one', value: 1.0);
doubles.create('one', value: 1.0, constant: true);

// Set a variable within an ancestor, OR create a new variable if none exists.
doubles.assign('two', value: 2.0);

// Completely remove a variable.
doubles.remove('two');

// Find a symbol, either in this symbol table or an ancestor.
var symbol = doubles.resolve('one');

// Find OR create a symbol.
var symbol = doubles.resolveOrCreate('one');
var symbol = doubles.resolveOrCreate('one', value: 1.0);
var symbol = doubles.resolveOrCreate('one', value: 1.0, constant: true);

Exporting Symbols #

Due to the tree structure of symbol tables, it is extremely easy to extract a linear list of distinct variables, with variables lower in the hierarchy superseding their parents (effectively accomplishing variable shadowing).

var allSymbols = mySymbolTable.allVariables;

We can also extract symbols which are not private. This helps us export symbols from libraries or classes.

var exportedSymbols = mySymbolTable.allPublicVariables;

It's easy to extract symbols of a given visibility:

var exportedSymbols = mySymbolTable.allVariablesWithVisibility(Visibility.protected);

Child Scopes #

There are three ways to create a new symbol table:

Regular Children #

This is what most interpreters need; it simply creates a symbol table with the current symbol table as its parent. The new scope can define its own symbols, which will only shadow the ancestors within the correct scope.

var child = mySymbolTable.createChild();
var child = mySymbolTable.createChild(values: {...});

Depth #

Every symbol table has an associated depth attached to it, with the depth at the root being 0. When createChild is called, the resulting child has an incremented depth.

Clones #

This creates a scope at the same level as the current one, with all the same variables.

var clone = mySymbolTable.clone();

Forked Scopes #

If you are implementing a language with closure functions, you might consider looking into this. A forked scope is a scope identical to the current one, but instead of merely copying references to variables, the values of variables are copied into new ones.

The new scope is essentially a "frozen" version of the current one.

It is also effectively orphaned - though it is aware of its parent, the parent scope is unaware that the forked scope is a child. Thus, calls to resolve may return old variables, if a parent has called remove on a symbol.

var forked = mySymbolTable.fork();
var forked = mySymbolTable.fork(values: {...});

Creating Names #

In languages with block scope, oftentimes, identifiers will collide within a global scope. To avoid this, symbol tables expose a uniqueName() method that simply attaches a numerical suffix to an input name. The name is guaranteed to never be repeated within a specific scope.

var name0 = mySymbolTable.uniqueName('foo'); // foo0
var name1 = mySymbolTable.uniqueName('foo'); // foo1
var name2 = mySymbolTable.uniqueName('foo'); // foo2

this Context #

Many languages handle a sort of this context that values within a scope may optionally be resolved against. Symbol tables can easily set their context as follows:

void foo() {
  mySymbolTable.context = thisContext;
}

Resolution of the context getter functions just like a symbol; if none is set locally, then it will refer to the parent.

void bar() {
  mySymbolTable.context = thisContext;
  expect(mySymbolTable.createChild().createChild().context, thisContext);
}
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A generic symbol table implementation in Dart, with support for scopes and constants.

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License

MIT (LICENSE)

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