Symbol Table

A symbol table is a map data structure that associates names with information about the objects that are denoted by the names.

Programming languages have many kinds of symbols: statement labels, variables, constants, subprogram names, etc.

A symbol table must be well organized:

• For fast lookup of symbols.
  Note that if symbol table lookup takes O(n) time, the total compilation time becomes O(n²) .

• To reflect the organization of the program (block structure).

A set of symbol table routines for use with the class programs is provided in the file symtab.c and documented in the file symtab.txt .