Glossary Term

Abstract Syntax Tree

A tree representation of the syntactic structure of source code, used by compilers and interpreters.

The AST captures the grammatical relationships in code, such as "this function contains an if statement." It does not include parentheses or formatting, only meaning.

Related Terms

Intermediate Representation Compiler Parser

Used In

AST Node Structures The Compiler Pipeline Explained Simply How a Compiler Actually Translates Your Code