lexical analysis

programming (Or "linear analysis", "scanning") The first

stage of processing a language. The stream of characters

making up the source program or other input is read one at a

time and grouped into lexemes (or "tokens") - word-like

pieces such as keywords, identifiers, literals and

punctutation. The lexemes are then passed to the parser.

["Compilers - Principles, Techniques and Tools", by Alfred

V. Aho, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman, pp. 4-5]

(1995-04-05)