Feature #9: Validate Program Brackets
Explore how to use a stack to validate matching brackets, parentheses, and braces in program strings to ensure code correctness. Understand the step-by-step algorithm for this key compiler task, improving your ability to solve language parsing problems commonly asked in coding interviews.
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Description
A compiler verifies multiple things during a specific language compilation. Sometimes, things get complex when new features are introduced in programming languages. For instance, consider the anonymous functions in JavaScript. Couple these with asynchronous calls, and functions nested inside functions, and things get even more complicated.
The compiler processes a piece of code and removes the line breaks, which leaves behind a string containing code with possibly nested braces, parentheses, and square brackets. Then, we take this string as input and validate that the braces, square brackets, and parentheses are all perfectly matched. The compiler verifies the brackets’ order to check the program’s validity and other verifications.
The following is the anonymous function structure:
alert((function(n) {
return !(n > 1)
? 1
: arguments.callee(n - 1) * n;
})(15));