Prerequisite – Language Processors: Assembler, Compiler and Interpreter
Compiler:
A Compiler is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high-level programming language to a machine level language to create an executable program. A compiler will consider the entire program as a whole code and then translates. The main job of the compiler is that it checks all kinds of limits, ranges, errors, etc. Before the compiler can successfully execute the code, the errors must be removed from the source code. Example of compiled languages is C, C++, Java, C#, etc.
Assembler:
The Assembler takes as input the assembly code and translates it into relocatable machine code. Assembler checks each instruction for its correctness and generates a diagnostic message, if
Difference between Compiler and Assembler:
| Compiler | Assembler |
|---|---|
| Compiler converts the source code written by the programmer to a machine level language. | Assembler converts the assembly code into the machine code. |
| Compiler input source code. | Assembler input assembly language code. |
| It converts the whole code into machine language at a time. | But the Assembler can’t do this at once. |
| It takes less execution time compared to an assembler. | It takes more time than a compiler. |
| It shows the whole program error after the whole program is scanned. | It detects errors in the first phase, fixes them, and then the second phase is start to execute. |
| A Compiler is more intelligent than an Assembler. | But, an Assembler is less intelligent than a Compiler. |
| The compilation phases are lexical analyzer, syntax analyzer, semantic analyzer, intermediate code generated, a code optimizer, code generator, and error handler | Assembler makes two phases over the given input, first phase and the second phase. |
| The output of compiler is a mnemonic version of machine code. | The output of assembler is binary code. |
| C, C++, Java, and C# are examples of compiled languages. | GAS, GNU is an example of an assembler. |