[Alphabetical Index | Tag Index]

Associativity

A property of binary operators in parsing, indicating whether expressions such as a + b + c should be interpreted as (a + b) + b (left associative), a + (b + c) (right associative) or as illegal (non-associative).

Left

Operations are grouped on the left, giving a tree which is “heavy” on the left side; typically used for arithmetic operators. Without associativity rules, grammar productions usually look like PlusExpr ::= PlusExpr "+" MultExpr | ..., forcing any expression containing the operator to be on the left side.

Right

Operations are grouped on the right, giving a tree which is “heavy” on the right side; typically used for assignment and exponentiation operators.

[Wikipedia]