Chapter 5

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Names, Bindings,
Type Checking, and
Scopes

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Introduction
Imperative languages are abstractions of
von Neumann architecture
A machine consists of

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Memory - stores both data and instructions
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Processor - can modify
the contents of
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memory
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Variables are
used as an abstraction for
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memory
cells
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For
F primitive types correspondence is direct
For structured types (objects, arrays) things
are more complicated

Names
Why do we need names?

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need a way to refer to variables, functions,

user-defined types, labeled statements,

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Design issues for names:
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Maximum length?ng
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What characters
are allowed?
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Are names
case sensitive?
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C,
C++,
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F this is not true of other languages
Are special words reserved words or
keywords?

Length of Names
If too short, they cannot be
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Language examples: e

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FORTRAN I: maximum
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COBOL: maximum
30
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FORTRAN
90
and ANSI C: maximum 31
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Ada a
and
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significant
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C++: no limit, but implementers often
impose one

Keywords vs Reserved Words

Words that have a special meaning in the
language
A keyword is a word that is special only
in certain contexts, e.g., in Fortran

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Real VarName (Real is a data type followed with a

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name, therefore Real is a keyword)

Real = 3.4 (Real is a variable)

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A reserved word is a special word that

cannot be used as a user-defined name
most reserved words are also keywords

Variables
A variable is an abstraction of a memory
cell
Variables can be characterized as a
sextuple of attributes:

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Name
Address
Value
Type
Lifetime
Scope

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Variable Attributes
Name - not all variables have them
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Address - the memory address
with
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which it is associated (l-value)
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Type - allowed range
of values of
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variables andE
the
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operations
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Value
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with
(r-value)

The Concept of Binding

A binding is an association, such
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between an attribute and san
entity,
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or between an operation
and
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symbol
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entity could be a variable or a function

or even a class

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Binding
time is the time at which a
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binding takes place.

Possible Binding Times

Language design time -- bind operator
symbols to operations
Language implementation time-- bind
floating point type to a representation
Compile time -- bind a variable to a type
in C or Java
Load time -- bind a FORTRAN 77 variable
to a memory cell (or a C static variable)
Runtime -- bind a nonstatic local variable
to a memory cell

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Static and Dynamic Binding

A binding is static if it first occurs
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before run time and remains
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unchanged throughout
program
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execution.
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A binding is dynamic
if it first
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occurs during
execution
or
can
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change
during execution of the
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program

Type Binding
How is a type specified?

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An explicit declaration is a program

statement used for declaring the types of
variables
An implicit declaration is a default
mechanism for specifying types of variables
(the first appearance of the variable in the
program)

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When does the binding take place?

If static, the type may be specified by
either an explicit or an implicit
declaration

Type Checking
Generalize the concept of operands and
operators to include subprograms and
assignments
Type checking is the activity of ensuring that
the operands of an operator are of compatible
types
A compatible type is one that is either legal for
the operator, or is allowed under language
rules to be implicitly converted, by compilergenerated code, to a legal type
A type error is the application of an operator
to an operand of an inappropriate type

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When is type checking done?

If all type bindings are static, nearly all type
checking can be static (done at compile
time)
If type bindings are dynamic, type checking
must be dynamic (done at run time)
A programming language is strongly typed
if type errors are always detected

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Advantage: allows the detection of misuse of

variables that result in type errors

How strongly typed?

FORTRAN 77 is not: parameters,
EQUIVALENCE
Pascal has variant records
C and C++

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parameter type checking can be avoided

unions are not type checked

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Ada is almost

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UNCHECKED
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Java
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Coercion
The automatic conversion between
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types is called coercion. s.
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e weaken
Coercion rules they can
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typing considerably
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C and C++ allow
both widening and
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narrowing
coercions
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Java
allows only widening coercions
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Java's strong typing is still far less effective

than that of Ada

Dynamic Type Binding

Dynamic Type Binding (Perl, JavaScript
and PHP, Scheme)
Specified through an assignment
statement
e.g., JavaScript
list = [2, 4.33, 6, 8];

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list = 17.3;
This provides a lot of flexibility
But

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How do you do any type checking?

Storage Bindings & Lifetime

The lifetime of a variable is the time
during which it is bound to a particular
memory cell

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Allocation - getting a cell
from some pool of
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available cells
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Deallocation - putting
a cell back into the
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pool
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Depending
on the language, allocation
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canFbe either controlled by the
programmer or done automatically

Categories of Variables by
Lifetimes
Static--lifetime is same as that of the
program
Stack-dynamic--lifetime is duration of
subprogram
Explicit heap-dynamic -- Allocated and
deallocated by explicit directives,
specified by the programmer, which take
effect during execution
Implicit heap-dynamic--Allocation and
deallocation caused by assignment
statements

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Variable Scope
The scope of a variable is the range of
statements over which it is visible
The nonlocal variables of a program unit
are those that are visible but not declared
there
The scope rules of a language determine
how references to names are associated
with variables
Scope and lifetime are sometimes closely
related, but are different concepts

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Static Scope
The scope of a variable can be
determined from the program text
To connect a name reference to a
variable, you (or the compiler) must find
the declaration
Search process: search declarations, first
locally, then in increasingly larger
enclosing scopes, until one is found for
the given name
Enclosing static scopes (to a specific
scope) are called its static ancestors; the
nearest static ancestor is called a static

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Scope and Shadowed

Variables
Variables can be hidden from a unit by
having a "closer" variable with the same
name
C++, Java and Ada allow access to some
of these "hidden" variables

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In Ada: unit.name
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In C++:D
class_name::name or ::name for
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globals
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In Java: this.name for variables declared at
class level

Static Scoping and Nested

Functions
Assume MAIN calls A and B
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A calls C and D
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B calls A and E
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MAIN
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MAIN

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Nested Functions and

Maintainability

Suppose the spec is changed so

that
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Solutions:
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Put D in B (but thenin
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call it and D cannot
access A's
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variables) OE
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Move the
data from B that D needs to
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access them)

Same problem for procedure access

Comments
Using nested functions with static
scoping often encourages many globals

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not considered to be good programming
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practice
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Current thinking is that
we can accomplish
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the same thing better
with modules (classes)
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Static scoping
is still preferred to the
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alternative
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Most
current languages use static scoping at
a
F block level even if they don't allow nested
the
functions

Nested Functions in Practice

Scheme, JavaScript, Ada and PHP
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allow you to nest functions
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Java allows you to nest
eeclasses

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scoping rules aregsimilar to those of
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nested functions
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Dynamic Scope
Based on calling sequences of program
units, not their textual layout (temporal
versus spatial)
References to variables are connected to
declarations by searching back through the
chain of subprogram calls that forced
execution to this point
This is easy to implement but it makes
programs hard to follow
Used in APL, SNOBOL, early versions of LISP

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Perl allows you to use dynamic scope for

selected variables

Scope Example
MAIN

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- declaration of x
SUB1
- declaration of x ...
call SUB2
...

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...
call SUB1

eMAIN calls SUB1

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SUB2
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- reference to x ...

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SUB2 uses x

Scope Example
Static scoping

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Reference to x is to MAIN's x

Dynamic scoping

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Reference to x is to SUB1's x

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Evaluation of
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Advantage:
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Disadvantage:
poor readability
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Referencing Environments
The referencing environment of a
statement is the collection of all names
that are visible in the statement
In a static-scoped language, it is the
local variables plus all of the visible
variables in all of the enclosing scopes
In a dynamic-scoped language, the
referencing environment is the local
variables plus all visible variables in all
active subprograms

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A subprogram is active if its execution has

begun but has not yet terminated