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Numbering Types and Symbols

Every symbol and type is assigned an ID number that uniquely identifies it within a particular context. These ID numbers should be used to refer to symbols and types in annotations that will be written to the output files and in other situations where pointers to the symbol and type nodes cannot be used. The sym_id method retrieves the ID number for a symbol, and the type_id method gets the number for a type.

For symbols and types within a procedure, the ID numbers are only unique within that procedure. Similarly, the ID numbers for symbols and types in a file symbol table are only unique within that file. Only in the global symbol table are the ID numbers truly unique. This is implemented by dividing the ID numbers into three ranges. Each range is reserved for a particular level in the symbol table hierarchy. To make it easier to read an ID number, the print_id_number function prints it as a character to identify the range (`g' for global, `f' for file, `p' for procedure) combined with the offset of the number within that range.

The symbol and type ID numbers cannot be assigned individually, but the symbol tables provide methods to set them. The number_globals method is defined in the global_symtab class to number the entries in global and file symbol tables, and the number_locals method is defined in the proc_symtab class to number all of the entries in the procedure symbol table and its descendents. These methods only assign ID numbers to symbols and types that do not already have numbers. These methods are called automatically before writing things out to files, but they can also be called whenever you want to assign numbers to new symbols and types.

The clear_sym_id symbol method and clear_type_id method are provided to reset the ID numbers to zero manually, but as far as the library itself is concerned, this is never necessary. The library automatically changes ID numbers when necessary, such as when moving from one symbol table to another.


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