Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported.
I would like to know if you could help me to know the idea behind pass by value and pass by reference that the compiler needs to make, what are the steps involved? I’d be really helpful if you could give me a hand on this since I’m working on a project which is a mini-compiler.
It depends entirely on how the compiler handles variables (what could be termed the “environment”).
When variables are translated to memory references (such as in C compilers), pass-by-reference may be implemented by using pointers behind the scenes, with the compiler generating the necessary code to de-reference pointers. Pass-by-value is handled by copying data, then referring to the copy.
If the compiler uses a symbol table (which is more typical of interpreters than compilers) pass-by-value may be done by copying the existing symbol table entry to a new one for the new variable, while pass-by-reference would simply use the existing entry.
Other environments would require other approaches.