Can ANTLR4 parser generator generate C code?

Question

I'm studying antlr4 and, in the documentation, I read that the main targets of this parser generator are: Java, C#, Python2|3, JavaScript, Go, C++, Swift. Instead, the previous version (antlr3) includes also C.

My question is: is there a way to generate C code also in antlr4? Thank you

Answer 1

Short answer: no, there is no C target.

For what it's worth, these are the available targets:

• Java
• C#
• Python 3
• JavaScript
• TypeScript
• Go
• C++
• Swift
• PHP
• Dart

Reference: https://github.com/antlr/antlr4/blob/master/doc/targets.md

Answer 2

ANTLR4 parsing and code generation have been designed based-on object-oriented features such as inheritance and polymorphism, and so generating C target is a bit challenging because it not support object-oriented programming.