Where can I find a formal grammar for MATLAB?

Question

I would like to write a lexer generator to convert a basic subset of the MATLAB language to C#, C++, etc. To help me do this, I would like to find a document containing the formal grammar for MATLAB. Having spent a bit of time investigating this, it seems that Mathworks do not provide one.

Does anyone know where I could find such a document?

Answer 1

This is not complete grammar but yacc-keable for matlab provided for a compiler course in year 2000. From this, you can easily create BNF and EBNF.

primary_expression         : IDENTIFIER                           | CONSTANT             | STRING_LITERAL                 | '(' expression ')'         | '[' ']'         | '[' array_list ']'         ;  postfix_expression         : primary_expression         | array_expression         | postfix_expression TRANSPOSE         | postfix_expression NCTRANSPOSE         ;  index_expression         : ':'         | expression         ;  index_expression_list         : index_expression         | index_expression_list ',' index_expression         ;  array_expression         : IDENTIFIER '(' index_expression_list ')'         ;  unary_expression         : postfix_expression         | unary_operator postfix_expression         ;  unary_operator         : '+'         | '-'         | '~'         ;  multiplicative_expression         : unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression '*' unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression '/' unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression '\\' unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression '^' unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression ARRAYMUL unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression ARRAYDIV unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression ARRAYRDIV unary_expression         | multiplicative_expression ARRAYPOW unary_expression         ;  additive_expression         : multiplicative_expression         | additive_expression '+' multiplicative_expression         | additive_expression '-' multiplicative_expression         ;  relational_expression         : additive_expression         | relational_expression '<' additive_expression         | relational_expression '>' additive_expression         | relational_expression LE_OP additive_expression         | relational_expression GE_OP additive_expression         ;  equality_expression         : relational_expression         | equality_expression EQ_OP relational_expression         | equality_expression NE_OP relational_expression         ;  and_expression         : equality_expression         | and_expression '&' equality_expression         ;  or_expression         : and_expression         | or_expression '|' and_expression         ;  expression         : or_expression     | expression ':' or_expression     ;  assignment_expression         : postfix_expression '=' expression  eostmt         :  ','         |  ';'         |  CR         ;  statement         : global_statement         | clear_statement         | assignment_statement         | expression_statement         | selection_statement         | iteration_statement         | jump_statement         ;  statement_list         : statement         | statement_list statement         ;  identifier_list         : IDENTIFIER         | identifier_list IDENTIFIER         ;  global_statement         : GLOBAL identifier_list eostmt         ;  clear_statement         : CLEAR identifier_list eostmt         ;  expression_statement         : eostmt         | expression eostmt         ;  assignment_statement         : assignment_expression eostmt         ;  array_element         : expression         | expression_statement         ;  array_list         : array_element         | array_list array_element         ;  selection_statement         : IF expression statement_list END eostmt         | IF expression statement_list ELSE statement_list END eostmt         | IF expression statement_list elseif_clause END eostmt         | IF expression statement_list elseif_clause           ELSE statement_list END eostmt         ;  elseif_clause         : ELSEIF expression statement_list     | elseif_clause ELSEIF expression statement_list         ;  iteration_statement         : WHILE expression statement_list END eostmt         | FOR IDENTIFIER '=' expression statement_list END eostmt         | FOR '(' IDENTIFIER '=' expression ')' statement_list END eostmt          ;  jump_statement         : BREAK eostmt         | RETURN eostmt         ;  translation_unit         : statement_list         | FUNCTION function_declare eostmt statement_list         ;  func_ident_list         : IDENTIFIER         | func_ident_list ',' IDENTIFIER         ;  func_return_list         : IDENTIFIER         | '[' func_ident_list ']'         ;  function_declare_lhs         : IDENTIFIER         | IDENTIFIER '(' ')'         | IDENTIFIER '(' func_ident_list ')'         ;  function_declare         : function_declare_lhs         | func_return_list '=' function_declare_lhs         ;