Web and XML Glossary

A Parser is a program for structuring a linear representation in accordance with a given Grammar. For each Grammar, there are generally an infinite number of linear representations (sentences) that can be structured with it. That is, a finite-size Grammar can supply structure to an infinite number of sentences. This is the main strength of the Grammar paradigm and indeed the main source of the importance of Grammars: they summarize succinctly the structure of an infinite number of objects of a certain class. There are several reasons to perform this structuring process called parsing. The most important reason derives from the fact that the obtained structure helps to process the object further.