Lexed

Lexed refers to the process of analyzing a stream of characters, typically source code, to break it down into a sequence of meaningful units called tokens. This is the first phase of a compiler or interpreter, known as lexical analysis or scanning. The lexer reads the input text and groups characters into lexemes, which are sequences of characters that form a token. For example, in the code `int x = 10;`, the lexer would identify tokens such as `int` (keyword), `x` (identifier), `=` (operator), `10` (literal number), and `;` (punctuation).

Each token typically has a type and an optional value. The type categorizes the token, such as "keyword," "identifier," "operator," or "literal." The value, if present, stores the actual lexeme or a representation of it. For instance, the token for `10` might have the type "integer literal" and the value `10`. Lexers often ignore whitespace and comments, as these are generally not relevant to the subsequent stages of compilation.

The rules for identifying tokens are usually defined by a set of regular expressions or a finite automaton. These rules specify how character sequences map to specific token types. Without lexical analysis, it would be much more difficult for a program to understand and process source code, as it would have to deal with raw characters rather than structured, meaningful units. The output of the lexer is then passed to the parser, which builds a more abstract representation of the code, such as an abstract syntax tree.