Parsed

Parsed is the past participle of parse, meaning that a sequence of characters or tokens has been analyzed according to a formal grammar or set of rules to reveal its structure and meaning. In computing and data processing, parsing is the process of taking raw input and producing a structured representation, such as a parse tree or an abstract syntax tree. The result is commonly called the parsed form or parsed data.

Parsing typically follows lexical analysis, or tokenization, and is guided by a grammar. Parsers are categorized by their parsing strategy, such as top-down or bottom-up, and by formalism like LL or LR parsing. The choice of technique affects which grammars can be handled and how efficiently errors are detected and recovered. A parse error occurs when input does not conform to the grammar, often leading to error messages and, in some systems, partial recovery to continue processing.

Parsed data is used in a variety of contexts. In compilers and interpreters, parsing converts source code into internal representations that can be analyzed and executed. In data processing and software configuration, parsing translates formats such as JSON, XML, or CSV into in-memory structures for validation and manipulation. In natural language processing, parsing yields syntactic structures such as parse trees or dependency graphs to reveal relationships between words.

Overall, the term describes both the act of analyzing input according to rules and the resulting structured representation that enables further processing, interpretation, or execution.