This topic details the difference between an interpreter and compiler.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Interpreter & Compiler
An interpreter is a software program that converts each high-level program statement into machine code. It is located inside the compiler.
A compiler is also a software program that helps convert the source code from a high-level programming language into machine code. It is a program that enables the translation of human-readable code into a machine-readable format or computer processor-understandable code represented as (binary 1 and 0 bits). Then, in the next step, the machine-readable code is processed to enable the computer to accomplish the corresponding assignments.
Additionally, a compiler checks whether the source code complies with the programming language’s syntax rule. However, though the compiler can identify the errors, it cannot fix any errors found in that program as it is only a computer program. In such cases, the programmer has to rectify the mistakes.
Differences
The compiler checks the source code for errors into machine code and generates a machine code file, whereas the interpreter can only translate the source code into machine code. Secondly, the compiler generates a destination file or output program while the interpreter does not.
Now let’s look at the difference between Basic code translation and Byte code Translation
With the help of an interpreter located inside the compiler, the compiler takes the responsibility of converting the source code into a machine-readable format. While in C programming language, this process is called “Basic Code Translation, in Java, it is called Byte Code Translation.
To what can the compiler be compared to in a human language?
It is like checking grammatical errors in any language, such as English.
Let’s see a few more lines about Interpreter.
The Interpreter converts the High-level language into machine code which is in 1s and 0s.
Notably, the compiler it is to be noted that while converting the source code into destination code or binary code, the compiler generates another file. For example, after compiling in C language dot e x e file is generated, while in Java, it generates a dot class file.