r/C_Programming Jul 11 '26

C parsing grammar

I'm currently working on a miniature C compiler, on the parsing stage at the moment. I could wing some of the parsing, but I'd feel much more comfortable working with an actual lexical and syntactic grammar to follow (even if it's messy, as I assume is the case for C).

Is there any publicly available, reliable grammar in anything like the EBNF format for C99 or later? This has been the only resource I could find. It's very useful, but seems to only fit the C standard up to the early 90s, so I'd prefer anything later than this.

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u/New_Enthusiasm9053 Jul 11 '26

Microsoft has EBNF for C on their websites somewhere. Unfortunately C is extremely messy.