Compiler Design | Error in which stage detection

Question

What is the earliest stage compiler error for the following C code snippet:

int x = @33;

1. Lexical Error
2. Syntax Error
3. Semantic Error
4. None

Comments

The lexical analyser will catch this error

as we know in any valid assignment numbers must belong to (0-9), @ is an illegal character

Read more from here : https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/lexical-error/

Answer 1

Answer: Option A) Lexical Error

The compiler will show a lexical error because of the "@" symbol in $@33$. It is not a valid character for variable assignment in the C programming language.  An identifier can only have alphanumeric characters (a-z , A-Z , 0-9) (i.e. letters and digits) and underscore $(\_)$ symbol.

Comments

Thanks,
Just to comfirm "int a = Y34_" lexical won't catch this right?

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@Souvik33 Yes, it will not generate lexical error because the variable name "Y34_" is a valid token. It will be raised as a semantic error

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Thanks @Abhrajyoti00

Answer 2

The earliest stage compiler error for the given C code snippet is a lexical error. This is because @ is not a valid token in the C language, so the compiler would detect it as a lexical error at the very beginning of the compilation process.