Difference Between Assembler and Compiler

In general, compiler is a computer program that reads a program written in one language, which is called the source language, and translates it in to another language, which is called the target language.

Traditionally, source language was a high level language such as C++ and target language was a low level language such as Assembly language. However, there are compilers that can convert a source program written in Assembly language and convert it to machine code or object code. Assemblers are such tools.

So, both assemblers and compilers ultimately produce code that can be directly executed on a machine.

What is a Compiler?

Compiler is a computer program that reads a program written in one language, which is called the source language, and translates it in to another language, which is called the target language.

Most often, the source language is a high level language and the target language is a low level language. So, in general compilers can be seen as translators that translate from one language to another. In addition, compilers perform some optimizations to the code. A typical compiler is made up of several main components. The first component is the scanner (also known as the lexical analyzer).

Scanner reads the program and converts it to a string of tokens. The second component is the parser. It converts the string of tokens in to a parse tree (or an abstract syntax tree), which captures the syntactic structure of the program. Next component is the semantic routines that interpret the semantics of the syntactic structure. The code optimizations and final code generation follow this.

What is an Assembler?

Assembler is a software or a tool that translates Assembly language to machine code. So, an assembler is a type of a compiler and the source code is written in Assembly language. Assembly is a human readable language but it typically has a one to one relationship with the corresponding machine code.

Therefore an assembler is said to perform isomorphic (one to one mapping) translation. Advanced assemblers provide additional features that support program development and debugging processes. For example, the type of assemblers called macro assemblers provides a macro facility.

What is the difference between an Assembler and a Compiler?

1. Compiler is a computer program that reads a program written in one language and translates it in to another language, while an assembler can be considered a special type of compiler which translates only Assembly language to machine code.
2. Compilers usually produce the machine executable code directly from a high level language, but assemblers produce an object code which might have to be linked using linker programs in order to run on a machine.
3. Because Assembly language has a one to one mapping with machine code, an assembler may be used for producing code that runs very efficiently for occasions in which performance is very important (for e.g. graphics engines, embedded systems with limited hardware resources compared to a personal computer like microwaves, washing machines, etc.).