Advantages of using Ambiguous Grammars:

 Ambiguous grammars provide a shorter and more natural specification for

certain constructs when compared to the equivalent unambiguous grammars

 One can isolate a construct for optimization purposes using ambiguous

grammars

 One can incorporate a special construct by adding new productions to an existing

ambiguous grammar

Ambiguous grammar can be handled by bottom up parser.

Creating LR Parsers for Ambiguous Grammars:

 No ambiguous grammar can be LR. But by carefully resolving conflicts an LR

parser for an ambiguous grammar can be designed

 Resolving conflicts can be done by either one of the two following methods

Method 1: By using associativity and precedence in case of expression

Method 2: By keeping in view the correct sentences in the language
Method 1:

 Consider the following ambiguous grammar for expressions

                                E → E + E | E * E | ( E ) | id
                We know that ‘+’ and ‘*’ are left associative and ‘*’ is having precedence over ‘+’

 The unambiguous version of the equivalent grammar is

                                E → E + T | T   T → T * F | F   F → ( E ) | id

Reasons to use Ambiguous version:

 We can change operator precedence

 Parser will have less number of states compared to unambiguous version

 Parser never wastes time in performing reductions like E → T or T → F

Steps for Creating LR parser

 Step 1: Construct LR(0) items.

 Step 2: Construct LR parsing table with the help of step 1

 Step 3: Parse an input string with the help of step 2

Steps for Constructing LR(0) Items

 Step 1: Add augmented grammar.

 Step 2: Apply closure and goto operations

Method 1:
E’ → E   E → E + E   E → E * E   E → ( E )  E → id
and  the LR(0) items are:
I0:
E’→.E
E→.E+E I5:
E→.E*E E→E*.E
E→.id E→.E+E
I1: E→.E*E
E’→E. E→.(E)
E→E.+E E→.id
E→E.*E I6:
I2: E→(E.)
E’→.E E→E.+E
E→.E+E E→E.*E
E→.E*E I7:
E→.(E) E→E+E.
E→.id E→E.+E
I3: E→E.*E
E→.id I8:
I4: E→E*E.
E→E+.E E→E.+E
E→.E+E E→E.*E
E→.E*E I9:
E→.(E) E→(E).
E→id
 Creating LR parser for Ambiguous Grammar:

Method 1:

 While designing SLR parser table using it’s algorithm, conflicts arise as the
grammar is ambiguous

 The states involved in conflicts are

                I7: reduction by E→E+E and shift on ‘+’ and ‘*’
                I8: reduction by E→E*E and shift on ‘+’ and ‘*’

Resolving Conflicts with I7 on Top:

Let the input is id+id*id$. Then after consuming input upto ‘*’ the stack content will be
                                O E1 + 4 E7
Now on ‘*’ shift must happen as ‘*’ is having precedence over ‘+’
Let the input be id+id+id$. After consuming input upto second ‘+’, the stack content
must be
                                0E1 + 4E7
Now ‘+’ reduction must happen as + is left associative
So, I7 must reduce on’+’ and must shift on ‘*’.

Resolving Conflicts with I8 on Top:

Let the input is id+id*id$. After consuming input upto ‘+’ the stack content is
                                O E1 + 5 E8
Now on ‘+’ reduction must happen as ‘*’ is having precedence over ‘+’
Let the input be id*id*id$. After consuming input upto second ‘*’, the stack content will
be
                                0E1 + 5E8
Now on ‘*’ reduction must happen as ‘*’ is left associative. 
So, I8 must reduce on’+’ and must shift on ‘*’.

After resolving conflicts, the SLR parsing table is as shown in the table.