US Patent 7143345 Method and system for multiple level parsing

A system and method for parsing source code written in a high-level programming language at multiple levels may be performed to populate a tree data structure. To obtain information at lower levels, higher levels are parsed. Each level of parsing is performed as a separate stage with the results of higher levels being used to feed parsing at lower levels. The system and method of the present invention provide for parsing at a requested level, not parsing to a lower level than requested.