# Abstract syntactical tree

Abstract syntactical tree\. Other names: Kantorovich's tree, Abstract Syntax Tree \(AST\)\. AST is a finite oriented tree the nodes of which are correlated with the programming language's operators, and the leaves \- with the corresponding operands\. Thus, the leaves are empty operators and serve only as variables and constants\. AST differs from the [parse tree](https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/terms/0039/) in that it keeps only the essential information about the program while the parse tree, on the contrary, contains much unnecessary information\. In this sense the abstract syntactical tree is a condensed form of the parse tree convenient for presenting the language constructions' structure from the semantics' viewpoint\.

## References

1. Wikipedia "[Abstract syntax tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree)"