I often hear claims that C++ is a context-sensitive language. Take the following example:

    a b(c);

Is this a variable definition or a function declaration? That depends on the meaning of the symbol `c`. If `c` is a *variable*, then `a b(c);` defines a variable named `b` of type `a`. It is directly initialized with `c`. But if `c` is a *type*, then `a b(c);` declares a function named `b` that takes a `c` and returns an `a`.

If you look up the definition of context-free languages, it will basically tell you that all grammar rules must have left-hand sides that consist of exactly one non-terminal symbol. Context-sensitive grammars, on the other hand, allow arbitrary strings of terminal and non-terminal symbols on the left-hand side.

Browsing through Appendix A of &quot;The C++ Programming Language&quot;, I couldn&#39;t find a single grammar rule that had anything else besides a single non-terminal symbol on its left-hand side. That would imply that C++ is context-free. (Of course, every context-free language is also context-sensitive in the sense that the context-free languages form a subset of the context-sensitive languages, but that is not the point.)

So, is C++ context-free or context-sensitive?

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Is C++ context-free or context-sensitive?