. an inherited attribute is one whose value is defined in terms of attributes at the parent and/or siblings

. Used for finding out the context in which it appears

. possible to use only S-attributes but more natural to use inherited attributes

D T L	L.in = T.type
T real	T.type = real
T int	T.type = int
L L1 , id	L1 .in = L.in; addtype(id.entry, L.in)
L id	addtype (id.entry,L.in)

Inherited attributes help to find the context (type, scope etc.) of a token e.g., the type of a token or scope when the same variable name is used multiple times in a program in different functions. An inherited attribute system may be replaced by an S -attribute system but it is more natural to use inherited attributes in some cases like the example given above.

Here addtype(a, b) functions adds a symbol table entry for the id a and attaches to it the type of b .