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(bison.info)Semantic Actions

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Semantic Actions
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   In order to be useful, a program must do more than parse input; it
must also produce some output based on the input.  In a Bison grammar,
a grammar rule can have an "action" made up of C statements.  Each time
the parser recognizes a match for that rule, the action is executed.
Note: Actions.

   Most of the time, the purpose of an action is to compute the
semantic value of the whole construct from the semantic values of its
parts.  For example, suppose we have a rule which says an expression
can be the sum of two expressions.  When the parser recognizes such a
sum, each of the subexpressions has a semantic value which describes
how it was built up.  The action for this rule should create a similar
sort of value for the newly recognized larger expression.

   For example, here is a rule that says an expression can be the sum of
two subexpressions:

     expr: expr '+' expr   { $$ = $1 + $3; }
             ;

The action says how to produce the semantic value of the sum expression
from the values of the two subexpressions.