It is needed to translate a high level program into a sequence of machine instructions that performs the desired task

Compiler:

• A compiler is a computer program (or a set of programs) that convert the source code (written in the high-level language) into machine language.
• A compiler translates all a programmer's source code before the source code can ever be executed or run.
• It takes source code and converts it into a single file that is written in machine code.

This is explained with the help of the following block diagram:

Important Notes:

Assembler: The assembler is a program that translates the mnemonics/ assembly language into machine language (0’s and 1’s) and stores it into the memory.

Interpreter: An interpreter reads one instruction at a time (of the program High-level language) produces its object code and executes the instruction before reading the next instruction.