 Therefore, it is convenient to characterize the state of the parser by a set of items, in this case the set { E → E + B, E → E * B }.An item with a dot before a nonterminal, such as E → E + B, indicates that the parser expects to parse the nonterminal B next.To ensure the item set contains all possible rules the parser may be in the midst of parsing, it must include all items describing how B itself will be parsed.