Theory of Automata

Theory of Automata & Formal Languages
LECTURE 01
INTRODUCTION
Reference Books
2
1.
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O C O M P U T E R T H E O R Y, B Y D A N I E L I .
COHEN, JOHN WILEY AND SONS, INC., 1991, SECOND
EDITION
2.
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O L A N G UA G E S A N D T H E O RY O F
C O M P U TAT I O N , BY J . C . M A RT I N , M C G R A W H I L L B O O K C O . ,
1997, SECOND EDITION
3.
AN INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LANGUAGES AND

AUTOMATA, BY PETER LINZ, 4TH EDITION, JONES &
BARTLETT PUBLISHERS, 2006
4.
INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGES AND THE THEORY OF

COMPUTATION, BY JOHN C. MARTIN3RD EDITION, 2002,
MCGRAW-HILL PROFESSIONAL.
Course Outline
3
Finite State Models: Language definitions preliminaries,
Regular expressions/Regular languages, Finite automata

(FAs), Transition graphs (TGs), NFAs, kleenes theorem,
Transducers (automata with output), Pumping lemma and
non regular language Grammars and PDA: Context free
grammars, Derivations, derivation trees and ambiguity,
Simplifying CFLs , Normal form grammars and parsing,
Push-down Automata, Pumping lemma and non-context free
languages, Decidability, Chomskys hierarchy of grammars
Turing Machines Theory: Turing machines, Post machine,
Variations on TM, TM encoding, Universal Turing Machine,
Context sensitive Grammars, Defining Computers by TMs.
Course Policy
POLICY FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF MARKS AND
EXAMINATION IS AS FOLLOWS:
CLASS PERFORMANCE & ATTENDANCE 10 MARKS
PRESENTATION
05 MARKS
ASSIGNMENT
05 MARKS
MIDTERMS
30 MARKS
FINAL
50 MARKS
Language
5
System
of
communication.
Introduction to languages
6
There are two types of languages
Formal Languages (Syntactic languages)

Informal Languages (Semantic languages)
Automata
7
An automation is supposed to run on some given
sequence of input in discrete time steps.

Automation is mathematical object that takes a word
as input and decide either to accept or reject.
What does automata mean?

8
It is the plural of automaton, and it means
something that works automatically.

Self- acting/ self operating
Application of Automata
9
Traffic Lights
Video Games
CPU Controllers
Speech Recognition
Compiler Construction
A simple computer
10
H
ITC
W
S
f
BATTERY
start
on
of
f
input: switch
output: light bulb
actions: f for flip
switch
states: on, of
bulb is on if and only

if there was an odd
number of flips
Automata
11
Language {0,1}
Alphabet 01
Alphabet 02
String
State
00
Off
01
Off
10
Off
11
On
Another computer
12
start
of
2
BATTERY
2
inputs: switches 1 and
2
actions: 1 for flip
switch 1
actions: 2 for flip
switch 2
states: on, of
of
1
2
1
of
on
bulb is on if and only

if both switches were
flipped an odd
number of times
Alphabets
13
Definition:
A finite non-empty set of symbols (letters), is

called an alphabet. It is denoted by ( Greek letter
sigma).
Example:
={a,b}
={0,1} //important as this is the language
//which the computer understands.
={i,j,k}
NOTE:
14
certain version of language ALGOL has 113

letters
(alphabet) includes letters, digits and a
variety of operators including sequential
operators such as GOTO and IF
Strings
15
Definition:
Concatenation of finite symbols from the

alphabet is called a string.
Example:
If = {a,b} then
a, abab, aaabb, ababababababababab
15
EMPTY STRING or NULL STRING

16
Sometimes a string with no symbol at all is used,
denoted by (Small Greek letter Lambda) or

(Capital Greek letter Lambda) , is called an empty
string or null string.
Words
17
Definition:
Words are strings belonging to some language.

Example:
If = {x} then a language L can be defined as
L={xn : n=1,2,3,..} or L={x,xx,xxx,.}
Here x,xx, are the words of L
NOTE:
18
All words are strings, but not all strings are
words.
Valid/In-valid alphabets
19
While defining an alphabet, an alphabet may contain
letters consisting of group of symbols

for example 1= {B, aB, bab, d}.
Now consider an alphabet
2= {B, Ba, bab, d} and a string BababB.
20
This string can be tokenized in two different

ways
(Ba), (bab), (B)

(B), (abab), (B)
Which shows that the second group cannot be

identified as a string, defined over
2 = {B, Ba, bab, d}.
21
As when this string is scanned by the compiler (Lexical
Analyzer), first symbol B is identified as a letter belonging

to , while for the second letter the lexical analyzer would
not be able to identify, so while defining an alphabet it
should be kept in mind that ambiguity should not be
created.
Remarks:
22
While defining an alphabet of letters consisting of more
than one symbols, no letter should be started with the letter

of the same alphabet i.e. one letter should not be the prefix
of another. However, a letter may be ended in the letter of
same alphabet i.e. one letter may be the suffix of another.
Conclusion
23
1= {B, aB, bab, d}

2= {B, Ba, bab, d}
1 is a valid alphabet while 2 is an in-valid

alphabet.
Length of Strings
24
Definition:
The length of string s, denoted by |s|, is the

number of letters in the string.
Example:
={a,b}
s=ababa
|s|=5
25
Example:
= {B, aB, bab, d}

s=BaBbabBd
Tokenizing=(B), (aB), (bab), (B),(d)
|s|=5
Reverse of a String
26
Definition:
The reverse of a string s denoted by Rev(s) or

obtained by writing the letters of s in reverse order.
Example:
If s=abc is a string defined over ={a,b,c}

then Rev(s) or sr = cba
s r,
is
27
Example:
= {B, aB, bab, d}

s=BaBbabBd
Rev(s)=dBbabaBB
Defining Languages
28
The languages can be defined in different ways , such as
Descriptive definition, Recursive definition, using Regular

Expressions(RE) and using Finite Automaton(FA) etc.
Descriptive definition of language:

The language is defined, describing the conditions imposed
on its words.
29
Example:
The language L of strings of odd length, defined over

={a}, can be written as
L={a, aaa, aaaaa,..}
Example:
The language L of strings that does not start with a, defined

over ={a,b,c}, can be written as
L={b, c, ba, bb, bc, ca, cb, cc, }
30
Example:
The language L of strings of length 2, defined over

={0,1,2}, can be written as
L={00, 01, 02,10, 11,12,20,21,22}
Example:
The language L of strings ending in 0, defined over

={0,1}, can be written as
L={0,00,10,000,010,100,110,}
31
Example: The language EQUAL, of strings with number of
as equal to number of bs, defined over ={a,b}, can be

written as
{ ,ab,aabb,abab,baba,abba,}
Example: The language EVEN-EVEN, of strings with even
number of as and even number of bs, defined over

={a,b}, can be written as
{, aa, bb, aaaa,aabb,abab, abba, baab, baba, bbaa, bbbb,}
32
Example: The language INTEGER, of strings defined over
={-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, can be written as

INTEGER = {,-2,-1,0,1,2,}
Example: The language EVEN, of stings defined over
={-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, can be written as

EVEN = { ,-4,-2,0,2,4,}
33
Example: The language {anbn }, of strings defined over
={a,b}, as
{an bn : n=1,2,3,}, can be written as
{ab, aabb, aaabbb,aaaabbbb,}
Example: The language {anbnan }, of strings defined over
={a,b}, as
{an bn an: n=1,2,3,}, can be written as
{aba, aabbaa, aaabbbaaa,aaaabbbbaaaa,}
34
Example: The language factorial, of strings defined over
={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} i.e.
{1,2,6,24,120,}
Example: The language FACTORIAL, of strings defined
over ={a}, as
{an! : n=1,2,3,}, can be written as
{a,aa,aaaaaa,}. It is to be noted that the language
FACTORIAL can be defined over any single letter
alphabet.
35
Example: The language DOUBLE FACTORIAL, of
strings defined over ={a, b}, as

{an!bn! : n=1,2,3,}, can be written as
{ab, aabb, aaaaaabbbbbb,}
Example: The language SQUARE, of strings defined over
={a}, as
2
{an : n=1,2,3,}, can be written as

{a, aaaa, aaaaaaaaa,}
36
Example: The language DOUBLESQUARE, of strings
defined over ={a,b}, as

n
{a b : n=1,2,3,}, can be written as

{ab, aaaabbbb, aaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbb,}
37
Example: The language PRIME, of strings defined over
={a}, as
{ap : p is prime}, can be written as
{aa,aaa,aaaaa,aaaaaaa,aaaaaaaaaaa}
An Important language
38
PALINDROME:
The language consisting of and the strings s defined
over such that Rev(s)=s.
It is to be denoted that the words of PALINDROME are
called palindromes.
Example: For ={a,b},

PALINDROME={ , a, b, aa, bb, aaa, aba, bab, bbb, ...}
Remark
39
There are as many palindromes of length 2n
as there are of length 2n-1.

To prove the above remark, the following is to
be noted:
Note
40
Number of strings of length m defined over alphabet of
n letters is nm.
Examples:
The language of strings of length 2, defined over ={a,b}

is L={aa, ab, ba, bb} i.e. number of strings = 22
The language of strings of length 3, defined over ={a,b}

is L={aaa, aab, aba, baa, abb, bab, bba, bbb} i.e. number
of strings = 23
To calculate the number of palindromes of
length(2n), consider the following diagram,
41
42
which shows that there are as many palindromes of

length 2n as there are the strings of length n i.e. the
required number of palindromes are 2n.
To calculate the number of palindromes of
length (2n-1) with a as the middle letter,

consider the following diagram,
43
44
which shows that there are as many palindromes of

length 2n-1 as there are the strings of length n-1 i.e.
the required number of palindromes are 2n-1.
Similarly the number of palindromes of length 2n-1,
with b as middle letter, will be 2n-1 as well. Hence
the total number of palindromes of length 2n-1 will
be 2n-1 + 2n-1 = 2 (2n-1)= 2n .

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Theory of Automata & Formal Languages

AN INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LANGUAGES AND

INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGES AND THE THEORY OF

Finite State Models: Language definitions preliminaries,

Regular expressions/Regular languages, Finite automata

There are two types of languages

Formal Languages (Syntactic languages)

An automation is supposed to run on some given

sequence of input in discrete time steps.

as input and decide either to accept or reject.

What does automata mean?

It is the plural of automaton, and it means

something that works automatically.

bulb is on if and only

bulb is on if and only

A finite non-empty set of symbols (letters), is

certain version of language ALGOL has 113

Concatenation of finite symbols from the

EMPTY STRING or NULL STRING

Sometimes a string with no symbol at all is used,

denoted by (Small Greek letter Lambda) or

Words are strings belonging to some language.

All words are strings, but not all strings are

While defining an alphabet, an alphabet may contain

letters consisting of group of symbols

Now consider an alphabet

2= {B, Ba, bab, d} and a string BababB.

This string can be tokenized in two different

(Ba), (bab), (B)

Which shows that the second group cannot be

As when this string is scanned by the compiler (Lexical

Analyzer), first symbol B is identified as a letter belonging

While defining an alphabet of letters consisting of more

than one symbols, no letter should be started with the letter

1= {B, aB, bab, d}

1 is a valid alphabet while 2 is an in-valid

The length of string s, denoted by |s|, is the

= {B, aB, bab, d}

The reverse of a string s denoted by Rev(s) or

If s=abc is a string defined over ={a,b,c}

= {B, aB, bab, d}

The languages can be defined in different ways , such as

Descriptive definition, Recursive definition, using Regular

Descriptive definition of language:

The language L of strings of odd length, defined over

The language L of strings that does not start with a, defined

The language L of strings of length 2, defined over

The language L of strings ending in 0, defined over

Example: The language EQUAL, of strings with number of

as equal to number of bs, defined over ={a,b}, can be

Example: The language EVEN-EVEN, of strings with even

number of as and even number of bs, defined over

Example: The language INTEGER, of strings defined over

={-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, can be written as

={-,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, can be written as

Example: The language {anbn }, of strings defined over

Example: The language {anbnan }, of strings defined over

Example: The language factorial, of strings defined over

Example: The language FACTORIAL, of strings defined