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CSC353-Theory of Automata
Week-3 Lecture-6
Semester-4 Fall 2022
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Preamble of lecture

► Kleene Star Closure

► Plus operation
► Recursive definition of languages
► Examples

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Regular Expression

► As discussed earlier that a* generates

Λ, a, aa, aaa, …

and a+ generates a, aa, aaa, aaaa, …, so the language L = {Λ, a, aa, aaa, …} and L = {a,
aa, aaa, aaaa, …} can simply be expressed by a* and +a 1, 2
respectively.
a* and a+ are called the regular expressions (RE) for L and L respectively.
1 2
+ * *
Note: a , aa and a a generate L .
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Recursive definition of Regular
Expression(RE)
Step 1: Every letter of Σ including Λ is a regular expression. {a, b}
Step 2: If r1 and r2 are regular expressions then
1. (r1)

2. r1 r2, r2r1

3. r1 + r2 and

4. *
r1
5. R1+

are also regular expressions.

Step 3: Nothing else is a regular expression.
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Defining Languages (continued)…

► Method 3 (Regular Expressions)

► Consider the language L={Λ, x, xx, xxx,…} of strings, defined over Σ = {x}.
► We can write this language as the Kleene star closure of alphabet Σ or L=Σ*={x}*
► this language can also be expressed by the regular expression x*.
► Similarly the language L={x, xx, xxx,…}, defined over Σ = {x}, can be expressed by
the regular expression x+.

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Cont..

► Now consider another language L, consisting of all possible

strings, defined over Σ = {a, b}. This language can also be
expressed by the regular expression
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Cont..

► Now consider another language L, consisting of all possible

strings, defined over Σ = {a, b}. This language can also be
expressed by the regular expression
(a + b)*

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Cont..

Now consider another language L, of strings having exactly double

a, defined over Σ = {a, b}, then it’s regular expression may be

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► Now consider another language L, of strings having exactly double a, defined over Σ =
{a, b}, then it’s regular expression may be
b*aab*

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Cont..

► Language L, of even length, defined over Σ = {a, b}, then it’s

regular expression

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Cont..

► Language L, of even length, defined over Σ = {a, b}, then it’s

regular expression
((a+b)(a+b))*

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Cont..

► Language L, of odd length, defined over Σ = {a, b}, then it’s

regular expression may be

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Cont..

► Language L, of odd length, defined over Σ = {a, b}, then it’s

regular expression may be
► L={a, b , aaa, abb, bab, bba, aab, baa, bbb, …}
(a+b)((a+b)(a+b))* or ((a+b)(a+b))*(a+b)

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Cont..

► It may be noted that a language may be expressed by more than one regular expressions, while
given a regular expression there exist a unique language generated by that regular expression.
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Example

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a , b} of words having at least one a,
may be expressed by a regular expression

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Cont..

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a , b} of words having at least one a,
may be expressed by a regular expression
(a+b)*a(a+b)*

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Example

► Consider the language, defined over Σ = {a, b} of words having at least one a
and one b, may be expressed by a regular expression

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Cont..

► Consider the language, defined over Σ = {a, b} of words having at least one a
and one b, may be expressed by a regular expression
(a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)*+ (a+b)*b(a+b)*a(a+b)*

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Cont..

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a, b}, of words starting with double a
and ending in double b then its regular expression may be
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Cont..

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a, b}, of words starting with double a
and ending in double b then its regular expression may be
aa(a+b)*bb

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Example

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a, b} of words starting with a and
ending in bOR starting with b and ending in a, then its regular expression may
be

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Cont..

► Consider the language, defined over Σ={a, b} of words starting with a and
ending in bOR starting with b and ending in a, then its regular expression may
be

a(a+b)*b+b(a+b)*a
{aab, abb, baa, bba}=> R.E=(aab+abb+baa+bba)
R.E=a(a+b)b+b(a+b)a

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Task

► Write the regular expression for the language defined over Σ={a, b} of all
the words beginning with a.
► Write a regular expression for the language, defined over Σ={a, b} of
words beginning and ending in same letter.
► Write a regular expression for the language, defined over Σ={a, b} of
words ending in b.
► Write a regular expression for the language, defined over Σ={a, b} of words
not ending in a.

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Note

► It is important to be clear about the difference of the following regular

expressions r1=a*+b* => L(r1)={^, a, b, aa, bb, aaa, bbb, aaaa, bbbb, ….}

r2=(a+b)* =>L(r2)={^, a, b, aa, ab, ba, bb, aaa, bbb, abb, aab, bab, aba, …}
Here r1 does not generate any string of concatenation of a and b, while r2 generates
such strings.

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Cont..

► If r1 =(aa + bb) and r2=( a + b) then

1. r1+r2 = (aa + bb) + (a + b)={aa, bb, a, b}
2. r1r2 = (aa + bb) (a + b) =(aaa + aab + bba + bbb)
3. (r1)* = (aa + bb)*
4. (r2)*= (a+b)*

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Regular Languages

► The language generated by any regular expression is called regular language.

► It is to be noted that if r1, r2 are regular expressions, corresponding to the languages L1, L2
then the languages generated by r1 + r2, r1r2 (or r2r1) and r1* (or r2*) are also regular
languages.

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Note

► It is to be noted that if L1 and L2 are expressed by r1and r2, respectively then the language
expressed by
1) r1+ r2, is the language L1 + L2 or L1 U L2
2)r1r2, , is the language L1L2, of strings obtained by prefixing every string of L1 with every
string of L2
3) r1*, is the language L 1*, of strings obtained by concatenating the strings of L, including
the null string.

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Example

► If r1=(aa+bb) and r2=(a+b) then the language of strings generated by r1+r2, is also a regular
language, expressed by (aa+bb)+(a+b)
► If r1=(aa+bb) and r2=(a+b) then the language of strings generated by r1r2, is also a regular
language, expressed by (aa+bb)(a+b)
► If r=(aa+bb) then the language of strings generated by r*, is also a regular language,
expressed by (aa+bb)*

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All finite languages are regular

Example:
Consider the language L, defined over Σ={a,b}, of strings of length 2, starting with a,
then
L={aa, ab}, may be expressed by the regular expression aa+ab. Hence L, by definition,
is a regular language.

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Note

It may be noted that if a language contains even thousand words, its RE may be
expressed, placing ‘ + ’ between all the words.
Here the special structure of RE is not important.
Consider the language L={aaa, aab, aba, abb, baa, bab, bba, bbb}, that may be
expressed by a RE aaa+aab+aba+abb+baa+bab+bba+bbb, which is equivalent to
(a+b)(a+b)(a+b).

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Q&A

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References

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