BCSE304L-THEORY OF

COMPUTATION

1 BCSE304L- Theory of Computation

 Syllabus

2 BCSE304L- Theory of Computation

 Syllabus

3 BCSE304L- Theory of Computation

 Syllabus

4 BCSE304L- Theory of Computation

 Module 3
 Regular Expression and Finite Automata
 Finite automata are used to recognize
patterns. It takes the string of symbols as
input and transforms its state accordingly.
When the required symbol is found, then the
transition occurs.
 Regular Expressions are the expressions
that describe the language accepted by
Finite Automata. It is the most efficient way to
represent any language.
 The languages accepted by some regular
expressions are referred to as Regular
5 Languages Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School
of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
 Regular expressions are used to check and match the
combinations of characters in the strings.
 Find the operation that can be applied/matched on a string
pattern.
 Let Σ be an alphabet that denotes the input set.
The regular expression over Σ can be defined as follows:
 1.) Φ is a regular expression that denotes the empty set.
 2.) ε is a regular expression and denotes the set {ε}, called
a null string.
 3.) If ‘a’ and ‘b’ are the regular expressions that denote the
language L1 and L2, respectively, then:-
a.) a+b is equal to L1 U L2 union.
b.) ab is equal to the L1L2 concatenation.
c.) a* is equal to L1* closure.
6 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School
of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
Operations On Regular Language

 The various operations on the regular language are:

 1.) Union: If ‘a’ and ‘b’ are the regular expressions that
denote the language L1 and L2, respectively, their union L1 U
L2 is also a Regular Language.
 Example : a + b is equal to L1 U L2 union.

 2.) Intersection: If ‘a’ and ‘b’ are the regular expressions

that denote the language L1 and L2, respectively, their
intersection is also a Regular Language.
 L1 ⋂ L2 = {ab | a is in L1 and b is in L2}
 Example : ab is equal to the L1L2 concatenation.

 3.) Kleene closure: If R is a regular language, its Kleene

closure * will also be a Regular Language.
 R* = Zero or more occurrences of language R.

7 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),

School of Computer Science and
 FA to RE
 There are two methods to convert FA to the
regular expression:
 1. State Elimination Method:
 2. Arden’s Theorem:

8 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (

Sr.), School of Computer Science and
1. State Elimination Method:

 Steps:
 Add a new start state and final state add an €-transition
between the new and the existing states
 One by one, bypass and eliminate the non initial and the final
states in the transition diagram
 A state is bypassed or eliminated by combining each
outgoing edge with the incoming edge
 The label of the resultant edge is the concatenation of the
outgoing and incoming edge alphabets along with loop edges
if there is one.
 When 2 or more parallel edges are going in the same
direction from one state, unify them by union of (+)
their labels
 Finally only one edge is left from initial to final state.
 The label on that edge is the regular expression

9 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Example Formats

10 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
 (Contd.,)

Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

11 of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
Chennai.
 Convert the following NFA TO RE
Using State Elimination Method

12 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
13 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of
Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Ardens Theorem

14 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),

School of Computer Science and
15 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of
Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 RE to FA
 Thompson’s Construction Method
(NFA with Epsilon)

 Construct a NFA for RE 01+1*0

16 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (

Sr.), School of Computer Science and
Construct a NFA for RE (00+11)*01

17 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),

School of Computer Science and
RE to FA (NFA Informal Technique)
 Construct an FA equivalent to the RE
(0+1)*(00+11)(11)*

18 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
 RE to FA (Informal Technique)
 Construct an FA equivalent to the RE
(0+1)*(00+11)(11)*
 Constructing in a straight forward manner
starting with only one initial and final state
 Then eliminate concatenations by adding
states step by step
 Finally remove the epsilon transition.

19 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
Final Result

20 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),

School of Computer Science and Engineering,
 RE to DFA
 Construct DFA for RE=(0+1)*00(0+1)*

 L={ 00,000,100,000,001,0000,0001,…}

21 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Construct DFA for RE=(0+1)*011

Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),

22
School of Computer Science and
 Pattern Matching and FA
 Construct an automata for the pattern bada

 Text : abdababadad

 Steps:

 Draw the FA for the given pattern

 b a d a
q3 q
q0 q1 q2 4

23 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
Transition Table with Prefix
Matching
a b d
0 1
1 2
2 3
3 4
4

a b d
0 0 1 0
1 2 1 0
2 0 1 3
3 4 1 0
4 0 1 0

24 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
25 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (
Sr.), School of Computer Science and
 Types of Grammar in Automata

 There are several types of grammars in automata

theory, each with different properties and
capabilities.
 Regular Grammar
 A regular grammar is a type of formal grammar
that generates a regular language.
 A regular language is a language that can be
recognized by a finite automata or a regular
expression.
 Regular grammars are the simplest type of formal
grammars and are commonly used in computer
science and programming language theory.

26 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (

Sr.), School of Computer Science and
Rules
 In a regular grammar, all the production rules
have only one non-terminal symbol on the
left-hand side and a terminal symbol or a
non-terminal symbol followed by a
terminal symbol on the right-hand side.

 The terminal symbols represent the basic

building blocks of the language. (Small
Letters)
 The non-terminal symbols represent a group
of one or more strings of symbols. (Capital
letters)
27 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),
School of Computer Science and Engineering,
The formal definition of a regular
grammar
 A regular grammar is a quadruple G = (V, Σ, P, S)

where
 V is a finite set of non-terminal symbols,
 Σ is a finite set of terminal symbols,
 P is a set of production rules of the form A → α, where A is a non-
terminal symbol and α is a string of symbols in (V ∪ Σ) *, and
 S is the start symbol.

The production rules in a regular grammar must be in one of

the following forms:
 A → aB, where A and B are non-terminals, and a is a terminal
symbol
 A → a, where A is a non-terminal, and a is a terminal symbol
 S → ε, where S is the start symbol, and ε represents the empty
string
Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School
28
of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
 Example
 Consider the regular grammar G = ({S, A, B}, {0,
1}, P, S)
P : production rules
 S → 0A
 A → 1B
 B → 0A | 1B | ε
 In this grammar, S is the start symbol, and the non-
terminal symbols are S, A, and B. The terminal
symbols are 0 and 1. The production rules follow the
above format, where the left-hand side is a non-
terminal symbol, and the right-hand side is a string
of symbols consisting of non-terminals and
terminals.
29 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),
School of Computer Science and Engineering,
 Example

Given
 S → 0A
 A → 1B
 B → 0A | 1B | ε

For example, the string "010101" is in L(G) because it

can be generated by the grammar as follows:
 S → 0A
 A → 1B
 B → 0A
 A → 1B
 B → 0A
 A → 1B
 B → ε

30 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
Summary
 Regular grammar is a simple formal grammar
that generates a regular language,
 Regular Language is a language that can be
recognized by a finite automata or a regular
expression.
 The production rules in a regular grammar
have a specific format, and the grammar can
be used to generate strings in the regular
language by applying the production rules
starting from the start symbol.

31 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
The above grammar can be of two
forms
 Right Linear Regular Grammar
 Left Linear Regular Grammar

Linear Grammar
 When the right side of the Grammar part has only one
terminal then it's linear else non linear.
Left linear grammar
 In a left-regular grammar (also called left-linear
grammar), the rules are of the form as given below −
 L → Ma
 If the non terminal is at the left most in the RHS

Right Linear Regular Grammar

 L → aM
 If the non terminal is at the right most in the RHS

32 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
 Regular Grammar To FA
 Construct a finite-automata that accepts the language
generated by a given grammar G.

Let G = (V, T, P, S) be a regular grammar, where

 V = {A0, A1, A2} T = {0, 1}
 S is the start symbol of the grammar {A }.
0
 P is the set of production rules

Production rules defined as:

 A -> 0A
0 1

 A0 -> 1A2
 A1 -> 0A2
 A2 -> 0
33 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of Computer
Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Regular Grammar to FA Solution
 Let M = ( Q, ∑, δ, q0, F ) be a finite-
automata that accepts L (G), where
 Q = {A0, A1, A2, Af}
 ∑ = {0, 1}
 A0 is the initial state F = {Af}

34 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
35 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of
Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
36 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of
Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),
37
School of Computer Science and Engineering,
Example 2

38 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School

of Computer Science and Engineering, VIT
Pumping lemma for regular
languages
 Pumping Lemma is used as a proof for
irregularity of a language.

 Pumping lemma is to be applied to show that

certain languages are not regular.

 The fact that all sufficiently long strings in

such a language have a substring that can be
repeated arbitrarily many times, usually used
to prove that certain languages are not
regular

39 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 Method
 It gives a method for pumping (generating)
many substrings from a given string.

 In other words, we say it provides means to

break a given long input string into several
substrings.

 Gives necessary condition(s) to prove a set of

strings is not regular.

40 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
Theorem
 Assume that the given set is regular and accepted by FA
that have n states

 Choose a string w such that |w| >= n

 Using Pumping Lemma write w = xyiz for i>=0, which

means y not is not empty, such that |xy|<=n
(string y is ‘pumped’, i.e., if y is inserted any number of
times, the resultant string still remains in L. )

 For a suitable integer i, such that w = xyiz not in the

language. We have achieved the contradiction.

 Conclude L is not regular

41 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of
Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
 What are the closure properties of
Regular languages ?
Union
Intersection
concatenation
Kleene closure
Complement
Union
 If L1 and If L2 are two regular languages, their
union L1 U L2 will also be regular.
Example
 L1 = {an | n > O} and L2 = {bn | n > O}
 L3 = L1 U L2 = {an U bn | n > O} is also regular.

42 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of

Computer Science and Engineering, VIT Chennai.
Intersection
 If L1 and If L2 are two regular languages, their intersection L1 ∩ L2
will also be regular.
 L1= {am bn | n > 0 and m > O} and
 L2= {am bn U bn am | n > 0 and m > O}
 L3 = L1 ∩ L2 = {am bn | n > 0 and m > O} are also regular.
Concatenation
 If L1 and If L2 are two regular languages, their concatenation L1.L2
will also be regular.
 L1 = {an | n > 0} and L2 = {bn | n > O}
 L3 = L1.L2 = {am . bn | m > 0 and n > O} is also regular.
Kleene Closure
 If L1 is a regular language, its Kleene closure L1* will also be regular.
 L1 = (a U b )
 L1* = (a U b)*
Complement
 If L(G) is a regular language, its complement L'(G) will also be
regular. Complement of a language can be found by subtracting
strings which are in L(G) from all possible strings.
43 Dr. R.V. Aswiga , Assistant Professor (Sr.),
School of Computer Science and Engineering,