Formal Languages and Automata Exam

Faculty of Computers & Information

Department: Computer Science Grade: Third
Course code: CSC 341 Total Mark: 80
Date: 23/1/2010 Time: 3 hours
Answer the following questions:
1- a) Consider the language S*, where S = {ab ba}. Write out all the words in S* that
have seven or fewer letters. Can any word in this language contain the
substrings aaa or bbb? Why?
b) Does the two following two regular expressions define the same language:
(a+b)*a(a+b)*a(a+b)* and b*ab*a(a+b)*? Investigate your answer.
c) Construct a regular expression defining each of the following languages over
the alphabet  = {a b}:
- The language of all strings of a's and b's in which either the strings are all b's
or else there is an a followed by some b's.
- Language of all strings of a's and b's that at some point contain a double letter.
- All words that contain at least one of the strings s1, s2, s3 or s4.

2- a) Let  = {a,b}, draw deterministic finite automata (DFA) that recognize, exactly:
- Language ( (a+b)*(aa+bb)(a+b)* )
- All words with b as the third letter and reject all other words.
- All words that have different first and last letters.
b) Draw the corresponding NFA to the following DFA
0
1
-

0
0 1 1

+ +
0
1

(See the next page)

 c) If L is the language recognized by the DFA in the figure, Draw DFA to
recognize L', where L' is the complement of L.

3- a) State pumping lemma.

b) Use pumping lemma to prove that L = {anbn, n  0} is nonregular.
c) Define the language EQUAL to have only the words with the same total number
of a's and b's. Does EQUAL a nonregular language? Prove your answer.

4) a) Define what we mean by a decidable problem.

b) Is there an effective procedure to determine the finiteness of a language of finite
automate? State it, if any.
c) Write the context free grammar that generates L = {anbn, n  0}

5- a) Define PALINDROMEX as the language of all words of the form sXreverse(s).

Construct deterministic pushdown automata that accept this language.
b) Define ODDPALINDROME to be the language of all strings of a's and b's that
are palindromes and have an odd number of letters. Construct nondeterministic
pushdown automata that accept this language.
 Model Answer
Formal Languages and Automata Exam

Faculty of Computers & Information

Department: Computer Science
Course code: CSC 341 Total Mark: 80
Date: 23/1/2010 Time: 3 hours

1- a) Consider the language S*, where S = {ab ba}. Write out all the words in S* that
have seven or fewer letters. Can any word in this language contain the substrings aaa
or bbb? Why?
Solution:
- The words of length less than 7 are:
: contains no factors
ab, ba: contains one factor
abab, abba, baab, baba: contains 2 factors
ababab,ababba,abbaab,baabab,bababa,babaab,baabba,abbaba: contains 3 factors
All words contains 4 or more factors have length  8.
- The language words can't contain neither aaa nor bbb. The reason is the blocks that
build the words are only 2. These 2 blocks start with a and end with b or vice versa.
So, the result of combination yields only ab, ba, aa, or bb.

b) Does the two following two regular expressions define the same language:
(a+b)*a(a+b)*a(a+b)* and b*ab*a(a+b)*? Investigate your answer.
Solution:
Yes. Both of them denote all the words with at least two a's.

c) Construct a regular expression defining each of the following languages over the
alphabet  = {a b}:
- The language of all strings of a's and b's in which either the strings are all b's
or else there is an a followed by some b's.
 - The language of all strings of a's and b's that at some point contain a double
letter.
- All words that contain at least one of the strings s1, s2, s3 or s4.
Solution:
- b*+ab* or equivalently (+a)b*
- (a+b)*(aa+bb)(a+b)*
- (a+b)*(s1+s2+s3+s4)(a+b)*
2- a) Let  = {a, b}, draw deterministic finite automata that recognize -exactly- the
following:
- Language ( (a+b)*(aa+bb)(a+b)* )
Solution:

a
a
a, b
b a +
-

b
b

- All words with b as the third letter and reject all other words.
Solution:

a, b

a
a, b a, b
-

b
a, b
+

- All words that have different first and last letters.

Solution:
a
b
+ b

a a

a
b + a

b
b
b) Draw the corresponding NFA to the following DFA
0
1
-

0
0 1 1

+ +
0
1

Solution:

0
1
-

0
0 1 1
0,1

+ +
0 1 0,1
- +
1 OR

c) If L is the language recognized by the DFA in the figure, Draw DFA to recognize
L', where L' is the complement of L.
Solution:
0
1
±

0
0 1 1

0
1
3- a) State pumping lemma.
Solution:
Let L be any regular language that has infinitely many words. Then there exist
some three strings x, y, z (where y is not the null string) such that all the strings of the
form xynz  L, n = 1, 2, 3, …

b) Use pumping lemma to prove that L = {anbn, n  0} is nonregular.

Solution:
Assume the contrary, i.e. L is regular
Hence, by pumping lemma,  x, y, z such that xyz, xyyz  L
We differentiate among 3 cases of y:
- y constitute of only a's:
We have xyz contains the same number of a's and b's
So, xyyz contains number of a's bigger than number of b's
So, xyyz  L
But xyyz  L, which is contradiction.
- y constitute of only b's:
Same argument as above.
- y constitutes of equal number of a's and b's:
To be xyz  L, y must equals to apbp, for some p
So yy = apbpapbp
Now xyyz = x apbp apbp z  L, which is contradiction.
The contradictions show that L is nonregular.
c) Define the language EQUAL to have only the words with the same total number of
a's and b's. Does EQUAL a nonregular language? Prove your answer.
Solution:

EQUAL is nonregular because {anbn} = a*b*  EQUAL

We know that a*b* is a regular language and the set of regular language is closed
under intersection. Hence EQUAL can't be regular.
4) a) define what we mean by a decidable problem.
Solution:
An effective solution to a problem that has a yes or no answer is called
decision procedure. A problem that has a decision procedure is called decidable.

b) Is there an effective procedure to determine the finiteness of a language of finite

automate? State it, if any.
Solution:
Yes.
- assume that the finite automaton has N states
- Test all words of length p on the machine, where N  p < 2 N
- If at least one of these words accepted then the language is infinite
- Else if all these words consumed at nonfinal states then the language is finite.

c) Write the context free grammar that generates L = {anbn, n  0}

Solution:
G = ({S}, {a,b}, {S  aSb}, S)
5- a) Define PALINDROMEX as the language of all words of the form sXreverse(s).
Construct deterministic pushdown automata that accept this language.
Solution:
Any deterministic pushdown automata equivalent to the following is sufficient:

OR
 b) Define ODDPALINDROME to be the language of all strings of a's and b's that
are palindromes and have an odd number of letters. Construct nondeterministic
pushdown automata that accept this language.
Solution:
Any nondeterministic pushdown automata equivalent to the following is sufficient: