Scribd
Upload
9 views

What are the fundamental concepts of TOC_

The document outlines fundamental concepts of the Theory of Computation (TOC), including definitions of symbols, alphabets, strings, and languages. It explains that symbols are atomic units, alphabets are finite sets of symbols, strings are sequences of symbols, and languages are sets of strings from an alphabet. Examples are provided to illustrate each concept, such as binary alphabets and special languages.

Uploaded by

SANJEET KUMAR
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views

What are the fundamental concepts of TOC_

The document outlines fundamental concepts of the Theory of Computation (TOC), including definitions of symbols, alphabets, strings, and languages. It explains that symbols are atomic units, alphabets are finite sets of symbols, strings are sequences of symbols, and languages are sets of strings from an alphabet. Examples are provided to illustrate each concept, such as binary alphabets and special languages.

Uploaded by

SANJEET KUMAR
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Page 1 of 3

What are the fundamental concepts of TOC?


Data Structure Algorithms Computer Science Computers

The basic definitions of the fundamental concepts in the Theory of Computation (TOC) along with the
relevant examples are explained below −

Symbol
Symbols simply call it as a character.

It is an atomic unit, such as a digit, character, lowercase letter, etc. Sometimes it is also a word. The
formal language does not deal with the “meaning” of the symbols.

For example,

a,b,c,……………z

0,1,2,…………..9

+,-,*,%,…………special characters.

Alphabet
The set of characters is called as the alphabet.

An alphabet is a finite, non-empty set of symbols. It is denoted by Σ or E.

For example,

Σ ={0,1} set of binary alphabets.

Σ ={a,b,c,……..,z} set of all lower case letters.

Σ ={A,B,C,………Z} set of all upper case letters.

Σ ={+,&,%,……….} set of all special characters.

Explore our latest online courses and learn new skills at your own pace. Enroll and become a certified
expert to boost your career.
Page 2 of 3

String or Word
A string is a finite set sequence of symbols choose from some alphabets

For example,

00011001 is a string from the binary alphabet Σ={0,1} and aabbcabcd is a string from the
alphabet Σ={a,b,c,d}.

If, w = 0110 y = 0aa x = aabcaa z = 111. Then,

Special string − s (also denoted by X)

Concatenation − wz = 0110111

Length − |w| = 4 |s| = 0 |x| = 6

Reversal − yR = aa0

Some special sets of strings are as follows −

E* All strings of symbols from E

E+ E* - {s}

For example,

E = {0, 1}

E* = {s, 0, 1, 00, 01, 10, 11, 000, 001,...}

E+ = {0, 1, 00, 01, 10, 11, 000, 001,.}

Length of string
It is the number of symbols in the string or word. It is denoted by |w|.

For example,

w=01011001 from binary alphabet Σ={0,1}


|w| = 8

X= abbaddabba from binary alphabet Σ={a,b}


Page 3 of 3

|X| = 10

Language
A language is a set of strings from some alphabet (finite or infinite). In other words, any subset L of E*
is a language in TOC.

Some special languages are as follows −

{} The empty set/language, containing no string.

{s} A language containing one string, the empty string.

Examples

E = {0, 1}
L = {x | x is in E* and x contains an even number of 0’s}

E = {0, 1, 2,., 9, .}
L = {x | x is in E* and x forms a finite length real number}
= {0, 1.5, 9.326,.}

E = {a, b, c,., z, A, B,., Z}


L = {x | x is in E* and x is a Pascal reserved word}
= {BEGIN, END, IF,...}

E = {Pascal reserved words} U { (, ), ., :, ;,...} U {Legal Pascal identifiers}


L = {x | x is in E* and x is a syntactically correct Pascal program}

E = {English words}
L = {x | x is in E* and x is a syntactically correct English sentence}

You might also like