Recap Lecture 3
RE, Recursive definition of RE, defining
languages by RE, { x}*, { x}+, {a+b}*,
Language of strings having exactly one aa,
Language of strings of even length,
Language of strings of odd length, RE defines
unique language (as Remark), Language of
strings having at least one a, Language of
strings havgin at least one a and one b,
Language of strings starting with aa and
ending in bb, Language of strings starting
with and ending in different letters.
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Task
Determine the RE of the language, defined
over Σ={a, b} of words beginning with a.
Solution:
The required RE may be a(a+b)*
Determine the RE of the language, defined
over Σ={a, b} of words beginning with and
ending in same letter.
Solution:
The required RE may be (a+b)
+a(a+b)*a+b(a+b)*b
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Task Continued …
Determine the RE of the language, defined
over Σ={a, b} of words ending in b.
Solution:
The required RE may be
(a+b)*b.
Determine the RE of the language, defined
over
Σ={a, b} of words not ending in a.
Solution: The required RE may be
(a+b)*b + Λ Or ((a+b)*b)*
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Note
It is important to be clear about the
difference of the following regular
expressions
r1=a*+b*
r2=(a+b)*
Here r1 does not generate any string of
concatenation of a and b, while r2
generates such strings.
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Equivalent Regular Expressions
Definition:
Two regular expressions are said to be
equivalent if they generate the same language.
Example:
Consider the following regular expressions
r1= (a + b)* (aa + bb)
r2= (a + b)*aa + ( a + b)*bb then
both regular expressions define the language of
strings ending in aa or bb.
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Note
If r =(aa + bb) and r2=( a + b) then
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1. r1+r2 =(aa + bb) + (a + b)
2. r1r2 =(aa + bb) (a + b)
=(aaa + aab + bba +
bbb)
3. (r1)* =(aa + bb)*
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Regular Languages
Definition:
The language generated by any regular
expression is called a regular language.
It is to be noted that if r1, r2 are regular
expressions, corresponding to the
languages L1 and 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 L1*, 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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Introduction to Finite Automaton
Consider the following game board that
contains 64 boxes
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Finite Automaton Continued …
There are some pieces of paper. Some are
of white colour while others are of black
color. The number of pieces of paper are 64
or less. The possible arrangements under
which these pieces of paper can be placed
in the boxes, are finite. To start the game,
one of the arrangements is supposed to be
initial arrangement. There is a pair of dice
that can generate the numbers 2,3,4,…12 .
For each number generated, a unique
arrangement is associated among the
possible arrangements.
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Finite Automaton Continued …
It shows that the total number of
transition rules of arrangement are finite.
One and more arrangements can be
supposed to be the winning arrangement.
It can be observed that the winning of the
game depends on the sequence in which
the numbers are generated. This structure
of game can be considered to be a finite
automaton.
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Defining Languages (continued)…
Method 4 (Finite Automaton)
Definition:
A Finite automaton (FA), is a collection of the
followings
1) Finite number of states, having one initial and
some (maybe none) final states.
2) Finite set of input letters (Σ) from which input
strings are formed.
3) Finite set of transitions i.e. for each state and
for each input letter there is a transition
showing how to move from one state to
another.
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Example
Σ = {a,b}
States: x, y, z where x is an initial state and z is
final state.
Transitions:
1. At state x reading a go to state z,
2. At state x reading b go to state y,
3. At state y reading a, b go to state y
4. At state z reading a, b go to state z
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Example Continued …
These transitions can be expressed by
the following table called transition
table
Old States New States
Reading a Reading b
x- z y
y y y
z+ z z
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Note
It may be noted that the information of an
FA, given in the previous table, can also
be depicted by the following diagram,
called the transition diagram, of the
given FA a,b
y
b
x–
a,b
a
Z+ 18
Remark
The previous transition diagram is an FA
accepting the language of strings, defined
over Σ={a, b}, starting with a. It may
be noted that this language may be
expressed by the regular expression
a (a + b)*
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Summing Up
Regular expression of EVEN-EVEN
language, Difference between a* + b* and
(a+b)*, Equivalent regular expressions;
sum, product and closure of regular
expressions; regular languages, finite
languages are regular, introduction to
finite automaton, definition of FA,
transition table, transition diagram
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