Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science

Chapter 3: Regular Languages and Regular Grammars

Languages
A language (over an alphabet ) is any subset of the set of all possible strings over . The set of all possible strings is written as *. Example: = {a, b, c} * = { , a, b, c, ab, ac, ba, bc, ca, aaa, } one language might be the set of strings of length less than or equal to 2.

L = { , a, b, c, aa, ab, ac, ba, bb, bc, ca, cb, cc}

Regular Languages
A regular language (over an alphabet ) is any language for which there exists a finite automaton that recognizes it.

Mathematical Models of Computation

This course studies a variety of mathematical models corresponding to notions of computation. The finite automaton was our first example. The finite automaton is an example of an automaton model. There are other models as well.

Mathematical Models of Computation

Another important model is that of a grammar. We will shortly look at regular grammars. But first, a digression:

Regular Expressions
A regular expression is a mathematical model for describing a particular type of language. Regular expressions are kind of like arithmetic expressions. The regular expression is defined recursively.

empty set

Regular Expressions

Given an alphabet
, and a are all regular expressions.
empty string

If r1 and r2 are regular expressions, then so are r1 + r2, r1 r2 , r1* and (r1).

Note: we usually write r1 r2 as r1 r2 .

These are the only things that are regular expressions.

Regular Expressions
Meaning: represents the empty language represents the language {} a represents the language {a} r1 + r2 represents the language L(r1) L(r2) r1 r2 represents L(r1) L(r2) r1* represents (L(r1))*

Regular Expressions
Example 1: What does a*(a + b) represent? It represents zero or more a's followed by either an a or a b. {a, b, aa, ab, aaa, aab, aaaa, aaab }

Regular Expressions
Example 2: What does (a + b)*(a + bb) represent? It represents zero or more symbols, each of which can be an a or a b, followed by either a or bb. {a, bb, aa, abb, ba, bbb, aaa, aabb, aba, abbb, baa, babb, bba, bbbb, }

Regular Expressions
Example 3: What does (aa)*(bb)*b represent? All strings over {a, b} that start with an even number of a's which are then followed by an odd number of b's. It's important to understand the underlying meaning of a regular expression.

Regular Expressions
Example 4: Find a regular expression for strings of 0's and 1's which have at least one pair of consecutive 0's. Each such string must have a 00 somewhere in it. It could have any string in front of it and any string after it, as long as it's there!!! Any string is represented by (0 + 1)* Answer: (0 + 1)*00(0 + 1)*

Regular Expressions
Example: Find a regular expression for strings of 0's and 1's which have no pairs of consecutive 0's.

It's a repetition of strings that are either 1's or, if a substring begins with 0, it must be followed by at least one 1. (1 + 011*)* or equivalently, (1 + 01)* But such strings can't end in a 0.

Regular Expressions
Example: Find a regular expression for strings of 0's and 1's which have no pairs of consecutive 0's.

(1 + 011*)* (1 + 01)* But such strings can't end in a 0. So we add (0 + ) to the end to allow for this. (1 + 01)* (0 + )

This is only one of many possible answers.

Regular Expressions
Why are they called regular expressions? Because, as it turns out, the set of languages they describe is that of the regular languages. That means that regular expressions are just another model for the same thing as finite automata.

Regular Expressions
Homework: Chapter 3, Section 1

Problems 1-11, 17, 18

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

As we have said, regular expressions and finite automata are really different ways of expressing the same thing. Let's see why. Given a regular expression, how can we build an equivalent finite automaton? (We won't bother going the other way, although it can be done.)

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

Clearly there are simple finite automata corresponding to the simple regular expressions: a

Note that each of these has an initial state and one accepting state.

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

On the previous slide, we saw that the simplest regular expressions can be represented by a finite automaton with an initial state (duh!) and one isolated accepting state:

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

We can build more complex automata for more complex regular expressions using this model:

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

Here's how we build an nfa for r1 + r2: r1

r1 + r2

r2

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

Here's how we build an nfa for r1 r2:

r1

r2

r1 r2

Regular Expressions and Regular Languages

Here's how we build an nfa for (r1)*:
Note: the last state added is not in book. For safety, I do it to have only one arc going into the final state.

r 1

(r1)*

Building an nfa from a regular expression

Example: Consider the regular expression (a + bb)(a+b)*(bb)
a

a b

b b

sometimes we just get tired and take an obvious shortcut

Building regular expression from a finite automaton

The book goes on to show that it works the other way around as well: we can find a corresponding regular expression for any finite automaton. It's fairly easy in some cases and you can "just do it." However, it's generally complicated and not worth the bother studying. You are not responsible for this material

Building regular expression from a finite automaton

a c a, b

The above automaton clearly corresponds to a*(a+b)c*

Regular Expressions and nfa's

Homework: Chapter 3, Section 2

Problems 1-5

Regular Grammars
Review: A grammar is a quadruple G = (V, T, S, P) where V is a finite set of variables T is a finite set of symbols, called terminals S is in V and is called the start symbol P is a finite set of productions, which are rules of the form where and are strings consisting of terminals and variables.

Regular Grammars
A grammar is said to be right-linear if every production in P is of the form A xB Ax where A and B are variables (perhaps the same, perhaps the start symbol S) in V and x is any string of terminal symbols (including the empty string ) or

Regular Grammars
An alternate (and better) definition of a rightlinear grammar says that every production in P is of the form A aB or Aa or S (to allow to be in the language) where A and B are variables (perhaps the same, but B can't be S) in V and a is any terminal symbol

Regular Grammars
The reason I prefer the second definition (although I accept the first one that happens to be used in the book) is It's easier to work with in proving things. It's the much more common definition.

Regular Grammars
A grammar is said to be left-linear if every production in P is of the form A Bx Ax where A and B are variables (perhaps the same, perhaps the start symbol S) in V and x is any string of terminal symbols (including the empty string ) or

Regular Grammars
The alternate definition of a left-linear grammar says that every production in P is of the form A Ba or Aa or S where A and B are variables (perhaps the same, but B can't be S) in V and a is any terminal symbol

Regular Grammars
Any left-linear or right-linear grammar is called a regular grammar.

Regular Grammars
For brevity, we often write a set of productions such as A x1 A x2 A x3

As
A x1 | x2 | x3

Regular Grammars
A derivation in grammar G is any sequence of strings in V and T, connected with starting with S and ending with a string containing no variables where each subsequent string is obtained by applying a production in P is called a derivation. S x1 x2 x3 . . . xn abbreviated as: * S xn

Regular Grammars
S x1 x2 x3 . . . xn abbreviated as:

S* xn generated by G, L(G).

We say that xn is a sentence of the language

We say that the other x's are sentential

forms.

Regular Grammars

* L(G) = {w | w T* and S xn}

We call L(G) the language generated by G L(G) is the set of all sentences over

grammar G

Example 1
S abS | a is an example of a right-linear grammar.

Can you figure out what language it generates? L = {w {a,b}* | w contains alternating a's and b's , begins with an a, and ends with a b} {a} L((ab)*a)

Example 2
S Aab

A Aab | aB Ba is an example of a left-linear grammar. Can you figure out what language it generates? L = {w {a,b}* | w is aa followed by at least one set of alternating ab's} L(aaab(ab)*)

Example 3
Consider the grammar S A

A aB | B Ab This grammar is NOT regular. No "mixing and matching" left- and rightrecursive productions.

Regular Grammars and nfa's

It's not hard to show that regular grammars generate and nfa's accept the same class of languages: the regular languages! It's a long proof, where we must show that any finite automaton has a corresponding left- or right-linear grammar, and any regular grammar has a corresponding nfa. We won't bother with the details.

Regular Grammars and nfa's

We get a feel for this by example. Let S aA A abS | b
a S b A a b

Regular Grammars and Regular Expressions

Example: L(aab*a) We can easily construct a regular language for this expression: S aA A aB B bB Ba

Regular Languages
regular expressions

finite automata

regular grammars

Regular Languages
Homework: Chapter 3, Section 3 Problems