UNIT-I
Introduction to Finite Automata
RatnaKumari Challa
Assistant Professor
Dept of CSE,
RGUKT-RK Valley
RatnaKumari Challa
Syllabus
• UNIT-I: Introduction to Automata: Strings,
Alphabet, Language, Operations, Finite state
machine, definitions, finite automaton model,
acceptance of strings, and languages,
deterministic finite automaton and non-
deterministic finite automaton, transition
diagrams and Language recognizers
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Overview
• Basics: Alphabets, Strings and Language
• Finite state machine
• acceptance of strings and languages
• DFA and NFA
• transition diagrams
• Language recognizers
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Basics
• Alphabet: A finite nonempty set of symbols denoted
by
– elements are some kind of characters
– Members/elements of an alphabet are called symbols
letters and digits
– Example: ={a}, = {a, b, x, y}, ={0}, ={0, 1}
• String: Finite sequence of symbols from the
alphabet.
– written adjacent without commas
– Example: over Σ = {a,b,c,d}: aaa, bac, abab, abbba
– Examples over Σ = {0,1}: 000, 01011
– Typically represent strings with letters like u, v, w, x, y, z
• Examples: u = acb, x = 10110
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Operations on strings
• Concatenation: Join two or more strings and/or
symbols
– Ex: If u = abab, v= abbba then uv = abababbba
• Reverse of a string u is obtained by writing
symbols in the reverse order. Denoted by uR
• Ex: The reverse of u: uR = baba
• Length of string u is number of symbols in u and
is denoted as |u|
• Example: |u| = 4; |v|=5
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Conti…
• Empty String: string with no symbols is denoted by
( or or ) and its length is zero.
• If u and v are two strings it is true that |uv| = |u| +
|v|.
• Kleen closure and Kleen plus: If is an alphabet, *
is the set of strings obtained by concatenating zero
or more symbols from And += * - { }
– Ex: If ={a,b} then * = { , a,b,aa,ab,..} and += {
a,b,aa,ab,..}
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Language
• A set of strings (over an alphabet)
• language is defined as a subset of * . However
we define in a more meaningful way in the
coming sessions.
Examples:
– Over alphabet {a, b, c}:
• L1 = {aaa, aba}; L2 = {a, aa, aaa}
– Over alphabet {0, 1}:
• L1 = {0}; L2 = {0, 1, 010}
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Conti…
• set of all binary strings ending with 1
– Ex: L = {1, 01, 001, 011, 101, …}
• set of all strings over {a,b} having number of a’s equal
to number of b’s
– Ex: L = {, ab, ba, abba, aabb, baab, …}
• L: {an/n 1} over {a} ➔ {a, aa, aaaa, aaa, aaaaaa ….}
• L:{ an bn / n 1} over {a,b} ➔ {ab, aabb, aaabbb, … }
• L: { an bn cn / n 0 } over {a,b,c} ➔ {, abc, aabbcc, …}
• set of valid variable names in Fortran
• set of valid arithmeticRatnaKumari
expressions
Challa
in C
Automata
• An abstract machine – to solve computation
problems
• automaton consists of states and transitions.
The State is represented by circles, and
the Transitions is represented by arrows
• takes some string as input and this input goes
through a finite number of states and may enter
in the final state
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Example
a
q0 a
q1
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Finite Automata
• Finite automata are used to recognize strings
• takes the string of symbol as input and changes its
state accordingly. When the desired symbol is found,
then the transition occurs.
• At the time of transition, the automata can either
move to the next state or stay in the same state.
• Finite automata have two states, Accept
state or Reject state. When the input string is
processed successfully, and the automata reached
its final state, then it will accept
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Finite Automation
• A finite automation is a 5-tuple
M = (Q, , , q0 , F )
Q : a finite nonempty set of states
: input alphabet
: transition function, Q Q
q0 : initial state
F : set of final states, F Q
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Note
• is defined for each q Q and for each a
• Thus with each input alphabet the automation
moves from one state to another state as per
• (qi , a) = q j indicates,
q with input a the
automaton in the state i moves to state q j.
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Example
a
q0 a q1
Q = {q0 , q1}
= {a} δ a
q0 = q0 q0 q1
q1 q0
F = {q0 }
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Finite Automata Model
• input tape, finite control and tape reader
• Input tape: It is a linear tape having some number of
cells. Each input symbol is placed in each cell.
• Finite control: The finite control decides the next
state on receiving particular input from input tape.
• Tape reader reads the cells one by one from left to
right, and at a time only one input symbol is read.
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Working of FA
• Initially FA is in start state and the input head is on
the leftmost symbol of input.
• The input symbol is read (input head moves to the
next character) and FA assumes a new state
depending on the present state and the read input
symbol (transition function).
• Repeat the above step until the input is consumed.
• If FA is in a final state, announce accept,otherwise
announce reject.
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Example
a a b
a a, b
b a, b
q0 q1 q2
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a a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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a a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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a a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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Input finished
a a b
a a, b
Output: “accept”
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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Example for Rejection
b a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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b a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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b a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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b a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
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Input finished
b a b
a a, b
q0 b q1 a, b q2
Output: “reject”
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Types of Automata
• There are two types of finite automata:
– DFA (deterministic finite automata):
• Deterministic refers to the uniqueness of the computation
• machine goes to one state only for a particular input
character
• DFA does not accept the null move.
– NFA(non-deterministic finite automata):
• transmit any number of states for a particular input
• It can accept the null move
• Every DFA is NFA, but NFA is not DFA
• multiple final states in both NFA and DFA
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Transition Diagram
• A transition diagram or state transition diagram is a
directed graph which can be constructed as follows
– There is a node for each state in Q, which is represented
by the circle.
– There is a directed edge from node q to node p labeled a
if δ(q, a) = p.
– In the start state, there is an arrow with no source.
– Accepting states or final states are indicating by a double
circle.
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Transition Table
• tabular representation of the transition function
• It takes two arguments (a state and a symbol) and
returns a state (the "next state")
• A transition table is represented by the following
– Columns correspond to input symbols.
– Rows correspond to states.
– Entries correspond to the next state.
– start state is denoted by an arrow with no source.
– The accept state is denoted by a star.
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Example 1
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Example 2
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Example
• FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts the only input 101
• FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts those string which
starts with 1 and ends with 0
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DFA
• Deterministic -- uniqueness of the computation
• there is only one transition for specific input from
the current state to the next state
• does not accept the null move, i.e., the DFA
cannot change state without any input character
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Formal Definition of DFA
• A DFA is a 5-tuple
M = (Q, , , q0 , F )
Q : a finite nonempty set of states
: input alphabet
: transition function, Q Q
q0 : initial state
F : set of final states, F Q
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Example
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Examples
• DFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all starting with 0
• DFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all ending with 0
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NFA
• the exact state to which the machine moves
cannot be determined
• for a particular input symbol, the machine can
move to any combination of the states in the
machine
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Formal Definition of NFA
• A DFA is a 5-tuple
M = (Q, , , q0 , F )
Q : a finite nonempty set of states
: input alphabet
: transition function, Q 2 Q
q0 : initial state
F : set of final states, F Q
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Example
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Example
• NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all strings with 01
• NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} and accept all string of
length 2
• NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all string ending
with 01
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String/Language Recognizers
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Example
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Example – String Acceptance
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