Automata Theory

CS411 20145-03
Determinisitic Finite Automata
David Galles

Department of Computer Science

University of San Francisco
03-0: Generators vs. Checkers
Regular expressions are one way to specify a
formal language
String Generator Generates strings in the
language
Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA) are
another way to specify a language
String Checker Given any string, determines
if that string is in the language or not
03-1: DFA Example
Example Deterministic Finite Automaton
a,b

a
0 2
b

a,b
03-2: DFA Example
DFA for all strings over {a,b} that contain exactly 2 a’s
03-3: DFA Example
DFA for all strings over {a,b} that contain exactly 2 a’s

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3
03-4: DFA Example
All strings over a, b that have length 3.
03-5: DFA Example
All strings over a, b that have length 3.

a,b

a,b a,b a,b a,b

0 1 2 3 3
03-6: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3
03-7: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3

States
03-8: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3

Alphabet (characters than can occur in strings

accepted by DFA)
03-9: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3

Transitions
03-10: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3

Initial State
03-11: DFA Components
What makes up a DFA?

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3

Final State(s) (there can be > 1)

03-12: DFA Definition
A DFA is a 5-tuple M = (K, Σ, δ, s, F )
K Set of states
Σ Alphabet
δ : (K × Σ) 7→ K is a Transition function
s ∈ K Initial state
F ⊆ K Final states
03-13: DFA Definition

b b b a,b

a a a
0 1 2 3
K = {q0 , q1 , q2 , q3 }
Σ = {a, b}
δ=
{((q0 , a), q1 ), ((q0 , b), q0 ), ((q1 , a), q2 ), ((q1 , b), q1 ),
((q2 , a), q3 ), ((q2 , b), q2 ), ((q3 , a), q3 ), ((q3 , b), q3 )}
s = q0
F = {q2 }
03-14: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that contain the substring

1001
03-15: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that contain the substring

1001

0 1 0,1

1 0 0 1
0 1 2 3 4
1 0
03-16: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that end with 111

03-17: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that end with 111

0 1

1 1 1
0 1 2 3
0 0 0
03-18: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin with 111

03-19: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin with 111

0,1

0 0 0,1
0
1 1 1
0 1 2 3
03-20: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin or end with 111

03-21: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin or end with 111

0,1

1 1 1
0 1 2 3
0 0
0 1

4 1 1 1
0 5 6 7
0 0 0
03-22: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin and end with 111
03-23: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that begin and end with 111
0,1

0 0 1
0
1 1 1
0 1 2 3
0 1

1 1 1
0 4 5 6 7
0 0 0
03-24: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that contain 1001 or 0110

03-25: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {0, 1} that contain 1001 or 0110

1 0 2 0 3 1
1 1
0
0 7 0,1
1
0 0
4 5 6 0
1 1

0
03-26: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {a, b} that begin and end with the
same letter
03-27: Fun with DFA
Create a DFA for:

All strings over {a, b} that begin and end with the
same letter

a b
b
1 2
a a
0
b a
b a
1 2
b
03-28: Why DFA?
Why are these machines called “Deterministic
Finite Automata”
Deterministic Each transition is completely
determined by the current state and next input
symbol. That is, for each state / symbol pair,
there is exactly one state that is transitioned to
Finite Every DFA has a finite number of states
Automata (singular automaton) means
“machine”
(From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, definition 2: A machine or control
mechanism designed to follow automatically a predetermined sequence of
operations or respond to encoded instructions)
03-29: DFA Configuration & ⊢M
Way to describe the computation of a DFA
Configuration: What state the DFA is currently
in, and what string is left to process
∈ K × Σ∗
(q2 , abba) Machine is in state q2 , has abba left to
process
(q8 , bba) Machine is in state q8 , has bba left to
process
(q4 , ǫ) Machine is in state q4 at the end of the
computation (accept iff q4 ∈ F )
03-30: DFA Configuration & ⊢M
Way to describe the computation of a DFA
Configuration: What state the DFA is currently
in, and what string is left to process
∈ K × Σ∗
Binary relation ⊢M : What machine M yields in one
step
⊢M ⊆ (K × Σ∗ ) × (K × Σ∗ )
⊢M = {((q1 , aw), (q2 , w)) : q1 , q2 ∈ KM , w ∈
Σ∗M , a ∈ ΣM , ((q1 , a), q2 ) ∈ δM }
03-31: DFA Configuration & ⊢M
Given the following machine M :
a,b

a
0 2
b

a,b

((q0 , abba), (q2 , bba)) ∈⊢M

can also be written (q0 , abba) ⊢M (q2 , bba)
03-32: DFA Configuration & ⊢M

0 1

1 1 1
0 1 2 3
0 0 0

(q0 , 11101) ⊢M (q1 , 1101)

⊢M (q2 , 101)
⊢M (q3 , 01)
⊢M (q0 , 1)
⊢M (q1 , ǫ)
03-33: DFA Configuration & ⊢M

0 1

1 1 1
0 1 2 3
0 0 0

(q0 , 10111) ⊢M (q1 , 0111)

⊢M (q0 , 111)
⊢M (q1 , 11)
⊢M (q2 , 1)
⊢M (q3 , ǫ)
 ∗
03-34: DFA Configuration & ⊢M
⊢∗M is the reflexive, transitive closure of ⊢M
Smallest superset of ⊢M that is both reflexive
and transitive
“yields in 0 or more steps”
Machine M accepts string w if:
(sM , w) ⊢∗M (f, ǫ) for some f ∈ FM
03-35: DFA & Languages
Language accepted by a machine M = L[M ]
{w : (sM , w) ⊢∗M (f, ǫ) for some f ∈ FM }
DFA Languages, LDF A
Set of all languages that can be defined by a
DFA
LDF A = {L : ∃M, L[M ] = L}
To think about: How does LDF A relate to LREG