CS416 Theory of Computing

Assoc. Prof. Osama Fathy

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 Lecture 2

Regular Expressions

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 Overview

• How can a language be defined?

• Regular Expression Definition
• Rules on Regular Expressions
• Examples

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 How can a language be defined?
A language can be defined by five methods:

(1) State all words of the language, e.g

L1 = {a, ab, abb, ……..}

(2) State English phrase of the language, e.g

The language of all the strings that contain an
even number of a’s and an even number of b’s.

(3) Regular Expression

(4) Graphs (FA, NFA, TG, GTG, PDA, TM, …)
(5) Grammer
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 Regular Expressions
A new method to define languages
• alphabet  language
∑ = {x} ∑* = {Λ, x, xx, xxx, …}
or directly {x}* = {Λ, x, xx, xxx, …}
• language  language
R = {xx, xxx} R* = {Λ, xx, xxx, xxxx, …}
or directly {xx, xxx}* = {Λ, xx, xxx, xxxx, …}
• “letter”  language
x* (written in bold)
language(x*) = {Λ, x, xx, xxx, …}
or informally x* = {Λ, x, xx, xxx, …}

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 Regular Expressions
• L1 = {a, ab, abb, abbb, …} or simply (ab*)
• L2 = {Λ, ab, abab, ababab, …} or simply (ab)*

Several ways to express the same language

• {x, xx, xxx, xxxx, …}
xx* x+ xx*x* x*xx* (x+)x* x*(x+) x*x*xx*

• L3= {Λ, a, b, aa, ab, bb, aaa, aab, abb, bbb, aaaa, …} or
simply (a*b*)
(a’s before b’s)

Remark: language(a*b*)  language((ab)*)

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 Regular Expressions
• A useful symbol to simplify the writing:
– x+y choose either x or y

• Example:
 = {a, b, c}
T = {a, c, ab, cb, abb, cbb, abbb, cbbb, …}
T = language((a+c)b*)
(defines the language whose words are constructed from
either a or c followed by some b’s)

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 Regular Expressions
• L = {aaa, aab, aba, abb, baa, bab, bba, bbb}
all words of exactly three letters from the alphabet {a, b}
L = (a+b)(a+b)(a+b)

• (a+b)* all words formed from alphabet {a,b}

• a(a+b)* = ?
• a(a+b)*b = ?

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 Regular Expressions
• Definition: Given an alphabet Σ, the set of regular
expressions is defined by the following rules.
1. For every letter in Σ, the letter written in bold is a
regular expression. Λ is a regular expression.
2. If r1 and r2 are regular expressions, then so are:
1. (r1)
2. r1 r2
3. r1+r2
4. r1*
3. Nothing else is a regular expression.

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 Regular Expressions
 Remark: Notice that r1+ = r1r1*
 r1=r2 if and only if language(r1) = language(r2)

 Examples:
 All words that have at least one a: (a+b)*a(a+b)*
abbaab: (Λ)a(bbaab) (abb)a(ab) (abba)a(b)

 Words with no a’s? b*

 All words formed from {a,b}?

(a+b)*a(a+b)* + b*

Thus: (a+b)* = (a+b)*a(a+b)* + b*

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 Regular Expressions
• Example: The language of all words that have at least two a’s.
(a+b)*a(a+b)*a(a+b)*
= b*ab*a(a+b)*
= (a+b)*ab*ab*
= b*a(a+b)*ab*

• Example: The language of all words that have exactly two a’s.
= b*ab*ab*

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 Regular Expressions
Example: At least one a and at least one b?
• First solution:
(a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* + (a+b)*b(a+b)*a(a+b)*
• But (a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* expresses all words except
words of the form some b’s (at least one) followed by
some a’s (at least one). bb*aa*

• Second solution:
(a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* + bb*aa*
• Thus: (a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* + (a+b)*b(a+b)*a(a+b)*
= (a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* + bb*aa*

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 Regular Expressions
• Example: The only words that do not contain both an a
and b in them are the words formed from all a’s or all b’s:
a*+b*
• Thus:
(a+b)* = (a+b)*a(a+b)*b(a+b)* + bb*aa* + a* + b*

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 Regular Expressions
• Example: The language of all words formed from some
b’s (possibly 0) and all words where an a is followed by
some b’s (possibly 0):
{Λ, a, b, ab, bb, abb, bbb, abbb, bbbb, …}
b* + ab* (Λ + a)b*
• In general: concatenation is distributive over the +
operation.
r1(r2+ r3) = r1r2 + r1r3
(r1+ r2) r3 = r1r3 + r2r3

• Example: (a+c)b* = ab*+cb*

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 Regular Expressions
• Two operations: language(s)  language
If S and T are two languages from the same alphabet S,
1. S+T: the union of languages S and T defined as ST
2. ST: the product set is the set of words x written vw
with v a word in S and w a word in T.

• Example: S = {a, bb} T = {a, ab}

ST = {aa, aab, bba, bbab}

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 Rules define the language associated
with any regular expression
Rule 1: The language associated with a regular expression
that is just a single letter is that one-letter word
alone and the language associated with Λ is {Λ}.
L = {a}  RE = a
L = {Λ}  RE = Λ

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 Rules define the language associated
with any regular expression
Rule 2: If L1 is the language associated with the regular
expression r1 and L2 is the language associated with
the regular expression r2, then:
(i) The language associated with the regular expression r1
times r2, that is:
language(r1r2) = L1L2
(ii) The regular expression r1+r2 is associated with the
language formed by the union of the sets L1 and L2.
language(r1 +r2) = L1+L2
(iii) The language associated with the regular expression
r1* is L1*, is the Kleene closure of the set L1:
language(r 1*) = L1*
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 Rules define the language associated
with any regular expression
• Remark: For all regular expressions, there is some language
associated with it.

• Let L be a finite language. There is a regular expression that

defines it.

• Algorithm (and proof)

Write each letter in L in bold, and write a (+) between the
regular expressions

• Example: L = {baa, abbba, bababa}

baa + abbba + bababa
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 Rules define the language associated
with any regular expression
• The regular expression that is defined by this algorithm is
not necessarily unique.

Example: L = {aa, ab, ba, bb}

aa + ab + ba + bb or (a+b)(a+b)

Remark: This algorithm does not work for infinite languages.

Regular expressions must be finite, even if the
language defined is infinite.

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 Rules define the language associated
with any regular expression
• Kleene star applied to a subexpression with a star (*)
(a+b*)* (aa+ab*)*
(a+b*)* = (a+b)* (aa+ab*)*  (aa+ab)* abb|abb

• (a*b*)*
The letter a and the letter b are in language(a*b*).
(a*b*)* = (a+b)*

• Is it possible to determine if two regular expressions are

equivalent?
– With a set of algebraic rules? Unknown.
– With an algorithm? Yes.
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 Examples:
 Words with a double letter: (a+b)*(aa+bb)(a+b)*

 Words without a double letter: (ab)*

 Words that begin with b or end with a:
(Λ+b) (ab)* (Λ+a)

 (a+b)*(aa+bb)(a+b)* + (Λ+b)(ab)*(Λ +a)

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 Examples:
• Language EVEN-EVEN defined by the expression:

(aa + bb + (ab + ba)(aa+bb)*(ab + ba))*

Every word in EVEN-EVEN has an even number of a’s and b’s.

Every word that contains an even number of a’s and b’s is a

member of EVEN-EVEN.

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 Thanks

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