Greibach Normal Form

Conversion of a Chomsky normal

form grammar to Greibach normal
form
 Leftmost Derivation
Definition:
• The leftmost non-terminal in a working string is the first
non-terminal that we encounter when we scan the string
from left to right.

Example: In the string abNbaXYa, the leftmost non

terminal is N.
Definition:
• If a word w is generated by a CFG such that at each step in
the derivation, a production is applied to the leftmost non-
terminal in the working string, then this derivation is
called a leftmost derivation.
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 Example: Left derivation
S  aSX | b
X  Xb | a

aababa

S  aSX
 aaSXX
 aabXX
 aabXbX
 aababX
 aababa 3
 Left recursion

• A grammar is left-recursive if we can find

some non-terminal A which will eventually
derive a sentential form with itself as the
left-symbol

A  Aa | b

4
 Left Recursion Removal

• Consider the grammar A  Aa | b

• Halting condition of top-down parsing

depend upon the generation of terminal
prefixes to discover dead ends.
• Repeated application of above rule fail to
generate a prefix that can terminate the
parse.
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 Removing left recursion

• For each rule of the form

• A -> A α1 | A α2 | ……… | A αn | β 1 | β 2 | … β n
– A is a left-recursive nonterminal.
– α is a sequence of nonterminals and terminals.
– β is a sequence of nonterminals and terminals that does
not start with A.
• Replace the A-production by the production:
• A -> β 1 A’ |…. | β n A’
• And create a new nonterminal
• A’ -> Λ | α1 A’ |…. |αn A’
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 Removing left recursion
• To remove left recursion from A, the A rules are
divided into two groups.
Left recursive and others

A  AU1 | AU2 | AU3 | ….| AUj

A  V1 | V2 | V3 | … | Vk
Solution:
A  V1 | V2 | V3 | … | Vk| V1Z | V2Z | … | VkZ

Z  u1Z | u2Z | u3Z | … | ujZ | u1 | u2 | u3 | … | uj

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 Example
• A  Aa | Ab | b | c
• A  Aa | b

A  bZ | cZ | b | c
Solution:
Z  aZ | bZ | a | b
A  bZ | b
Z  aZ | a

8
 Definition
• A CFG is in Greibach normal form if each
rule has one of these forms:
i. S  aA1A2…An
ii. A  aA1A2…An
iii. A  a
 Conversion
• Convert from Chomsky to Greibach in
two steps:
1. From Chomsky to intermediate grammar
a. Eliminate direct left recursion
b. Use A  uBv rules transformations to
improve references (explained later)
2. From intermediate grammar into
Greibach
 Eliminate direct left recursion
• Before
A  Aa | b
• After
A  bZ | b
Z  aZ | a
• Remove the rule with direct left recursion,
and create a new one with recursion on
the right
 Eliminate direct left recursion
• Before
A  Aa | Ab | b | c
• After
A  bZ | cZ | b | c
Z  aZ | bZ | a | b
• Remove the rules with direct left
recursion, and create new ones with
recursion on the right
 Substitution Rule
Transform A  uBv rules
• Before
A  uBb
B  w1 | w2 |…| wn
• After
Add A  uw1b | uw2b |…| uwnb
Delete A  uBb
 Conversion: Step 1
• Goal: construct intermediate grammar in
this format
i. A  aw
ii. A  Bw
iii. S  
where w  V* and B comes after A
 Conversion: Step 1
• Assign a number to all variables starting
with S, which gets 1
• Transform each rule following the order
according to given number from lowest to
highest
– Eliminate direct left recursion
– If RHS of rule starts with variable with lower
order, apply A  uBb transformation to fix it
 Conversion: Step 2
• Goal: construct Greibach grammar out of
intermediate grammar from step 1
• Fix A  Bw rules into A  aw format
– After step 1, last original variable should have
all its rules starting with a terminal
– Working from bottom to top, fix all original
variables using A  uBb transformation
technique, so all rules become A  aw
• Fix introduced recursive rules same way
 Conversion Example
• Convert the following grammar from
Chomsky normal form, into Greibach
normal form
1. S  AB | 
2. A  AB | CB | a
3. B  AB | b
4. C  AC | c
 Conversion Strategy
• Goal: transform all rules which RHS does
not start with a terminal
• Apply two steps conversion
• Work rules in sequence, eliminating direct
left recursion, and enforcing variable
reference to higher given number
• Fix all original rules, then new ones
 Step 1: S rules
• Starting with S since it has a value of 1
• S  AB | 
• S rules comply with two required
conditions
– There is no direct left recursion
– Referenced rules A and B have a given number
higher than 1. A corresponds to 2 and B to 3.
 Step 1: A rules
• A  AB | CB | a
• Direct left recursive rule A  AB needs to
be fixed. Other A rules are fine
• Apply direct left recursion transformation
A  CBR1 | aR1 | CB | a
R1  BR1 | B
 Step 1: B rules
• B  AB | b
• B  AB rule needs to be fixed since B
corresponds to 3 and A to 2. B rules can
only have on their RHS variables with
number equal or higher. Use A  uBb
transformation technique
• B  CBR1B | aR1B | CBB | aB | b
 Step 1: C rules
• C  AC | c
• C  AC rule needs to be fixed since C
corresponds to 4 and A to 2. Use same A 
uBb transformation technique
• C  CBR1C | aR1C | CBC | aC | c
• Now variable references are fine according
to given number, but we introduced direct
left recursion in two rules…
 Step 1: C rules
• C  CBR1C | aR1C | CBC | aC | c
• Eliminate direct left recursion
C  aR1CR2 | aCR2 | cR2 | aR1C | aC | c
R2  BR1CR2 | BCR2 | BR1C | BC
 Step 1: Intermediate grammar
• S  AB | 
• A  CBR1 | aR1 | CB | a
• B  CBR1B | aR1B | CBB | aB | b
• C  aR1CR2 | aCR2 | cR2 | aR1C | aC | c
• R1  BR1 | B
• R2  BR1CR2 | BCR2 | BR1C | BC
 Step 2: Fix starting symbol
• Rules S, A, B and C don’t have direct left
recursion, and RHS variables are of higher
number
• All C rules start with terminal symbol
• Proceed to fix rules B, A and S in bottom-
up order, so they start with terminal symbol.
• Use A  uBb transformation technique
 Step 2: Fixing B rules
• C  aR1CR2 | aCR2 | cR2 | aR1C | aC | c
• Before
B  CBR1B | aR1B | CBB | aB | b
• After
B  aR1B | aB | b
B  aR1CR2BR1B | aCR2BR1B | cR2BR1B |
aR1CBR1B | aCBR1B | cBR1B
B  aR1CR2BB | aCR2BB | cR2BB | aR1CBB |
aCBB | cBB
 Step 2: Fixing A rules
• C  aR1CR2 | aCR2 | cR2 | aR1C | aC | c
• Before
A  CBR1 | aR1 | CB | a
• After
A  aR1 | a
A  aR1CR2BR1 | aCR2BR1 | cR2BR1 | aR1CBR1 |
aCBR1 | cBR1
A  aR1CR2B | aCR2B | cR2B | aR1CB | aCB | cB
 Step 2: Fixing S rules
• Before
S  AB | 
• After
S
S  aR1B | aB
S  aR1CR2BR1B | aCR2BR1B | cR2BR1B | aR1CBR1B |
aCBR1B | cBR1B
S  aR1CR2BB | aCR2BB | cR2BB | aR1CBB | aCBB |
cBB
 Step 2: Complete conversion
• All original rules S, A, B and C are fully
converted now
• New recursive rules need to be converted
next
R1  BR1 | B
R2  BR1CR2 | BCR2 | BR1C | BC
• Use same A  uBb transformation
technique replacing starting variable B
 Conclusions
• After conversion, since B has 15 rules, and R1
references B twice, R1 ends with 30 rules
• Similar for R2 which references B four times.
Therefore, R2 ends with 60 rules
• All rules start with a terminal symbol (with the
exception of S  )
• Parsing algorithms top-down or bottom-up would
complete on a grammar converted to Greibach
normal form
 Comparison of Normal forms
S  SaB | aB
B  bB | 
• Adding a non-recursive start symbol S’ and
removing  and chain rules yields
S’  SaB | Sa | aB | a
S  SaB | Sa | aB | a
B  bB | b

Theory of Automata 31
• Chomsky Normal • Greibach Normal
form is obtained as: form is obtained as:
S’  ST | SA | AB | a S’  aBZT | aZT |aBT |
S  ST | SA | AB | a aT |aBZA |aZA | aBA |
B  CB | b aA |aB |a
T  CB S  aBZ |aZ |aB | a
Aa B  bB | b
Cb T  bB
Aa
Cb
Z  aBZ | aZ | aB |a
Theory of Automata 32
 abaaba
G CNF GNF

S  SaB S  SA S  aBZA
 SaBaB  STA  abZA
 SaBaBaB  SATA  abaZA
 aBaBaBaB  ABATA  abaaBA
 abaBaBaBaB  aBATA  abaabA
Þ abaBaBaB Þ abATA Þ abaaba
Þ abaaBaB Þ abaTA
Þ abaabBaB Þ abaABA
Þ abaabaB Þ abaaBA
Þ abaaba Þ abaabA
ÞTheory
abaaba
of Automata 33
Examples

 Convert to GNF
 S->aSX|b
 X->Xb|a

Theory of Automata 34
Nov 1,2012 Mehreen Alam - Fall 2012