TOC LAB

Experiment List

Understanding of software like JFLAP (Java Formal Languages and Automata

Package) for experimenting with formal languages

1. Introduction to JFLAP
2. Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA)
3. Non-deterministic Finite Automata (NFA)
4. Conversion of NFA to DFA
5. DFA Minimization
6. DFA to regular grammar conversion
7. DFA to regular expression conversion
8. Mealy and Moore machine
9. Pushdown automata
10. Single tape Turing machine
11. Regular pumping lemma
 Exp. No. 1: Introduction to JFLAP

Definition
JFLAP defines a finite automaton (FA) M as the quintuple M = (Q, Σ, δ, qs, F) where

Q is a finite set of states {qi| i is a nonnegative

integer}Σ is the finite input alphabet
Q
δ is the transition function, δ : D → 2 where D is a finite subset of Q ×
Σ* qs(is member of Q) is the initial state
F (is a subset of Q) is the set of final states

Note that this definition includes both deterministic finite automata (DFAs), which we
will be discussing shortly, and nondeterministic finite automata (NFAs), which we will
touch on later.

Building the different types of automata in JFLAP is fairly similar, so let's start by
m n
building a DFA for the language L = {a b :m ≥ 0, n > 0, n is odd}. That is, we will
build a DFA that recognizes that language of any number of a's followed by any odd
number of b's. (Examples taken from JFLAP: An Interactive Formal Languages
andAutomata Package by Susan Rodger and Thomas Finley.)

The Editor Window

To start a new FA, start JFLAP and click the Finite Automaton option from the menu.

Starting a new FA
This should bring up a new window that allows you to create and edit an FA. The editor
is divided into two basic areas: the canvas, which you can construct your automaton on,
and the toolbar, which holds the tools you need to construct your automaton.

The editor window

Let's take a closer look at the toolbar.

The FA toolbar
As you can see, the toolbar holds four tools:

□ Attribute Editor tool : sets initial and final states

□ State Creator tool : creates states
□ Transition Creator tool : creates transitions
□ Deletor tool : deletes states and transitions

To select a tool, click on the corresponding icon with your mouse. When a tool is
selected, it is shaded, as the Attribute Editor tool is above. Selecting the tool puts
you in the corresponding mode. For instance, with the toolbar above, we are now in the
Attribute Editor mode.

The different modes dictate the way mouse clicks affect the machine. For example, if
we are in the State Creator mode, clicking on the canvas will create new states. These
modes will be described in more detail shortly.

Now let's start creating our FA.

Creating States
First, let's create several states. To do so we need to activate that State Creator tool by
clicking the button on the toolbar. Next, click on the canvas in different locations to
create states. We are not very sure how many states we will need, so we created four
states. Your editor window should look something like this:

States created
Now that we have created our states, let's define initial and final state.

Defining Initial and Final States

Arbitrarily, we decide that q0 will be our initial state. To define it to be our initial state,
first select the Attribute Editor tool on the toolbar. Now that we are in
Attribute Editor mode, right-click on q0. This should give us a pop-up menu that looks
like this:

The state menu

From the pop-up menu, select the checkbox Initial. A white arrowhead appreas to the
left of q0 to indicate that it is the inital state.

q0defined as initial state

Next, let's create a final state. Arbitrarily, we select q1 as our final state. To define it
as the final state, right-click on the state and click the checkbox Final. It will have a
double outline, indicating that it is the final state.

q1defined as final state

Now that we have defined initial and final states, let's move on to creating transtitions.
Creating Transitions
We know strings in our language can start with a's, so, the initial state must have an
outgoing transition on a. We also know that it can start with any number of a's, which
means that the FA should be in the same state after processing input of any number of
a's. Thus, the outgoing transition on a from q0 loops back to itself.

To create such a transition, first select the Transition Creator tool from the toolbar.
Next, click on q0 on the canvas. A text box should appear over the state:

Creating a transition

Note that λ, reprsenting the empty string, is initially filled in for you. If you prefer ε
representing the empty string, select Preferences : Preferences in the main menu to
change the symbol representing the empty string.

Type "a" in the text box and press Enter. If the text box isn't selected, press Tab to
select it, then enter "a". When you are done, it should look like this:

Transition created

Next, we know that strings in our language must end with a odd number of b's. Thus,
we know that the outgoing transtion on b from q0 must be to a final state, as a string
ending with one b should be accepted. To create a transition from our initial state q0 to
our final state q1, first ensure that the Transition Creator tool is selected on the
toolbar. Next, click and hold on q0, and drag the mouse to q1 and release the mouse
button. Enter "b" in the textbox the same way you entered "a" for the previous
transition. The transition between two states should look like this:

Second transition created

Lastly, we know that only strings that end with an odd number of b's should be accepted.
Thus, we know that q1 has an outgoing transition on b, that it cannot loop back to q1.
There are two options for the transtion: it can either go to the initial state q0, or to a
brand new state, say, q2.
If the transition on b was to the initial state q0, strings would not have to be of the form
m n
a b ; strings such as ababab would also be accepted. Thus, the transition cannot be to
q0, and it must be to q2.
Create a transition on b from q1 to q2. As the FA should accept strings that end with
an odd number of b's, create another transition on b from q2 to q1. Your FA is now a
full, working FA! It should look something like this:

The working FA

You might notice that the q3 is not used and can be deleted. Next, we will describe how
to delete states and transitions.

Deleting States and Transitions

To delete q3, first select the Deletor tool on the toolbar. Next, click on the state q3.
Your editor window should now look something like this:
q3deleted

Similarly, to delete a transition, simply click on the input symbol of the transition when
in Deletor mode.

Your FA, faex.jff, is now complete.

Running the FA on Multiple Strings

Now that you've completed your FA, you might want to test it to see if it reallyaccepts
strings from the language. To do so, select Input : Multiple Run from the menu bar.

Starting a multiple run tab

A new tab will appear displaying the automaton on the left pane, and an input table on
the right:
A new multiple run tab

To enter the input strings, click on the first row in the Input column and type in the
string. Press Enter to continue to the next input string. When you are done, click
RunInputs to test your FA on all the input strings. The results, Accept or Reject
aredisplayed in the Result column. You can also load the inputs from file delimited
by white space. Simply click on Load Inputs and load the file to add additional input
strings into multi-run pane.

Running multiple inputs

Clicking Clear deletes all the input strings, while Enter Lambda enters the empty
string at the cursor. View Trace brings up a separate window that shows the trace of
the slected input. To return to the Editor window, select File : Dismiss Tab from the
menu bar.

Building a Nondeterministic Finite Automaton

Building a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) is very much like building a DFA.
However, an NFA is different from a DFA in that it satisfies one of two conditions.
Firstly, if the FA has two transitions from the same state that read thesame symbol,
the FA is considered an NFA. Secondly, if the FA has any transitions that read the
empty string for input, it is also considered an NFA.

Let's take a look at this NFA, which can be accessed through ex1.3a.jff: (Note: This
example taken from JFLAP: An Interactive Formal Languages and AutomataPackage
by Susan Rodger and Thomas Finley.)

An NFA

We can immediately tell that this is an NFA because of the four λ-transitions coming
from q3 and q9, but we might not be sure if we have spotted all the nondeterministic
states. JFLAP can help with that.
Highlighting Nondeterministic States
To see all the nondeterministic states in the NFA, select Test :
HighlightNondeterminismfrom the menu bar:

Highlighting nondeterministic states

A new tab will appear with the nondeterministic states shaded a darker color:

Nondeterministic states highlighted

As we can see, q3 and q9 are indeed nondeterministic because of their outgoing λ-

transitions. Note that they would both be nondeterministic even if they each had one λ-
transition instead of two: only one λ-transition is needed to make a state
nondeterministic. We also see that q1 is nondeterministic because two of its outgoing
transitions are on the same symbol, a. Next, we will go through JFLAP's tools for
running input on an NFA.
Running Input on an NFA
To step through input on an NFA, select Input : Step with Closure... from the menu
bar. A dialog box prompting you for input will appear. Ordinarily, you would enterthe
input you wish to step through here. For now, type "aaaabb" in the dialog box and press
Enter. You can also load the input file instead of typing the string.

NOTE :When loading input from the file, JFLAP determines end of input string bythe
white space. Thus if there is string “ab cd” in a file, only “ab” will be considered as an
input (“cd” will be ignored since there is a white space before them).

Entering input

A new tab will appear displaying the automaton at the top of the window, and
configurations at the bottom. The current state is shaded.

A new input tab

First, let's take a closer look at a configuration:

A configuration icon

The configuration icon shows the current state of the configuration in the top left hand
corner, and input on the white tape below. The processed input is displayed in gray, and
the unprocessed input is black.

Click Step to process the next symbol of input. You will notice q1 becomes the shaded
state in the NFA, and that the configuration icon changes, reflecting the fact that the first
a has been processed. Click Step again to process the next a. You will find that four states
are shaded instead of one, and there are four configurations instead of one.

aa processed
This is because the machine is nondeterministic. From q1, the NFA took both a
transitions to q2 and q9. As q9 has two λ-transitions (which do not need input), the NFA
further produced two more configurations by taking those transitions. Thus, the
simulator now has four configurations. Click Step again to process the next input
symbol.

aaa processed

Notice that two of the configurations are highlighted red, indicating they were rejected.
Looking at their input, we also know that only aa was processed. What happened?

Producing a Trace
To select a configuration, click on it. It will become a solid color when selected, instead
of the slightly graded color. Click on the icon for the rejected configuration
with state q11, and click Trace. A new widow will appear showing the traceback of that
configuration:
A configuration's traceback

The traceback shows the configuration after processing each input symbol. From the
traceback, we can tell that that configuration started at q0 and took the transition to q1
after processing the first a. After processing the second a, it was in q11. Although q11
is not adjacent to q1, it can be reached by taking a λ-transition from q9. As the simulator
tried to process the next a on this configuration, it realized that there are no
outgoing a transitions from q11 and thus rejected the configuration.

Although rejected configurations will remove themselves in the next step, we can also
remove configurations that have not been rejected.

Removing Configurations
Looking at the tracebacks of the rejected configurations, we can tell that any
configurations that are in q11 or q6 and whose next input symbol is a will be rejected.

As the next input symbol is a, we can tell that the configurations that are currently in
q6 and q11 will be rejected. Click once on each of the four configurations to select them,
then click Remove. The simulator will no longer step these configurations. (Although
we are only removing configurations that are about to be rejected, we can remove any
configurations for any purpose, and the simulator will stop stepping through input on
those configurations.)

Your simulator should now look something like this:

Rejected configurations removed

Now when we step the simulator, the two configurations will be stepped through.

Looking at the two configurations above, we might realize that the configuration on
q3 will not lead to an accepting configuration. We can test our idea out by freezing the
other configuration.

Freezing and Thawing configurations

To freeze the configuration on q10, click on q10 once, then click the Freeze button.
When a configuration is frozen, it will be tinted a darker shade of purple:
Configuration on q10 frozen

With that configuration frozen, as you click Step to step through the configuration on
q3, the frozen configuration remains the same. Clicking Step two more times will
reveal that the configuration on q3 is not accepted either. Your simulator will now
look like this:

Other configurations rejected

To proceed with the frozen configuration, select it and click Thaw. The simulator will
now step through input as usual. Click Step another three times to find an accepting
configuration. An accepting configuration is colored green:

Accepting configuration found

If we click Step again, we will see that the last configuration is rejected. Thus, there is
only one accepting configuration. However, we might be unsure that this is really the
case, as we had removed some configurations. We can double-check by resetting the
simulator.

Resetting the simulator

At any point in the simulation, we can restart the entire simulation process by clicking
Reset. This will clear all the current configurations and restart the simulation. If we
click Reset and step all the configurations, we will find that there is, indeed, only one
accepting configuration.
 Exp. No. 2 Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA)
mn
Problem:-Construct DFA for the languageL= {a b :m≥0, n > 0,nis odd}. That is, we willbuild a
DFA that recognizes that language of any number of a's followed by any odd number of b's.

Solution- To start a new FA, start JFLAP and click the Finite Automaton option from themenu.

This should bring up a new window that allows us to create and edit an FA. The editor is divided
into two basic areas: the canvas, where we can construct our automaton on, and the toolbar, which
holds the tools we need to construct our automaton.

First, let's create several states. To do so we need to activate that State Creator tool by clicking the
button on the toolbar. Next, click on the canvas in different locations to create states.
Arbitrarily, we decide that q0 will be our initial state. To define it to be our initial state, first select
the Attribute Editor tool on the toolbar. Now that we are in Attribute Editor mode, right-click
on q0. This should give us a pop-up menu that looks like this:

From the pop-up menu, select the checkbox Initial. A white arrow head appears to the left of q0 to
indicate that it is the initial state.

Q0 defined as initial state

Next, let's create a final state. Arbitrarily, we select q1 as our final state. To define it as the final
state, right-click on the state and click the checkbox Final. It will have a double outline, indicating
that it is the final state.
We know that only strings that end with an odd number of b's should be accepted. Thus, we
know that q1 has an outgoing transition on b that it cannot loop back to q1. There are two options
for the transition: it can either go to the initial state q0, or to a brand new state, say, q2.
mn
If the transition on b was to the initial state q0, strings would not have to be of the form a b ;
strings such as ababab would also be accepted. Thus, the transition cannot be to q0, and it must
be to q2.

Create a transition on b from q1 to q2. As the FA should accept strings that end with an odd number
of b's, create another transition on b from q2 to q1. Our FA is now look something like this:

Running the FA on Multiple Strings

Now that we have completed our FA, Now we test it to see if it really accepts strings from
the language. To do so, select Input: Multiple Run from the menu bar.

A new tab will appear displaying the automaton on the left pane, and an input table on the right:
To enter the input strings, click on the first row in the Input column and type in the string. Press
Enter to continue to the next input string. When we are done, click Run Inputs to test our FA on
all the input strings. The results, Accept or Reject are displayed in the Result column. Wecan
also load the inputs from file delimited by white space. Simply click on LoadInputs and load the
file to add additional input strings into multi-run pane.
 Exp. No. 3 Nondeterministic Finite Automata (NFA)

Problem: - Determine given finite automata is nondeterministic in nature through JFLAP.

Solution- To see all the nondeterministic states in the NFA, select Test :
HighlightNondeterminism from the menu bar:

A new tab will appear with the nondeterministic states shaded a darker color:
Running Input on an NFA

When loading input from the file, JFLAP determines end of input string by the white space.
Thus if there is string “ab cd” in a file, only “ab” will be considered as an input (“cd” will be
ignored since there is a white space before them).

A new tab will appear displaying the automaton at the top of the window, and configurations at
the bottom. The current state is shaded. Click Step to process the next symbol of input. You will
notice q1 becomes the shaded state in the NFA, and that the configuration icon changes, reflecting
the fact that the first a has been processed. Click Step again to process the next a. We will find
that four states are shaded instead of one, and there are four configurations instead of one.
 Exp. No. 4 Conversion of NFA to DFA

Problem- Convert the given NFA as shown in figure into corresponding DFA.

Solution- Create the NFA above in JFLAP. Click Convert > Convert to DFA

The unfinished DFA equivalent is started on the right-hand pane of the screen.

Click the Complete button and the DFA is completed.

Click Export to bring the DFA to its own work area. Click OK on the confirming message.
Reposition the states so that the DFA is readable.
 Exp. No. 5 DFA Minimization
Problem- Minimize the given DFA.

Solution- In the view, there is a toolbar along the top. To the left there is the original DFA, withthe
addition of the trap state (if necessary). To the right there is the tree where the set of distinguishable
groups is determined.

When the tool starts out, there are two major groups: non-final and final states. The current
groups are those groups in the leaf nodes. The union of all current groups is the set of all
states, and all current groups are state disjoint.

We will now convert this DFA into a minimal state DFA.

Click on the “Convert → Minimize DFA” menu option and this screen should come up:
 Exp. No. 6 DFA to regular grammar conversion

Problem- Convert the following DFA into regular grammar.

Solution- We will now convert this DFA into a regular grammar.

Click on the “Convert → Convert to Grammar” menu option, and this screen should come up:

JFLAP, by default, assigns unique variables to each state. Each transition in the graph
corresponds with a production in a right-linear grammar.
 Exp. No. 7 DFA to regular expression conversion
Problem- Convert the following DFA into regular expression

Solution:-We will now convert this DFA into a regular expression. Click on the “Convert →
Convert FA to RE” menu option, and this screen should come up:
This tool is accessed using the fourth button from the left, the “State Collapser” button. Click on
that and then try to click on either state “q0” or “q1”. You should be informed that the final or
initial state cannot be removed (whichever one you clicked on). Thus, the only state that can be
removed is “q2”. Thus, click on that state. Once we click on it, a “Transitions” window should
come up, which lists all the transitions and labels that will be present in the current graph once the
current state has been removed. If we click on the individual rows in the window, the old transitions
in the editor window that correspond to the new transition will be highlighted, in addition to the
state that will be removed. The screen below is an example of both the transition window,
highlighted old transitions, and the highlighted state to be removed (in a resized main window).
Click on “Finalize” and the “Transitions” window will disappear. The following screen should
now be visible, with the new regular expression under the “Generalized Transition Graph Finished.
 Exp. No. 8 Mealy and Moore machine
Problem- Construct a Mealy machine which takes a binary number and replaces the first 1 with a 0
fromevery substring starting with 1. For example, 0001001110 become 0000000110.

Solution- Open JFLAP and createa Mealy machine with an initial state. Set its label to a “0” toremember
that a zero is read. Next, add a second state to remember that a “1” was read. Label this with a “1”.

Four transitions will be needed.

1. At q0, a 0 is read so a loopback to q0 is needed. Output a 0.

2. At q0, a 1 is read so a transition to q1 is needed. Output a 0 since this is the first 1 in a substring
starting with a 1.

3. At q1, a 0 is read so a transition to q0 is needed. Output a 0.

4. At q1, a 1 read so a loopback to q1 is needed. Output a 1.

Run some test strings using Input > Multiple Runs.
 Exp. No. 9 Pushdown Automata
n n
Problem- Construct PDA for the language L= {a b : n > 0}

Solution- Our approach is to push an “a” on the stack for each “a” in the input, and
topop an “a” off the stack for each “b” in the input. To start a new NPDA, start JFLAP
and click the Pushdown Automaton option from the menu, as shown below:

n n
Four states should be enough for the language L = {a b : n > 0}. Add four states to the
screen, setting the initial state to be q0 and the final state to be q3. The screen should
look similar to one below.
 n
Add a transition (a, a; aa) between q1 and q1 to finish up the a segment. Create the
n
transition (b, a; λ) between q1 and q2 and between q2 and q2 to represent the b segment.
Finally, (λ , Z; Z) between q2 and q3 will allow an input to arrive at the final state. When
finished, the screen should look like this:
 Exp. No. 10 Single tape Turing machine
n n n
Problem- Construct a Turing machine for the language L = {a b c ,n>=1}.

Solution- To start a new one-tape Turing machine, start JFLAP and click the Turing
Machine option from the menu, as shown below:

n n n
We will be adding a lot of states to create a Turing machine for L = {a b c }. Add
seven states to the screen, setting the initial state to be q0 and the final state to be q6.
The screen should be roughly similar to one below.

Now its time to add the transitions. Attempt to add a transition between the states q0
and q1. Now, it's time to add input. To change the transition from the default, click on
the first box. Enter a value of “a” for the first box, a value of “x” for the second box,
and a value of “R” in the third box. Use Tab or the mouse to move between the boxes,
and press enter or click the mouse on the screen outside the boxes when done. This
transition has the following meaning. If the head is under an “a” and the machine is in
state “q0”, then replace the “a” with an “x” and move the head to the right. When
done adding input, the area between q0 and q1 should resemble the example below.

Let's finish up the transitions as shown in figure given below

Now, let's try out our new Turing machine. Because of the number of steps, we will
avoid the “Step” option we used with finite automata (although for finite automata titled
“Step with Closure”) and instead use the “Fast Run” option. To use this, click onthe
“Input” menu, and then click on “Fast Run”. After clicking “OK” or pressingenter,
the following screen should come up:
 Exp. No. 11 Regular pumping lemma

Problem- Show that language is not regular.

Solution- we enter a value of 3 and then the computer comes up with the string aaabbbcccccc.

Upon being presented with the decomposition screen, we’ve used the sliders to make x = aa and
y = a. Note that we cannot make y straddle the boundary between the as and the bs because that
would violate the length constraint on xy.