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ps1 Sol

This document contains instructions for 7 problems related to regular expressions and finite automata. The problems involve: 1) Writing a regular expression to accept valid names with first, optional middle, and last names. 2) Drawing a DFA for the regular expression from problem 1. 3) Drawing a non-deterministic FSA for the regular expression (ab*c)|(a+bc*). 4) Converting the NFA from problem 3 to a deterministic FSA using the subset construction. 5) Minimizing the deterministic FSA from problem 4. 6) Explaining why the language (i g )i, i ≥ 0 cannot be recognized by a FSA. 7) Explaining why

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24 views4 pages

ps1 Sol

This document contains instructions for 7 problems related to regular expressions and finite automata. The problems involve: 1) Writing a regular expression to accept valid names with first, optional middle, and last names. 2) Drawing a DFA for the regular expression from problem 1. 3) Drawing a non-deterministic FSA for the regular expression (ab*c)|(a+bc*). 4) Converting the NFA from problem 3 to a deterministic FSA using the subset construction. 5) Minimizing the deterministic FSA from problem 4. 6) Explaining why the language (i g )i, i ≥ 0 cannot be recognized by a FSA. 7) Explaining why

Uploaded by

Dr Cheryl-Grace Patty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ECE 573

Problem Set 1: Regular expressions and finite automata

1. Give a regular expression that will accept all valid names. A name consists of a
first name, an optional middle name or initial, and a last name, separated by spaces.
First, middle and last names start with a capital letter and are followed by zero or
more lowercase letters. If the name has a middle initial, instead of a middle name, it
must be a capital letter followed by a period. Examples of valid names include:

• Joe Public
• Joe Q. Public
• Joe Quincy Public

Examples of invalid names include:

• Joe P. (no last name)


• Joe Q Public (middle initial missing a period)
• Joe Qu. Public (middle initial more than one letter)
• Joe Quincy Reginald Public (two middle names)
• Joe Quincy Public, the Third (more than just three names)

Assume that Σ (the alphabet) for the strings you are accepting is all capital letters,
all lowercase letters, and ‘.’

Answer: Assume that the character ‘ ’ represents a space. Define the following
character class (which captures any single name):
N = [A-Z][a-z]*
We can then define the language using the following regular expression:
N (N |[A-Z].)? N

2. Give a DFA for that regular expression.

Answer:

1
[a-z]

[a-z] [a-z]

[a-z] _

[A-Z] _ [A-Z] _ [A-Z]

. _

3. Give a non-deterministic FSA for the following regular expression:

(ab∗ c)|(a+ bc∗ )

Answer: Here is one possible solution, based on building ab∗ c and a+ bc∗ first.

2 a 3 c 4

λ
λ

1 8
a c
λ λ

5 a 6 b 7

4. Produce the deterministic equivalent of the NFA you built in question 3. Show both
the graphical representation and the tabular representation.

2
Answer: Let us proceed by the subset construction
State(s) a b c Final? New state
{1, 2, 5} {3, 6} err err No 1
{3, 6} {6} {3, 7, 8} {4, 8} No 2
{6} {6} {7, 8} err No 3
{3, 7, 8} err {3} {4, 7, 8} Yes 4
{4, 8} err err err Yes 5
{7, 8} err err {7, 8} Yes 6
{3} err {3} {4, 8} No 7
{4, 7, 8} err err {7, 8} Yes 8
The graphical representation is given below:

b
a

2 a 3 4

a c

c b b
1 8

5 6 7

c b
c

5. Minimize the deterministic FSA.


The only two states that behave the same way are 6 and 8, so they can be merged.

3
Note that it doesn’t matter that 3 transitions to 6 on b, but not 8. Once you’re in 6
or 8, the two states behave the same.

6. Can the language (i g )i , i ≥ 0 be recognized by an FSA? Why or why not?


No, it cannot. We need to somehow determine how many ‘(’s are seen before matching
the same number of ‘)’s. This requires a potentially unbounded number of states.

7. Can the language (k g )k for one particular k be recognized by an FSA? Why or why
not?
Yes, it can. We can use k states to recognize the ‘(’s, one state to recognize the ‘g’,
and k more states to recognize the ‘)’s.

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