Theory of Automata and Formal Language

Lecture-1

Dharmendra Kumar
(Associate Professor)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
United College of Engineering and Research, Prayagraj
March 30, 2021
Syllabus

Syllabus

Unit-I:
Basic Concepts and Automata Theory:Introduction to Theory of
Computation-Automata, Computability and Complexity, Alphabet,
Symbol, String, Formal Languages, Deterministic Finite Automa-
ton (DFA)- Definition, Representation, Acceptability of a String and
Language, Non Deterministic Finite Automaton (NFA), Equivalence
of DFA and NFA, NFA with -Transition, Equivalence of NFA’s with
and without -Transition, Finite Automata with output- Moore Ma-
chine, Mealy Machine, Equivalence of Moore and Mealy Machine,
Minimization of Finite Automata, Myhill-Nerode Theorem, Simula-
tion of DFA and NFA
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Syllabus

Unit-II:
Regular Expressions and Languages:Regular Expressions, Transition Graph,
Kleen’s Theorem, Finite Automata and Regular Expression- Arden’s theo-
rem, Algebraic Method Using Arden’s Theorem, Regular and Non-Regular
Languages- Closure properties of Regular Languages, Pigeonhole Principle,
Pumping Lemma, Application of Pumping Lemma, Decidability- Decision
properties, Finite Automata and Regular Languages, Regular Languages
and Computers, Simulation of Transition Graph and Regular language.
Unit-III:
Regular and Non-Regular Grammars: Context Free Grammar(CFG)- Def-
inition, Derivations, Languages, Derivation Trees and Ambiguity, Regular
Grammars- Right Linear and Left Linear grammars, Conversion of FA into
CFG and Regular grammar into FA, Simplification of CFG, Normal Forms-
Chomsky Normal Form(CNF), Greibach Normal Form (GNF), Chomsky
Hierarchy, Programming problems based on the properties of CFGs.
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Syllabus

Unit-IV:
Push Down Automata and Properties of Context Free Languages: Nonde-
terministic Pushdown Automata (NPDA)- Definition, Moves, A Language
Accepted by NPDA, Deterministic Pushdown Automata (DPDA) and De-
terministic Context free Languages(DCFL), Pushdown Automata for Con-
text Free Languages, Context Free grammars for Pushdown Automata,
Two stack Pushdown Automata, Pumping Lemma for CFL, Closure prop-
erties of CFL, Decision Problems of CFL, Programming problems based on
the properties of CFLs.
Unit-V:
Turing Machines and Recursive Function Theory: Basic Turing Machine
Model, Representation of Turing Machines, Language Acceptability of Tur-
ing Machines, Techniques for Turing Machine Construction, Modifications
of Turing Machine, Turing Machine as Computer of Integer Functions,
Universal Turing machine, Linear Bounded Automata, Church’s Thesis,
Recursive and Recursively Enumerable language, Halting Problem, Post’s
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Correspondance Problem, Introduction to Recursive Function Theory.
Frame Title

Text books

1. Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata, Peter Linz

2. Theory of Computer Science : Automata, Languages and
Computation, K.L.P. Mishra, N, Chandrasekaran and K.L.P.
Mishra
3. Introduction to Automata theory, Languages and
Computation, J.E.Hopcraft, R.Motwani, and Ullman. 2nd
edition, Pearson Education Asia
4. Introduction to languages and the theory of computation, J
Martin, 3rd Edition, Tata McGraw Hill
5. Elements and Theory of Computation, C Papadimitrou and C.
L. Lewis, PHI
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DBMS

Course Outcome

CO 1 Define and understanding of different types of languages and

grammars.
CO 2 Understanding the concepts of finite automata and design fi-
nite automata for the languages.
CO 3 Describe the concepts of regular expression and apply these
concepts to find regular expression for a set.
CO 4 Illustrate and apply the pumping lemma for the languages and
demonstrate the normal form of the grammars.
CO 5 Understanding the concepts of pushdown automata and create
pushdown automata for the languages.
CO 6 Understanding the concepts of Turing machine and create Tur-
ing machine for the languages and functions. 5
Basic Concepts

Basic Concepts

Alphabet
A finite set of symbols is said to be alphabet. We will denote it by
set Σ .

String
This is the sequence of symbols from alphabet.
Example: If Σ = {a,b}, then abab, aaabab are strings on Σ.

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Basic Concepts

Operations defined on strings

1. Concatenation
The concatenation of two strings w and v is the string obtained by
appending the symbols of v to the right end of w, that is, if
w = a1 a2 .........an
and v = b1 b2 ........bm
Then concatenation of w and v, denoted by wv, is
wv = a1 a2 ........an b1 b2 ........bm

2. Reverse of a string
The reverse of a string is obtained by writing the symbols in reverse
order. If w is a string then its reerse is denoted by w R .
Example: If w = a1 a2 .........an then
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w R = an an−1 .........a2 a1
Basic Concepts

3. Length of a string
The length of a string is the number of symbols in the strings. If w
is a string then it is denoted by | w |.
The string with length 0 is said to be empty string. And it is denoted
by . It is also said to be null string.

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Basic Concepts

Properties of empty string()

1. |  | = 0
2. w = w = w, ∀ string w.
.
Substring

Any string of consecutive characters in string w is said to be a

substring of w. If
w = vu
Then the substrings v of u are said to be prefix and suffix of w
respectively.
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Basic Concepts

Properties of strings

1. | uv | = | u | + | v |
2. w n = wwwwwww............w(upto n times)
3. w 0 = , ∀w

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Basic Concepts

Kleene Closure( *-closure)

• If Σ is an alphabet, then Σ∗ denote the kleene closure of Σ.

• Σ∗ is the set of all the strings obtained by concatenating zero
or more symbols from Σ.
• Σ∗ = ∪∞ i 0 1 2
i=0 Σ = Σ ∪ Σ ∪ Σ ∪ ...................

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Basic Concepts

Positive Closure( +-closure)

• If Σ is an alphabet, then Σ+ denote the kleene closure of Σ.

• Σ+ is the set of all the strings obtained by concatenating one
or more symbols from Σ.
• Σ+ = ∪∞ i 0 1 2
i=1 Σ = Σ ∪ Σ ∪ Σ ∪ ...................
= Σ∗ - {}

Example: Consider Σ = {a, b}. Find Σ2 and Σ3 .

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