Theory of Automata

Regular Expressions

Dr. Aftab Maroof

Adeel Ashraf Cheema
Faryal Saud
Contents

 Regular Expressions
 Language Defining Symbols
 Alternation, Either/OR, Disjunction, Plus Sign
 Defining Languages by Another New Method
 Formal Definition of Regular Expressions
 Product Set
 Languages Associated with Regular Expressions
 Finite Languages Are Regular
 How Hard It Is to Understand a Regular Expression
 Introducing EVEN-EVEN

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Regular Expressions
 RE is the sequence of characters or symbols that
represent a finite or infinite set of text strings.
 Pattern-matching is the process of checking whether a
text string conforms to a set of characteristics defined
by patterns such as regular expressions.
 A regular expression is a set of pattern matching rules
encoded in a string according to certain syntax rules.
Although the syntax is somewhat complex it is very
powerful and allows much more useful pattern matching
than say simple wildcards like ? and *.

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Regular Expression
 A regular expression (sometimes abbreviated to "regex") is a
way for a computer user or programmer to express how a
computer program should look for a specified pattern in text and
then what the program is to do when each pattern match is
found.
 For example, a regular expression could tell a program to search for
all text lines that contain the word "Windows 95" and then to print out
each line in which a match is found or substitute another text
sequence (for example, just "Windows") where any match occurs.
 The best known tool for specifying and handling the incidence of
regular expressions is grep, a utility found in Unix-based operating
systems and also offered as a separate utility program for Windows
and other operating systems.

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Language-Defining Symbols

 We now introduce the use of the Kleene star, applied not to a

set, but directly to the letter x and written as a superscript: x*.
 This simple expression indicates some sequence of x’s (may
be none at all):
x* =Λ or x or x2 or x3…
= xn for some n = 0, 1, 2, 3, …

 Letter x is intentionally written in boldface type to distinguish it

from an alphabet character.

 We can think of the star as an unknown power. That is, x*

stands for a string of x’s, but we do not specify how many,
and it may be the null string .

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R.E. Continued…

 The notation x* can be used to define languages by writing,

say L4 = language (x*)

 Since x* is any string of x’s, L4 is then the language of all

possible strings of x’s of any length (including Λ).

 We should not confuse x* (which is a language-defining

symbol or patron) with L4 (which is the name we have given
to a certain language).

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R.E. Continued…
 Given the alphabet = {a, b}, suppose we wish to define the
language L that contains all words of the form: one a followed by
some number of b’s (maybe no b’s at all), that is
 L = {a, ab, abb, abbb, abbbb, …}
 Using the language-defining symbol, we may write
L = language (ab*)
 This equation obviously means that L is the language in which
the words are the concatenation of an initial a with some or no
b’s.
 From now on, for convenience, we will simply say some b’s to
mean some or no b’s. When we want to mean some positive
number of b’s, we will explicitly say so.

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R.E. Continued…

 We can apply the Kleene star to the whole string ab

if we want:
(ab)* = Λ or ab or abab or ababab…
 Observe that
(ab)* ≠ a*b*
 because the language defined by the expression on the left
contains the word abab, whereas the language defined by
the expression on the right does not.

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R.E. Continued…

 If we want to define the language L1 = {x, xx, xxx, …} using

the language-defining symbol, we can write
L1 = language(xx*)
which means that each word of L1 must start with an x
followed by some (or no) x’s.

 Note that we can also define L1 using the notation + (as an

exponent) introduced in Chapter 2:
L1 = language(x+)
 which means that each word of L1 is a string of some positive
number of x’s.

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Alternation, Either/OR, Disjunction, |
Plus Sign
 Let us introduce another use of the plus sign. By the
expression
x+y
where x and y are strings of characters from an alphabet, we
mean either x or y.

 Care should be taken so as not to confuse this notation with

the notation + (as an exponent) or with sign for arithmetic
addition.

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Example

 Consider the language T over the alphabet

Σ = {a, b, c}:
 T = {a, c, ab, cb, abb, cbb, abbb, cbbb, abbbb, cbbbb, …}
 In other words, all the words in T begin with either an a or a c
and then are followed by some number of b’s.
 Using the above plus sign notation, we may write this as
T = language((a+ c)b*)

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Example

 Consider a finite language L that contains all the strings of a’s

and b’s of length three exactly:
L = {aaa, aab, aba, abb, baa, bab, bba, bbb}
 Note that the first letter of each word in L is either an a or a b,
so are the second letter and third letter of each word in L.
 Thus, we may write
L = language((a+ b)(a + b)(a + b))
 or for short,
L = language((a+ b)3)

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Example

 In general, if we want to refer to the set of all possible strings

of a’s and b’s of any length whatsoever, we could write
language((a+ b)*)

 This is the set of all possible strings of letters from the

alphabet Σ = {a, b}, including the null string.

 This is powerful notation. For instance, we can describe all

the words that begin with first an a, followed by anything (i.e.,
as many choices as we want of either a or b) as
a(a + b)*

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Formal Definition of Regular Expressions

 The set of regular expressions is defined by the following rules:

 Rule 1: Every letter of the alphabet Σ can be made into a regular

expression by writing it in boldface, Λ itself is a regular expression.

 Rule 2: If r1 and r2 are regular expressions, then so are:

(i) (r1)
(ii) r1 r2
(iii) r1 + r2
(iv) r1 *

 Rule 3: Nothing else is a regular expression.

 Note: If r1 = aa + b then when we write r1*, we really mean
(r1)*, that is r1* = (r1)* = (aa + b)*

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Example

 Consider the language defined by the expression

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

 At the beginning of any word in this language we have

(a + b)*, which is any string of a’s and b’s, then comes an a,
then another any string.

 For example, the word abbaab can be considered to come

from this expression by 3 different choices:

(Λ)a(bbaab) or (abb)a(ab) or (abba)a(b)

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Example contd.

 This language is the set of all words over the alphabet Σ = {a,
b} that have at least one a.
 The only words left out are those that have only b’s and the
word Λ.
These left out words are exactly the language defined by the
expression b*.
 If we combine this language, we should provide a language of
all strings over the alphabet Σ = {a, b}. That is,
(a + b)* = (a + b)*a(a + b)* + b*

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Example

 Write RE to define the language of all words that have at least

two a’s :
(a + b)*a(a + b)*a(a + b)*

 Another expression that defines all the words with at least two
a’s is
b*ab*a(a + b)*

 Hence, we can write

(a + b)*a(a + b)*a(a + b)* = b*ab*a(a + b)*

where by the equal sign we mean that these two expressions

are equivalent in the sense that they describe the same
language.

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Example
 The language of all words that have at least one a and at least one b is
somewhat trickier. If we write
(a + b)*a(a + b)*b(a + b)*
then we are requiring that an a must precede a b in the word. Such
words as ba and bbaaaa are not included in this language.

 Since we know that either the a comes before the b or the b comes
before the a, we can define the language by the expression

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

 Note that the only words that are omitted by the first term
(a + b)*a(a + b)*b(a + b)* are the words of the form some b’s followed by
some a’s. They are defined by the expression bb*aa*

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Example

 We can add these specific exceptions. So, the language of all

words over the alphabet Σ = {a, b} that contain at least one a
and at least one b is defined by the expression:
(a + b)a(a + b)b(a + b) + bb*aa*
 Thus, we have proved that
(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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Example

 In the above example, the language of all words that contain

both an a and a b is defined by the expression
(a + b)*a(a + b)*b(a + b)* + bb*aa*

 The only words that do not contain both an a and a b are the
words of all a’s, all b’s, or Λ.

 When these are included, we get everything. Hence, the

expression
(a + b)*a(a + b)*b(a + b)* + bb*aa* + a* + b*
defines all possible strings of a’s and b’s, including (accounted
for in both a and b).

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 Thus

(a + b)* = (a + b)*a(a + b)*b(a + b)* + bb*aa* + a* + b*

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Example
 The following equivalences show that we should not treat
expressions as algebraic polynomials:
(a + b)* = (a + b)* + (a + b)*
(a + b)* = (a + b)* + a*
(a + b)* = (a + b)*(a + b)*
(a + b)* = a(a + b)* + b(a + b)* + Λ
(a + b)* = (a + b)*ab(a + b)* + b*a*

 The last equivalence may need some explanation:

 The first term in the right hand side, (a + b)*ab(a + b)*, describes
all the words that contain the substring ab.
 The second term, b*a* describes all the words that do not contain
the substring ab (i.e., all a’s, all b’s, Λ, or some b’s followed by
some a’s).

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Example

 Let V be the language of all strings of a’s and b’s in which

either the strings are all b’s, or else an a followed by some
b’s. Let V also contain the word Λ. Hence,
V = {Λ, a, b, ab, bb, abb, bbb, abbb, bbbb, …}
 We can define V by the expression

b* + ab*
where Λ is included in b*.
 Alternatively, we could define V by

(Λ + a)b*
which means that in front of the string of some b’s, we have
either an a or nothing.

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Example contd.

 Hence,
(Λ + a)b* = b* + ab*

 Since b* = Λb*, we have

(Λ + a)b* = b* + ab*
which appears to be distributive law at work.

 However, we must be extremely careful in applying

distributive law. Sometimes, it is difficult to
determine if the law is applicable.

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Product Set
 If S and T are sets of strings of letters (whether they
are finite or infinite sets), we define the product set
of strings of letters to be

ST = {all combinations of a string from S

concatenated with a string from T in that order}

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Example
 If S = {a, aa, aaa} and T = {bb, bbb} then

ST = {abb, abbb, aabb, aabbb, aaabb, aaabbb}

 Note that the words are not listed in lexicographic order.

 Using regular expression, we can write this example as

(a + aa + aaa)(bb + bbb)
= abb + abbb + aabb + aabbb + aaabb + aaabbb

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Example

 If M = {Λ, x, xx} and N = {Λ, y, yy, yyy, yyyy, …} then

 MN ={Λ, y, yy, yyy, yyyy,…x, xy, xyy, xyyy, xyyyy,
…xx, xxy, xxyy, xxyyy, xxyyyy, …}

 Using regular expression

(Λ + x + xx)(y*) = y* + xy* + xxy*

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 Languages Associated with
Regular Expressions

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Definition

 The following rules define the language associated with any

regular expression:

 Rule 1: The language associated with the regular expression

that is just a single letter is that one-letter word alone, and the
language associated with Λ is just {Λ}, a one-word language.

 Rule 2: If r1 is a regular expression associated with the

language L1 and r2 is a regular expression associated with the
language L2, then:
(i) The regular expression (r1)(r2) is associated with the product
L1L2, that is the language L1 times the language L2:

language(r1r2) = L1L2

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Definition contd.

 Rule 2 (cont.):

(ii) The regular expression r1 + r2 is associated with the

language formed by the union of L1 and L2:
language(r1 + r2) = L1 + L2

(iii) The language associated with the regular expression (r1)*

is L1*, the Kleene closure of the set L1 as a set of words:
language(r1*) = L1*

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Finite Languages Are Regular

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Theorem 5

 If L is a finite language (a language with only finitely many

words), then L can be defined by a regular expression. In
other words, all finite languages are regular.
 Proof
 Let L be a finite language. To make one regular expression that
defines L, we turn all the words in L into boldface type and insert
plus signs between them.

 For example, the regular expression that defines the language

L = {baa, abbba, bababa} is baa + abbba + bababa

 This algorithm only works for finite languages because an infinite

language would become a regular expression that is infinitely
long, which is forbidden.

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How Hard It Is To Understand
A Regular Expression

Let us examine some regular expressions and

see if we could understand something about the
languages they represent.

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Example

 Consider the expression

(a + b)*(aa + bb)(a + b)* =(arbitrary)(double letter)(arbitrary)

 This is the set of strings of a’s and b’s that at some point
contain a double letter.

Let us ask, “What strings do not contain a double letter?”

Some examples are
Λ, a, b, ab, ba, aba, bab, abab, baba, …

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Example contd.

 The expression (ab)* covers all of these except those that

begin with b or end with a. Adding these choices gives us the
expression:

(Λ + b)(ab)*(Λ + a)

 Combining the two expressions gives us the one that defines

the set of all strings
(a + b)*(aa + bb)(a + b)* + (Λ + b)(ab)*(Λ + a)

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Examples

 Note that
(a + b*)* = (a + b)*
since the internal * adds nothing to the language. However,

(aa + ab*)* ≠ (aa + ab)*

since the language on the left includes the word abbabb,
whereas the language on the right does not. (The language
on the right cannot contain any word with a double b.)

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Example

 Consider the regular expression: (a*b*)*.

 The language defined by this expression is all strings that can

be made up of factors of the form a*b*.

 Since both the single letter a and the single letter b are words
of the form a*b*, this language contains all strings of a’s and
b’s. That is,
(a*b*)* = (a + b)*
 This equation gives a big doubt on the possibility of finding a
set of algebraic rules to reduce one regular expression to
another equivalent one.

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Introducing EVEN-EVEN

 Consider the regular expression

E = [aa + bb + (ab + ba)(aa + bb)*(ab + ba)]*

 This expression represents all the words that are made up of syllables
of three types:
type1 = aa
type2 = bb
type3 = (ab + ba)(aa + bb)*(ab + ba)

 Every word of the language defined by E contains an even number of

a’s and an even number of b’s.

 All strings with an even number of a’s and an even number of b’s
belong to the language defined by E.

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Algorithms for EVEN-EVEN

 We want to determine whether a long string of a’s and b’s has

the property that the number of a’s is even and the number of b’s
is even.

 Algorithm 1: Keep two binary flags, the a-flag and the b-flag.
Every time an a is read, the a-flag is reversed (0 to 1, or 1 to 0),
and every time a b is read, the b-flag is reversed. We start both
flags at 0 and check to be sure they are both 0 at the end.

 Algorithm 2: Keep only one binary flag, called the type3-flag.

We read letter in two at a time. If they are the same, then we do
not touch the type3-flag, since we have a factor of type1 or type2.
If, however, the two letters do not match, we reverse the type3-
flag. If the flag starts at 0 and if it is also 0 at the end, then the
input string contains an even number of a’s and an even number
of b’s.
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EVEN-EVEN
 If the input string is
aaabbbbaabbbbbbbababbbbaaa
Then by factoring in sub-strings of two letters each:
(aa)(ab)(bb)(ba)(ab)(bb)(bb)(bb)(ab)(ab)(bb)(ba)(aa)
0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0
by Algorithm 2, the type3-flag is reversed 6 times and
ends at 0.
 We give this language the name EVEN-EVEN. so,
EVEN-EVEN ={Λ, aa, bb, aaaa, aabb, abab, abba,
baab, baba, bbaa, bbbb, aaaaaa, aaaabb, aaabab, …}

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Ex-1

 Find a regular expression for the set A of binary strings which

have no substring 001.
 Solution. A string x in this set has no substring 00, except that
it may have a suffix 0K for k > 2.
 The set of strings with no substring 00 can be represented by
the regular expression
(01 + 1)*(+0)
 Therefore, set A has a regular expression

(01 + 1)*( + 0 + 000*) = (01 + 1)*0*

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Ex-2
 Find a regular expression for the set B of all binary strings with
at most one pair of consecutive 0 's and at most one pair of
consecutive 1s.
 Solution. A string x in B may have one of the following forms:
 (1) 
 (2) u10 (4) u10 0v1 (6) u10 0w111v0
 (3) u01 (5) u011v0 (7) u011w000v1
 where u0 , u1 , v0 , v1 , w0 , w1 are strings with no substring 00
or 11, and u0 ends with 0, u1 ends with 1, v0 begins with 0, v1
begins with 1, w0 begins with 0 and ends with 1, and w1 begins
with 1 and ends with 0.
 Now, observe that these types of strings can be represented
by simple regular expressions…

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