Automata Theory

Lecture 2
Lecture’s Objective
Part 1: Understanding the concept of sets and languages.
Part 2: How these two concepts are related to our course?
Part 3: Important terminologies and properties related to languages.
Part 1
Highlights
• Sets
• Languages
Basics - Sets

A = {11, 12, 13, 14}

B = {10, 20, 30, …}
Basics - Sets
More straightforward

B = {3, 5, 7, …}
Ambiguity: Set of odd numbers > 1 or set of primes?
B = {x | x is an odd integer greater than 1}

More descriptive
Basics - Sets

More examples
C = {x | x Ɛ B and x < 11}
D = {x | there exist integers i and j, both >= 0, with x = 3i+7j }
D = {3i + 7j | i,j are non-negative}
D = {3i+7j | i,j Ɛ N}
Basics - Sets

Complement of a set
A’ = {x Ɛ U | x ∉ A}
Basics - Sets
Union of two sets
A U B = {x | x Ɛ A or x Ɛ B}

NOTE
No need to memorize these
properties. Just have a look at
these to refresh your concept.
Basics - Sets
Intersection of two sets
A Π B = {x | x Ɛ A and x Ɛ B}

NOTE
No need to memorize these
properties. Just have a look at
these to refresh your concept.
Basics - Sets

Subtraction
A - B = {x | x Ɛ A and x ∉ B}
A - B = {x | x Ɛ A} Π {x | x ∉ B}
A – B = A Π B’
Basics - Sets
A few more properties

NOTE
No need to memorize these
properties. Just have a look at
these to refresh your concept.
Basics - Sets

Symmetric difference
A ⊕ B = (A – B) U (B – A)
A ⊕(B ⊕ C) = (A ⊕ B) ⊕ C
Basics - Sets

Cartesian product
A X B = {(a , b) | a Ɛ A and b Ɛ B}
Where (a , b) are ordered pairs
Basics - Sets

Disjoint sets
Intersection of sets is an empty set.
 Basics – Sets – Important symbols
Symbol Meaning Symbol Meaning

… Forever a ∈ A Element of: a is in A

A ⊆ B Subset: A has some (or all) elements of B b ∉ A Not element of: b is not in A

Proper Subset: A has some elements of B ∅ Empty set = {}

A ⊂ B
Universal Set: set of all possible values
A ⊄ B Not a Subset: A is not a subset of B U
(in the area of interest)
A ⊇ B Superset: A has same elements as B, or more P(A) Power Set: all subsets of A

Proper Superset: A has B's elements and more A=B Equality: both sets have the same members
A ⊃ B
A×B Cartesian Product: set of ordered pairs from A and B
A ⊅ B Not a Superset: A is not a superset of B
|A| Cardinality: the number of elements of set A
A ∪ B Union: in A or B (or both)
| Such that
A ∩ B Intersection: in both A and B
: Such that
Ac Complement: elements not in A NOTE
∀ For all (∀x>1, x >x)
2
No need to memorize these
A−B Difference: in A but not in B ∃ There Exists (∃ x | x2>x) symbols. Just have a look at
these to get familiar with
these.
Basics – Languages
• A natural languages involves A natural language is a
• Alphabet set set of all legal sentences
• Vocabulary constructed by obeying
• Grammatical rules grammatical rules.
• Sentences
• Paragraphs etc.
A programming language
• A programming language involves
is a set of all legal
• Keywords/operators
statements constructed
• Syntactic rules
by obeying syntactic
• Statements
rules.
• Program
 Part 2

Now lets relate the concepts of sets and languages with automata
 Sets
N – A binary number N – A Natural number

Is odd number? Is odd number?

Model of Computation Model of Computation

Yes No Yes No
L = {1, 01, 11, 001, 011, 101, 111, ……}  YES L = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, ……}  YES
L’ = {0, 00, 10, 000, 010, 100, 110, ……}  NO L’ = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, ……}  NO

Here comes the concept of Sets

 The concept of languages in automata
N – A binary number

A language is a set of words

Is odd number?
(strings) constructed by obeying
Model of Computation some rule(s)

Yes No
L = {1, 01, 11, 001, 011, 101, 111, ……}  YES
L’ = {0, 00, 10, 000, 010, 100, 110, ……}  NO
 The concept of languages in automata
N – A binary number

Because a language is a set of strings,

Is odd number? so set operations can be used to
Model of Computation
construct/define languages.

Yes No
L = {1, 01, 11, 001, 011, 101, 111, ……}  YES
L’ = {0, 00, 10, 000, 010, 100, 110, ……}  NO
 The concept of languages in automata
N – A binary number

Example:
Is odd number? ∑ = {0 , 1}
Model of Computation L = {x Ɛ ∑* | x ends with 1}

Conclusion:
The concept of language is used to
Yes No
formulate a decision problem.
L = {1, 01, 11, 001, 011, 101, 111, ……}  YES
L’ = {0, 00, 10, 000, 010, 100, 110, ……}  NO
Part 3
Languages – Terminologies and properties
Important definitions
• ∑ = {a , b}
• Word & string
• Null string (^)
• Length of string = |abbba| = 5
• Substring, prefix, suffix
Languages – Terminologies and properties
Important operations
• Concatenation of two words or languages
• If A = abba, B = aab then AB = abbaaab
• ab^b = abb^ = ^abb =abb
• L1L2 = {xy | x Ɛ L1 and y Ɛ L2}
• {ab, ba} {a, b} = {aba, abb, baa, bab}
• ∑2 = {a , b}2 = {a, b} {a, b} = {aa, ab, ba, bb}
• a4 = aaaa where a can be a word or language or even an alphabet set
• Kleene star and kleene plus operators
• ∑* = {a , b}* = {^, a, b, aa, ab, ba, bb, …..}
• Complement of a language
• L’ = ∑* - L
• Union, intersection and difference of languages
Discuss alphabet set with symbols like ∑ = {ab , baa} etc. Note: No symbol should be prefix of other
symbol.
Languages – Few examples
• L = {x Ɛ {a,b}* | |X| <= 8}
• L = {x Ɛ {a,b}* | |X| is odd}
• L = {x Ɛ {a,b}* | na (x) >= nb (x)}
• L = {x Ɛ {a,b}* | |X| >= 2 and x begins and ends with b}

• A finite way to describe infinite languages

• L1 = {ab, bab}* U {b} {bb}*
• L2 = {byb | y Ɛ {a , b}*}
 Exercises
Describe each of the following infinite sets precisely, using a formula that does not involve “…”. If you wish, you
can use N, R,Q, Z, and common notations for sets.
a) {0, -1, 2, -3, 4, -5, . . .}
b) {1/2, 1/4, 3/4, 1/8, 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, 1/16, 3/16, 5/16, 7/16, . . .}
c) {10, 1100, 111000, 11110000, . . .} ( a subset of {0,1}* )
d) {{0}, {1}, {2}, . . .}
e) {{0}, {0,1}, {0, 1, 2}, {0, 1, 2, 3}, . . .}
 Exercises
Find an expression for the indicated set, involving A,B,C, and any of the operations Union, Intersection and
Complement.
a) {x|xƐA or xƐB but not both}
b) {x|x is an element of exactly one of the three sets a, b, and c}
c) {x|x is an element of at most one of the three sets a, b, and c}
d) {x|x is an element of exactly two of the three sets a, b, and c}
e) {x|x is an element of exactly one and at most two of the three sets a, b, and c}
 Exercises
Under what circumstances L+ and L* are equal?
Answer: When L contains ^ as a word.