CSE322

Regular Expressions and

their Identities
Lecture #6
Regular Expressions
We give a formal recursive definition of regular expressions over ∑
as follows:
1. Any terminal symbol (i.e. an element of ∑), Λ and ∅ are regular
expressions. When we view a in ∑ as a regular expression, we
denote it by a.
2. The union of two regular expressions R1and R2 , written as R 1 +
R2, is also a regular expression.
3. The concatenation of two regular expressions R1and R2, written as
R1 R2, is also a regular expression.
4. The iteration (or closure) of a regular expression R written as R*, is
also a regular expression.
5.If R is a regular expression, then (R) is also a regular expression.
6. The regular expressions over∑ are precisely those obtained
recursively by the application of the rules 1-5 once or several times
Definitions
Any set represented by a regular expression is
called a regular set.
If for example, a, b ε ∑. Then
(i) a denotes the set {a},

(ii) a + b denotes {a, b},

(iii) ab denotes {ab},

(iv) a* denotes the set {lambda, a, aa. aaa, ... } and

(v) (a + b)* denotes {a, b}*. The set represented by R is denoted by L(R),
Questions

Describe the following sets by regular expressions:

(a) {101}
(b) {abba}
(c) {01,10}
(d) {Λ ,ab}
(e) {abb,a, b, bba}
(f){Λ , 0, 00, 000.... }
(g) {1, 11, 111 ... }
Solution
(a) Now. {1}. {O} are represented by 1 and O. respectively. 101 is obtained
by concatenating 1,0 and 1 So. {10 I} is represented by 101.

(b) abba represents {abba}.

(c) As {01, 10} is the union of {01} and {10}, we have {01, 10}
represented by 01 + 10

(d) The set {Λ , ab} is represented by Λ + ab

(e) The set {abb, a, b, bba} is represented by abb + a + b + bba.

f) As {Λ , 0, 00, 000, ... } is simply {O}*. it is represented by 0*

(g) Any element in {1, 11, 111, ... } can be obtained by concatenating
1 and any element of {1}*. Hence 1(1)* represents {1, 11, 111, ... }
Problem
Solution
• Which of the following does not represents
the given language?
Language: {0,01}
a) 0+01
b) {0} U {01}
c) {0} U {0}{1}
d) {0} ^ {01}
IDENTITIES FOR REGULAR
EXPRESSIONS
THEORM

Theorem :
(Arden' s theorem) Let P and Q be two regular expressions
over ∑. If P does not contain Λ, then the following equation in
R, namely
R = Q + RP
has a unique solution (i.e. one and only one solution) given
by R = QP*.
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
• Which among the following looks similar to the given
expression?
((0+1). (0+1)) *
a) {xϵ {0,1} *|x is all binary number with even length}
b) {xϵ {0,1} |x is all binary number with even length}
c) {xϵ {0,1} *|x is all binary number with odd length}
d) {xϵ {0,1} |x is all binary number with odd length}
PROBLEM & SOLUTION
• Regular expressions are closed under
a) Union
b) Intersection
c) Kleen star
d) All of the mentioned
Difference between Null and Ø
TRANSITION SYSTEM CONTAINING Λ -MOVES

Suppose we want to replace a Λ -move from vertex V1 to vertex V2' Then

we proceed as follows:

Step 1- Find all the edges starting from V2.

Step 2- Duplicate all these edges starting from V1' without changing the edge
labels.

Step 3- If V1 is an initial state, make V2 also as initial state.

Step 4- If V2 is a final state. make V1 also as the final state.

EXAMPLE
EXAMPLE
• Concatenation of R with Ф outputs:
a) R
b) Ф
c) R.Ф
d) None of the mentioned
Remove all the epsilon transitions in the given diagram and compute the
number of a-transitions in the result?

a) 5
b) 7
c) 9
d) 6
• Which of the following does not belong to
input alphabet if S={a, b}* for any language?

a) a
b) b
c) e
d) none of the mentioned
• P, Q, R be regular expression over ∑, P is not ε,
then
R=Q + RP has a unique solution:
• a) Q*P
b) QP*
c) Q*P*
d) (P*O*) *
• The minimum number of transitions to pass to
reach the final state as per the following
regular expression is:
{a,b}*{baaa}

a) 4
b) 5
c) 6
d) 3
• Which of the following statements is not true?
a) Every language defined by any of the automata is also
defined by a regular expression
b) Every language defined by a regular expression can be
represented using a DFA
c) Every language defined by a regular expression can be
represented using NFA with e moves
d) Regular expression is just another representation for any
automata definition
Comparison Method
• A language is regular if and only if

a) accepted by DFA
b) accepted by PDA
c) accepted by LBA
d) accepted by Turing machine
Equivalence of Two Regular Expressions
• Which of the following does not represents
the given language?
Language: {0,01}

a) 0+01
b) {0} U {01}
c) {0} U {0}{1}
d) {0} ^ {01}
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 1. The union of two regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• Let us take two regular expressions
• RE1 = a(aa)* and RE2 = (aa)*
• So, L1 = {a, aaa, aaaaa,.....} (Strings of odd length excluding Null)
• and L2 ={ ε, aa, aaaa, aaaaaa,.......} (Strings of even length including
Null)
• L1 ∪ L2 = { ε, a, aa, aaa, aaaa, aaaaa, aaaaaa,.......}
• (Strings of all possible lengths including Null)
• RE (L1 ∪ L2) = a* (which is a regular expression itself)
• Hence, proved.
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 2. The intersection of two regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• Let us take two regular expressions
• RE1 = a(a*) and RE2 = (aa)*
• So, L1 = { a,aa, aaa, aaaa, ....} (Strings of all possible lengths excluding
Null)
• L2 = { ε, aa, aaaa, aaaaaa,.......} (Strings of even length including Null)
• L1 ∩ L2 = { aa, aaaa, aaaaaa,.......} (Strings of even length excluding
Null)
• RE (L1 ∩ L2) = aa(aa)* which is a regular expression itself.
• Hence, proved.
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 3. The complement of a regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• Let us take a regular expression −
• RE = (aa)*
• So, L = {ε, aa, aaaa, aaaaaa, .......} (Strings of even length
including Null)
• Complement of L is all the strings that is not in L.
• So, L’ = {a, aaa, aaaaa, .....} (Strings of odd length excluding
Null)
• RE (L’) = a(aa)* which is a regular expression itself.
• Hence, proved.
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 4. The difference of two regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• Let us take two regular expressions −
• RE1 = a (a*) and RE2 = (aa)*
• So, L1 = {a, aa, aaa, aaaa, ....} (Strings of all possible lengths
excluding Null)
• L2 = { ε, aa, aaaa, aaaaaa,.......} (Strings of even length including
Null)
• L1 – L2 = {a, aaa, aaaaa, aaaaaaa, ....}
• (Strings of all odd lengths excluding Null)
• RE (L1 – L2) = a (aa)* which is a regular expression.
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 5. The reversal of a regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• We have to prove LR is also regular if L is a regular set.
• Let, L = {01, 10, 11, 10}
• RE (L) = 01 + 10 + 11 + 10
• LR = {10, 01, 11, 01}
• RE (LR) = 01 + 10 + 11 + 10 which is regular
• Hence, proved.
• Property 6. The closure of a regular set is regular.
• Proof −
• If L = {a, aaa, aaaaa, .......} (Strings of odd length excluding Null)
• i.e., RE (L) = a (aa)*
• L* = {a, aa, aaa, aaaa , aaaaa,……………} (Strings of all lengths excluding Null)
• RE (L*) = a (a)*
• Hence, proved.
 Closure properties of regular sets
• Property 7. The concatenation of two regular sets is regular.
• Proof −
• Let RE1 = (0+1)*0 and RE2 = 01(0+1)*
• Here, L1 = {0, 00, 10, 000, 010, ......} (Set of strings ending in 0)
• and L2 = {01, 010,011,.....} (Set of strings beginning with 01)
• Then, L1 L2 =
{001,0010,0011,0001,00010,00011,1001,10010,.............}
• Set of strings containing 001 as a substring which can be
represented by an RE − (0 + 1)*001(0 + 1)*