HEWAD UNIVERSITY

Theory of Computing (TOC) ‫هیــــواد پوهنــتون‬

Introduction to TOC

Lecturer : Mirajuddin Haidari

Department
HEWAD University of Computing & Technology ‫کمپیوتر ساینس پوهنځی‬ ‫هیــــواد پوهنــتون‬
HEWAD University
Department
of Computing & Technology ‫کمپیوتر ساینس پوهنځی‬ ‫هیــــواد پوهنــتون‬

INTRODUCATION
• Course Name: TOC
• Lecturer Name: Mirajuddin Haidari
• Email: Mearajuddin.haidary@gmail.com
• WhatsApp: +93772709870

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Department
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CONTENTS OF THE LECTURE

1. Why study automata theory?
2. Introduction to languages, alphabets.
3. Kinds of Languages.
4. Deterministic and Nondeterministic Finite automata.
5. Finite states/infinite states
6. Recognized and recognizable languages.

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Department
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Recommended Readings
• Introduction to Computer Theory Daniel I.A.
Cohen, Second Edition
• Introduction to Languages and Theory of
Computation J. C. Martin, Third Edition

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Pre-Requisite
• Discrete Mathematics

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Why study theory of computation?

• Mathematical theory behind computers rather
computing
• Foundation for the course of Compiler
Construction

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Automata?
•It is the plural of automaton, and it
means “something that works
automatically”.
• e.g. traffic signals

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Automata Theory/TOC
• In theoretical computer science, automata
theory is the study of abstract machines and
the problems which they are able to solve.
• These abstract machines are called automata.
An automaton is a mathematical model for a
Finite State Machine (FSM).

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Automata Theory (cont…)

• Automata Theory is an exciting, theoretical
branch of computer science.
• It established its roots during the 20th
Century, as mathematicians began developing -
both theoretically and literally - machines
which imitated certain features of man,
completing calculations more quickly and
reliably.
• automata theory deals with the logic of
computation with respect to simple machines,
referred to as automata
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Automaton & automata

• In automata we will simulates parts of
computers.
• Or we will make mathematical models of
computers
• Automata are more powerful than any real
computer because we can design any machine
on papers that can do everything we want.

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Automaton & automata (cont.)

• Automatons are abstract models of machines
that perform computations on an input by
moving through a series of states or
configurations.
• At each state of the computation, a transition
function determines the next configuration on
the basis of a finite portion of the present
configuration.
• As a result, once the computation reaches an
accepting configuration, it accepts that input.
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Four major families of automaton

• Finite-state machine
• Pushdown automata
• Linear-bounded automata
• Turing machine

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Finite Automata
• Finite automata (FA) is the simple machine to
recognize pattern.
• It takes string of symbols as input and change
its state accordingly.
• Finite automata has two state, accept state and
reject state.
1. When the input string processed successfully, and
automata reached its final state, then it will accept.

2. Otherwise reject

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Finite Automata
• An important way to describe certain simple, but
highly useful languages called “regular languages."
• A graph with a finite number of nodes, called states.
• Arcs are labeled with one or more symbols from
some alphabet.
• One state is designated the start state or initial
state. u Some states are final states or accepting
states.
• The language of the FA is the set of strings that
label paths that go from the start state to some
accepting state.

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Formal Definition of Finite Automaton

 An automaton is represented formally by the 5-
tuple {Q,Σ,δ,q0,F}, where:
 Q is a finite set of states.
 Σ is a finite set of symbols, called the alphabet of
the automaton.
 δ is the transition function, that is, δ: Q x Σ → Q.
 q0 is the start state, that is, the state which the
automaton is in when no input has been processed
yet, where q0∈ Q.

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Formal Definition of Finite Automaton

• F is a set of states of Q (i.e. F⊆Q) called
accept states.
• Delta (uppercase Δ, lower case δ )
• Sigma (upper case Σ, lower case σ )

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δ function
• This function takes a state and input symbol
as arguments.
• Returns a state.
• One “rule" of d would be written (q; a) = p,
where q and p are states, and a is an input
symbol.

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Example
•M1 = (Q, Σ, δ,q0,F) where
– Q={0,1,2,3}, Σ={a,b}, q0 = 0, F = {3} and d
is define by: – δ(0,a) = 1; δ(1,a) = 2; δ(2,a)
= δ(3,a) = 3 and – δ(q,b)=q if q = {0,1,2,3}.
– problem: Although precise but tedious
and not easy to understand (the behavior
of) the machine.

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Example
– Represent M1 by a table:

– Represent M1 by a diagram:
(state-transition diagram for M1)

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Strings accepted by DFAs

• Operations of M1 on the input 'baabbaab':

• Since M1 can reach a final state (3) after

scanning all input symbols starting from initial
state, we say the string 'baabbaab' is accepted by
M1.

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FA for switch
• Example:
• Finite automaton modelling an on/off switch

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FA continue …

• Accept the string 01101

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Types of Automata
• Deterministic automaton (DFA).
• Nondeterministic automaton (NFA).

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Deterministic
• For a given current state and an input
symbol, if an automaton can only jump to
one and only one state then it is a
deterministic automaton.

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Nondeterministic
• An automaton that, after reading an input
symbol, may jump into any of a number of
states, as licensed by its transition relation.
• Notice that the term transition function
is replaced by transition relation: The
automaton non-deterministically decides
to jump into one of the allowed choices.
Such automaton are called
nondeterministic automaton.
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Finite states/infinite states

• Finite states: An automaton that contains
only a finite number of states.
• The above introductory definition describes
automata with finite numbers of states.

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Finite states/infinite states

• Infinite states: An automaton that may not
have a finite number of states, or even a
uncountable number of states.

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DFA Example
• Convert DFA tuple to graph.
• Let a deterministic finite automata be:
• Q = {a, b, c} Inputs
States
• Σ = {0,1} 0 1
a a b
• q0 = a
• F = {c} and δ define in table b c a

c b c

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Major objective
• The major objective of automata theory is to
develop methods by which computer scientists
can describe and analyze the dynamic behavior
of discrete systems, in which signals are sampled
periodically.
• The behavior of these discrete systems is
determined by the way that the system is
constructed from storage and combinational
elements.
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Applications of automata
 Each model in automata theory play varied
roles in several applied areas.
 Finite automata is used in text processing,
compilers, and hardware design.
 Context-free grammar is used in
programming languages and artificial
intelligence.
 Originally, CFG were used in the study of
the human languages.
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Applications of automata
 Cellular automata is used in the field of biology.
 Stephen Wolfram claims that the entire
universe could be explained by machines with a
finite set of states and rules with a single
initial condition.
 Software for verifying systems of all types
that have a finite number of distinct states,
such as communications protocols or protocols
for secure exchange of information.
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Languages
• Alphabet = finite set of symbols,e.g.{0; 1} (binary
alphabet) or ASCII.
• String = finite sequence of symbols chosen from some
alphabet, e.g., 01101 or abracadabra.
• Language = set of strings chosen from some
alphabet.
• Distinctive point: the language may be infinite, but
there is some finite set of symbols of which all its
strings are composed.
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Example of Languages
• The set of all binary strings consisting of some
number of 0's followed by an equal number of 1's;
that is,{ 01; 0011; 000111}.
• C (the set of compliable C programs).
• English.
• A formal language is an abstraction of the general
characteristics of programming languages.

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Example of Languages
• A formal language consists of a set of symbols
and some rules of formation by which these
symbols can be combined into entities called
sentences.
• A formal language is the set of all strings
permitted by the rules of formation.

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Kinds of languages
• 1- Talking language: (e.g.: English language.):
• It has alphabetic: Σ={a,b,c,….z , A,B,C,..Z ,….}
• From these alphabetic we make sentences that
belong to English language.
• Now we want to know is this sentence is true or
false so- We need grammar in English.

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Kinds of languages
• Example:
• Ali is a good boy. (It is a sentence Є English
language.)
• It's semantic (meaning) & syntax (structure) is true
according to English grammar.
• Ahmad eats papers. (It is a sentence Є English
language.)
• It's semantic (meaning) is false but it's syntax
(structure) is true according to English grammar.

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Kinds of languages
• 2- Programming language: (e.g.: c++ language.):
• It has alphabetic: Σ={a,b,c,….z , A,B,C,…..Z , ?, /, - ,\.}.
• From these alphabetic we make sentences that
belong to programming language.
• Now we want to know is this sentence is true or false
so we need a compiler to make sure that syntax is
true and we don't need to check the meaning because
we talk to computer that doesn't know any thing.

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Kinds of languages
• 3- Formal language: (any language we want.).
• It has strings.
• From these strings we make sentences that
belong to this formal language.
• Now we want to know is this sentence is true or
false so- We need rules.

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Kinds of languages
• Example:
• Alphabetic:
• Σ={0,1}.
• Sentences:
• 0000001.
• 1010101.
• Rules:
• Accept any sentence start with zero and refuse sentences
that start with one.
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Kinds of languages
• So we accept: 0000001, As a sentence satisfy the
rules.
• And refuse: 1010101. As a sentence doesn't satisfy
the rules.
• So we can make our formal language but we must
take in mind it's:
• Σ alphabetic. (Arguments)
• Rules.
• From which we can get the language elements and
vice versa.
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Recognized/recognizable languages
• An automaton can recognize a formal language.
• The recognized language L Σ* by an automaton
is the set of all the words that are accepted by the
automaton.
• The recognizable languages is the set of
languages that are recognized by some
automaton.

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Recognized/recognizable languages
• For above definition of automata the recognizable
languages are regular languages.
• For different definitions of automata, the
recognizable languages are different.

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Recognized language
• The automaton reads the input word one symbol
after another in the sequence and transits from
state to state according to the transition function,
until the word is read completely.
• Once the input word has been read, the
automaton is said to have been stopped and the
state at which automaton has stopped is called
final state.
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Recognized language
• Depending on the final state, it's said that the
automaton either accepts or rejects an input
word.
• There is a subset of states of the automaton,
which is defined as the set of accepting states.

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Recognized language
• If the final state is an accepting state, then the
automaton accepts the word.
• Otherwise, the word is rejected.
• The set of all the words accepted by an
automaton is called the language recognized by

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Let’s Stop
it Here
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