Chapter 5

Context Free Grammar

Lutfun Nahar Lota, Lecturer,CSE, IUT

 What is Context Free Grammar
• A context free grammar is a notation for describing languages
• It is more powerful than finite automata or Regular Expressions, but
cannot define all possible
• Applications: can describe certain features that have a recursive structure,
used to compiler technology, describe document formats
• The languages generated by context free grammars are knowns as the
context free languages

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 Context Free Grammar for Palindromes
•  Examples: madam, radar, madamimadam, 101
1. P
2. P 0
3. P 1
4. P 0P0
5. P 1P1

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 Context Free Grammar
•Defined
  by 4 tuples- G = {V, S, P}
• V = Set of variables or non-terminal symbols, represents language
• = Set of terminal symbols that forms the strings of language
• S= Start Symbol
• P= Production Rule

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 Production Rule
• Represents
  the recursive definition of a language
• Collection of substitution rules
• Used to generate patterns of strings
• Each production consists of-
• A variable, called head of the production
• The production symbol
• A string of zero or more terminals and variables
• Example- A aB or A
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 Context Free Grammar (Example)
•• A  language that generates equal number of a’s and b’s in to form of
• G = { (S,A), (a,b), S, (S aAb, A aAb|)
S aAb
a aAb b “S aAb”
aa aAb bb “S aAb”
aaa bbb “S aAb”
aaa bbb

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 Derivation Tree/Parse Tree
•  Derivation Tree/Parse Tree is an ordered rooted tree that graphically
represents the semantic information of strings derived from a context free
grammar. Three types of elements-
• Root Vertex- Must be labeled by the start symbol
• Vertex- Labeled by non-terminal symbols
• Leaves- Labeled by terminal symbols or
• G = {(S,A,B) (0,1), S, (S , A , B )}
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 Parse Tree (Example)
•  G = {(S,A,B) (0,1), S, (S , A , B )}
S

0 B

0 A A

0 A A 𝜖
 

 
𝜖
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 Left and Right Derivation Tree
• Left Derivation Tree: is obtained by applying production to the leftmost
variable in each step.
• Right Derivation Tree: is obtained by applying production to the
rightmost variable in each step.

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 Left and Right Derivation Tree
 For generating the string “aabaa” from the grammar
S aSS|, A
Left Derivation Tree Right Derivation Tree

S S

a S S a S S

a A S 𝜖
 
𝜖
 
a A S

b a a S S b a a S S

𝜖 𝜖
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 Ambiguous Grammar
•  Ambiguous Grammar- if there exists two or more left derivation tree for a string
then it’s called Ambiguous Grammar.
• G = {(S), (a+b, +, *), S,(SS+S|S*S|a|b}

• = a+a+b
S S+S S S*S
a+S S + S *S
a+S* a+S*S
S
a+a*S a+a*b
aa +
+ aa ** bb aa +
+ aa ** bb

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 Designing Context Free Grammar
• Construct
  a CFG for the language having any number of a’s
• ={a} RE = {a*}
• L = {, a, aa, aaa, …..}
• Production Rule: S aS, S
• Derive a String “aaaaaa”
S
aS
a aS
aa aS
aaa aS
aaaa aS
aaaaa aS
aaaaa aS
aaaaaa
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 Designing Context Free Grammar
• L
  = { w (a,b)*}
• L = { aacaa, bcb, abcba, abbcbaa, ….}
• Production Rule: S aSa, S bSb, S
• Derive a String “abbcbba”
S
aSa
a bSb a
ab bSb ba
abb c bba

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 Exercise
Solve the following exercises
5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.5, 5.2.1,5.4.1,5.4.2,5.4.3, 5.4.4, 5.4.5,5.4.6, 5.4.7

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