Theory of Computation

Theory of Computation is a theoretical branch of computer science and mathematical. It is the study
of abstract machines and the computation problems that can be solved using these machines. The
abstract machine is called the automata. The main motivation behind developing the automata
theory was to develop methods to describe and analyse the dynamic behaviour of discrete systems.

This automaton consists of states and transitions. The State is represented by circles, and
the Transitions is represented by arrows.

Automata is the kind of machine which takes some string as input and this input goes through a
finite number of states and may enter in the final state.

There are the basic terminologies that are important and frequently used in automata:

Symbols:
Symbols are an entity or individual objects, which can be any letter, alphabet or any
picture.

Example:
1, a, b, #

Alphabets:
Alphabets are a finite set of symbols. It is denoted by ∑.

Examples:
1. ∑ = {a, b}
2.
3. ∑ = {A, B, C, D}
4.
5. ∑ = {0, 1, 2}
6.
7. ∑ = {0, 1, ....., 5]
8.
9. ∑ = {#, β, Δ}

String:
It is a finite collection of symbols from the alphabet. The string is denoted by w.

Example 1:
If ∑ = {a, b}, various string that can be generated from ∑ are {ab, aa, aaa, bb, bbb, ba,
aba.....}.
 o A string with zero occurrences of symbols is known as an empty string. It is
represented by ε.
o The number of symbols in a string w is called the length of a string. It is denoted by
|w|.

Example 2:
1. w = 010
2.
3. Number of Sting |w| = 3

Language:
A language is a collection of appropriate string. A language which is formed over Σ
can be Finite or Infinite.

Example: 1
L1 = {Set of string of length 2}

= {aa, bb, ba, bb} Finite Language

Example: 2
L2 = {Set of all strings starts with 'a'}

= {a, aa, aaa, abb, abbb, ababb} Infinite Language

Finite Automata
17 Mar 2025 | 2 min read

o Finite automata are used to recognize patterns.

o It takes the string of symbol as input and changes its state accordingly. When the
desired symbol is found, then the transition occurs.
o At the time of transition, the automata can either move to the next state or stay in
the same state.
o Finite automata have two states, Accept state or Reject state. When the input string
is processed successfully, and the automata reached its final state, then it will accept.

Formal Definition of FA
A finite automaton is a collection of 5-tuple (Q, ∑, δ, q0, F), where:

1. Q: finite set of states

2. ∑: finite set of the input symbol
3. q0: initial state
4. F: final state
5. δ: Transition function
Finite Automata Model:
Finite automata can be represented by input tape and finite control.

Input tape: It is a linear tape having some number of cells. Each input symbol is
placed in each cell.

Finite control: The finite control decides the next state on receiving particular input
from input tape. The tape reader reads the cells one by one from left to right, and at
a time only one input symbol is read.

Types of Automata:
There are two types of finite automata:

DFA(deterministic finite automata)

NFA(non-deterministic finite automata)

1. DFA

DFA refers to deterministic finite automata. Deterministic refers to the uniqueness of the
computation. In the DFA, the machine goes to one state only for a particular input character. DFA
does not accept the null move.

2. NFA

NFA stands for non-deterministic finite automata. It is used to transmit any number of states for a
particular input. It can accept the null move.

Some important points about DFA and NFA:

Every DFA is NFA, but NFA is not DFA.

There can be multiple final states in both NFA and DFA.

DFA is used in Lexical Analysis in Compiler.

NFA is more of a theoretical concept.

Transition Diagram

A transition diagram or state transition diagram is a directed graph which can be

constructed as follows:

o There is a node for each state in Q, which is represented by the circle.

o There is a directed edge from node q to node p labeled a if δ(q, a) = p.
o In the start state, there is an arrow with no source.
o Accepting states or final states are indicating by a double circle.
Some Notations that are used in the transition diagram:
There is a description of how a DFA operates:

1. In DFA, the input to the automata can be any string. Now, put a pointer to the start
state q and read the input string w from left to right and move the pointer according
to the transition function, δ. We can read one symbol at a time. If the next symbol of
string w is a and the pointer is on state p, move the pointer to δ(p, a). When the end
of the input string w is encountered, then the pointer is on some state F.

2. The string w is said to be accepted by the DFA if r ∈ F that means the input string
w is processed successfully and the automata reached its final state. The string is said
to be rejected by DFA if r ∉ F.

Example 1:
DFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all strings starting with 1.
Solution:

The finite automata can be represented using a transition graph. In the above
diagram, the machine initially is in start state q0 then on receiving input 1 the
machine changes its state to q1. From q0 on receiving 0, the machine changes its
state to q2, which is the dead state. From q1 on receiving input 0, 1 the machine
changes its state to q1, which is the final state. The possible input strings that can be
generated are 10, 11, 110, 101, 111......., that means all string starts with 1.

Example 2:
NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all strings starting with 1.

Solution:

The NFA can be represented using a transition graph. In the above diagram, the
machine initially is in start state q0 then on receiving input 1 the machine changes its
state to q1. From q1 on receiving input 0, 1 the machine changes its state to q1. The
possible input string that can be generated is 10, 11, 110, 101, 111......, that means all
string starts with 1.
Transition Table

The transition table is basically a tabular representation of the transition function. It

takes two arguments (a state and a symbol) and returns a state (the "next state").

A transition table is represented by the following things:

o Columns correspond to input symbols.

o Rows correspond to states.
o Entries correspond to the next state.
o The start state is denoted by an arrow with no source.
o The accept state is denoted by a star.

Example 1:

Solution:

Transition table of given DFA is as follows:

Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q1 q2

q1 q0 q2

*q2 q2 q2

Explanation:

o In the above table, the first column indicates all the current states. Under column 0
and 1, the next states are shown.
o The first row of the transition table can be read as, when the current state is q0, on
input 0 the next state will be q1 and on input 1 the next state will be q2.
o In the second row, when the current state is q1, on input 0, the next state will be q0,
and on 1 input the next state will be q2.
o In the third row, when the current state is q2 on input 0, the next state will be q2, and
on 1 input the next state will be q2.
o The arrow marked to q0 indicates that it is a start state and circle marked to q2
indicates that it is a final state.

Example 2:

Solution:

Transition table of given NFA is as follows:

Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q0 q1
q1 q1, q2 q2

q2 q1 q3

*q3 q2 q2

Explanation:

o The first row of the transition table can be read as, when the current state is q0, on
input 0 the next state will be q0 and on input 1 the next state will be q1.
o In the second row, when the current state is q1, on input 0 the next state will be
either q1 or q2, and on 1 input the next state will be q2.
o In the third row, when the current state is q2 on input 0, the next state will be q1, and
on 1 input the next state will be q3.
o In the fourth row, when the current state is q3 on input 0, the next state will be q2,
and on 1 input the next state will be q2.

DFA (Deterministic finite automata)

o DFA refers to deterministic finite automata. Deterministic refers to the uniqueness of

the computation. The finite automata are called deterministic finite automata if the
machine is read an input string one symbol at a time.
o In DFA, there is only one path for specific input from the current state to the next
state.
o DFA does not accept the null move, i.e., the DFA cannot change state without any
input character.
o DFA can contain multiple final states. It is used in Lexical Analysis in Compiler.
In the following diagram, we can see that from state q0 for input a, there is only one
path which is going to q1. Similarly, from q0, there is only one path for input b going
to q2.
 Formal Definition of DFA
A DFA is a collection of 5-tuples same as we described in the definition of FA.

1. Q: finite set of states

2. ∑: finite set of the input symbol
3. q0: initial state
4. F: final state
5. δ: Transition function
Transition function can be defined as:

1. δ: Q x ∑→Q

Graphical Representation of DFA

A DFA can be represented by digraphs called state diagram. In which:

1. The state is represented by vertices.

2. The arc labeled with an input character show the transitions.
3. The initial state is marked with an arrow.
4. The final state is denoted by a double circle.

Example 1:
1. Q = {q0, q1, q2}
2. ∑ = {0, 1}
3. q0 = {q0}
4. F = {q2}
Solution:

Transition Diagram:

Transition Table:
Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q0 q1

q1 q2 q1

*q2 q2 q2

Example 2:
DFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all starting with 0.

Solution:

Explanation:

o In the above diagram, we can see that on given 0 as input to DFA in state q0 the DFA
changes state to q1 and always go to final state q1 on starting input 0. It can accept
00, 01, 000, 001....etc. It can't accept any string which starts with 1, because it will
never go to final state on a string starting with 1.

Example 3:
DFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all ending with 0.

Solution:
Explanation:

In the above diagram, we can see that on given 0 as input to DFA in state q0, the
DFA changes state to q1. It can accept any string which ends with 0 like 00, 10, 110,
100....etc. It can't accept any string which ends with 1, because it will never go to the
final state q1 on 1 input, so the string ending with 1, will not be accepted or will be
rejected.

Examples of DFA

Example 1:
Design a FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts those string which starts with 1 and ends with 0.

Solution:

The FA will have a start state q0 from which only the edge with input 1 will go to the
next state.

In state q1, if we read 1, we will be in state q1, but if we read 0 at state q1, we will
reach to state q2 which is the final state. In state q2, if we read either 0 or 1, we will
go to q2 state or q1 state respectively. Note that if the input ends with 0, it will be in
the final state.

Example 2:
Design a FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts the only input 101.

Solution:

In the given solution, we can see that only input 101 will be accepted. Hence, for
input 101, there is no other path shown for other input.
Example 3:
Design FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts even number of 0's and even number of 1's.

Solution:

This FA will consider four different stages for input 0 and input 1. The stages could
be:

Here q0 is a start state and the final state also. Note carefully that a symmetry of 0's
and 1's is maintained. We can associate meanings to each state as:

q0: state of even number of 0's and even number of 1's.

q1: state of odd number of 0's and even number of 1's.
q2: state of odd number of 0's and odd number of 1's.
q3: state of even number of 0's and odd number of 1's.

Example 4:
Design FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts the set of all strings with three consecutive 0's.

Solution:

The strings that will be generated for this particular languages are 000, 0001, 1000,
10001, .... in which 0 always appears in a clump of 3. The transition graph is as
follows:
Note that the sequence of triple zeros is maintained to reach the final state.

Example 5:
Design a DFA L(M) = {w | w ε {0, 1}*} and W is a string that does not contain
consecutive 1's.

Solution:

When three consecutive 1's occur the DFA will be:

Here two consecutive 1's or single 1 is acceptable, hence

The stages q0, q1, q2 are the final states. The DFA will generate the strings that do
not contain consecutive 1's like 10, 110, 101,..... etc.

Example 6:
Design a FA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts the strings with an even number of 0's followed
by single 1.

Solution:

The DFA can be shown by a transition diagram as:

NFA (Non-Deterministic finite
automata)

o NFA stands for non-deterministic finite automata. It is easy to construct an NFA than
DFA for a given regular language.
o The finite automata are called NFA when there exist many paths for specific input
from the current state to the next state.
o Every NFA is not DFA, but each NFA can be translated into DFA.
o NFA is defined in the same way as DFA but with the following two exceptions, it
contains multiple next states, and it contains ε transition.
In the following image, we can see that from state q0 for input a, there are two next
states q1 and q2, similarly, from q0 for input b, the next states are q0 and q1. Thus it
is not fixed or determined that with a particular input where to go next. Hence this
FA is called non-deterministic finite automata.

Formal definition of NFA:

NFA also has five states same as DFA, but with different transition function, as shown
follows:

δ: Q x ∑ →2Q
where,
1. Q: finite set of states
2. ∑: finite set of the input symbol
3. q0: initial state
4. F: final state
5. δ: Transition function

Graphical Representation of an NFA

An NFA can be represented by digraphs called state diagram. In which:

1. The state is represented by vertices.

2. The arc labeled with an input character show the transitions.
3. The initial state is marked with an arrow.
4. The final state is denoted by the double circle.

Example 1:
1. Q = {q0, q1, q2}
2. ∑ = {0, 1}
3. q0 = {q0}
4. F = {q2}
Solution:

Transition diagram:

Transition Table:

Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q0, q1 q1

q1 q2 q0

*q2 q2 q1, q2
In the above diagram, we can see that when the current state is q0, on input 0, the
next state will be q0 or q1, and on 1 input the next state will be q1. When the current
state is q1, on input 0 the next state will be q2 and on 1 input, the next state will be
q0. When the current state is q2, on 0 input the next state is q2, and on 1 input the
next state will be q1 or q2.

Example 2:
NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all strings with 01.

Solution:

Transition Table:

Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q1 ε

q1 ε q2

*q2 q2 q2

Example 3:
NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} and accept all string of length atleast 2.

Solution:

Transition Table:
Present State Next state for Input 0 Next State of Input 1

→q0 q1 q1

q1 q2 q2

*q2 ε ε

Examples of NFA

Example 1:
Design a NFA for the transition table as given below:

Present State 0 1

→q0 q0, q1 q0, q2

q1 q3 ε

q2 q2, q3 q3

→q3 q3 q3

Solution:

The transition diagram can be drawn by using the mapping function as given in the
table.
 Here,

1. δ(q0, 0) = {q0, q1}

2. δ(q0, 1) = {q0, q2}
3. Then, δ(q1, 0) = {q3}
4. Then, δ(q2, 0) = {q2, q3}
5. δ(q2, 1) = {q3}
6. Then, δ(q3, 0) = {q3}
7. δ(q3, 1) = {q3}

Example 2:
Design an NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all string ending with 01.

Solution:
 Hence, NFA would be:

Example 3:
Design an NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} in which double '1' is followed by double '0'.

Solution:

The FA with double 1 is as follows:

It should be immediately followed by double 0.

Then,

Now before double 1, there can be any string of 0 and 1. Similarly, after double 0,
there can be any string of 0 and 1.

Hence the NFA becomes:

Now considering the string 01100011

1. q0 → q1 → q2 → q3 → q4 → q4 → q4 → q4
Example 4:
Design an NFA in which all the string contain a substring 1110.

Solution:

The language consists of all the string containing substring 1010. The partial
transition diagram can be:

Now as 1010 could be the substring. Hence we will add the inputs 0's and 1's so that
the substring 1010 of the language can be maintained. Hence the NFA becomes:

Transition table for the above transition diagram can be given below:

Present State 0 1

→q1 q1 q1, q2

q2 q3

q3 q4

q4 q5

*q5 q5 q5
 Consider a string 111010,

1. δ(q1, 111010) = δ(q1, 1100)

2. = δ(q1, 100)
3. = δ(q2, 00)
Got stuck! As there is no path from q2 for input symbol 0. We can process string
111010 in another way.

1. δ(q1, 111010) = δ(q2, 1100)

2. = δ(q3, 100)
3. = δ(q4, 00)
4. = δ(q5, 0)
5. = δ(q5, ε)
As state q5 is the accept state. We get the complete scanned, and we reached to the
final state.

Example 5:
Design an NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} accepts all string in which the third symbol from the
right end is always 0.

Solution:

Thus we get the third symbol from the right end as '0' always. The NFA can be:

The above image is an NFA because in state q0 with input 0, we can either go to
state q0 or q1.
 Regular Expression

o The language accepted by finite automata can be easily described by simple

expressions called Regular Expressions. It is the most effective way to represent any
language.
o The languages accepted by some regular expression are referred to as Regular
languages.
o A regular expression can also be described as a sequence of pattern that defines a
string.
o Regular expressions are used to match character combinations in strings. String
searching algorithm used this pattern to find the operations on a string.
For instance:

In a regular expression, x* means zero or more occurrence of x. It can generate {e, x,

xx, xxx, xxxx, .....}

In a regular expression, x+ means one or more occurrence of x. It can generate {x, xx,
xxx, xxxx, .....}

Operations on Regular Language

The various operations on regular language are:

Union: If L and M are two regular languages then their union L U M is also a union.

1. 1. L U M = {s | s is in L or s is in M}
Intersection: If L and M are two regular languages then their intersection is also an
intersection.

1. 1. L ⋂ M = {st | s is in L and t is in M}
Kleen closure: If L is a regular language then its Kleen closure L1* will also be a
regular language.

1. 1. L* = Zero or more occurrence of language L.

Example 1:
Write the regular expression for the language accepting all combinations of a's, over
the set ∑ = {a}

Solution:
 All combinations of a's means a may be zero, single, double and so on. If a is
appearing zero times, that means a null string. That is we expect the set of {ε, a, aa,
aaa, ....}. So we give a regular expression for this as:

1. R = a*
That is Kleen closure of a.

Example 2:
Write the regular expression for the language accepting all combinations of a's
except the null string, over the set ∑ = {a}

Solution:

The regular expression has to be built for the language

1. L = {a, aa, aaa, ....}

This set indicates that there is no null string. So we can denote regular expression as:

R = a+

Example 3:
Write the regular expression for the language accepting all the string containing any
number of a's and b's.

Solution:

The regular expression will be:

1. r.e. = (a + b)*
This will give the set as L = {ε, a, aa, b, bb, ab, ba, aba, bab, .....}, any combination of a
and b.

The (a + b)* shows any combination with a and b even a null string.

Examples of Regular Expression

Example 1:
Write the regular expression for the language accepting all the string which are
starting with 1 and ending with 0, over ∑ = {0, 1}.

Solution:
 In a regular expression, the first symbol should be 1, and the last symbol should be 0.
The r.e. is as follows:

1. R = 1 (0+1)* 0

Example 2:
Write the regular expression for the language starting and ending with a and having
any having any combination of b's in between.

Solution:

The regular expression will be:

1. R = a b* b

Example 3:
Write the regular expression for the language starting with a but not having
consecutive b's.

Solution: The regular expression has to be built for the language:

1. L = {a, aba, aab, aba, aaa, abab, .....}

The regular expression for the above language is:

1. R = {a + ab}*

Example 4:
Write the regular expression for the language accepting all the string in which any
number of a's is followed by any number of b's is followed by any number of c's.

Solution: As we know, any number of a's means a* any number of b's means b*, any
number of c's means c*. Since as given in problem statement, b's appear after a's and
c's appear after b's. So the regular expression could be:

1. R = a* b* c*

Example 5:
Write the regular expression for the language over ∑ = {0} having even length of the
string.

Solution:

The regular expression has to be built for the language:

1. L = {ε, 00, 0000, 000000, ......}

 The regular expression for the above language is:

1. R = (00)*

Example 6:
Write the regular expression for the language having a string which should have
atleast one 0 and alteast one 1.

Solution:

The regular expression will be:

1. R = [(0 + 1)* 0 (0 + 1)* 1 (0 + 1)*] + [(0 + 1)* 1 (0 + 1)* 0 (0 + 1)*]

Example 7:
Describe the language denoted by following regular expression

1. r.e. = (b* (aaa)* b*)*

Solution:

The language can be predicted from the regular expression by finding the meaning
of it. We will first split the regular expression as:

r.e. = (any combination of b's) (aaa)* (any combination of b's)

L = {The language consists of the string in which a's appear triples, there is no
restriction on the number of b's}

Example 8:
Write the regular expression for the language L over ∑ = {0, 1} such that all the string
do not contain the substring 01.

Solution:

The Language is as follows:

1. L = {ε, 0, 1, 00, 11, 10, 100, .....}

The regular expression for the above language is as follows:

1. R = (1* 0*)

Example 9:
Write the regular expression for the language containing the string over {0, 1} in
which there are at least two occurrences of 1's between any two occurrences of 1's
between any two occurrences of 0's.
 Solution: At least two 1's between two occurrences of 0's can be denoted by
(0111*0)*.

Similarly, if there is no occurrence of 0's, then any number of 1's are also allowed.
Hence the r.e. for required language is:

1. R = (1 + (0111*0))*

Example 10:
Write the regular expression for the language containing the string in which every 0
is immediately followed by 11.

Solution:

The regular expectation will be:

1. R = (011 + 1)*