Global College Department of Computer Science

Automata and Complexity Theory

Chapter 2:Finite Automata
Bayisa Gutema(MSc)

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Finite Automata
• Finite automata is an abstract computing device.
• It is a mathematical model of a system with discrete:
• inputs,
• outputs
• states and
• set of transitions from state to state that occurs on input symbols from alphabet ∑.
• Finite automata are used to recognize patterns.
• 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.

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Finite automata can be represented by

• Graphical (Transition diagrams or transition tables)

• Tabular (transition tables)
• Mathematical (Transition function or Mapping function)

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Formal Definition of FA

• A finite automaton is a collection of 5-tuples (Q, ∑, δ, q0, F), where:

• Q is finite set of states
• ∑ is finite set of the input alphabets
• q0 ϵ Q is start state also called initial state
• F is accept state or final state
• δ: Q x ∑ → Q is transition function

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Transition Diagrams

• Transition diagram is a directed graph associated with vertices of the graph

corresponds to the state of finite automata.

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Cont..

• Transition Table is basically a tabular representation, of the transition function that

takes two arguments( a state and a symbol ) and returns a value (next state).
• Rows corresponds to states,
• Columns corresponds to input symbols
• Entries corresponds to next state
• The start state is marked with an arrow (→)
• Accept state are marked with a star(*)
• q1 intermediate state
• q2 is final state
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Cont..
•

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Transition Function

• The mapping function or transition function denoted by δ.

 Two parameters are passed to this transition function
1. current state
2. input symbols
• Transition function always returns a state which can be called as next state.
δ(current state, current input symbol) = next state

Example: δ(q0, a) = q1
δ(q0, 1) = q1

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Finite Automata Classification

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Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA

• Finite automata is called deterministic finite automata if the machine read an input string one
symbol at a time.
• Deterministic refers to the uniqueness the computation.
• In DFA, there is only one path for specific input symbol from current state to the next state.
• DFA does not accept the null move.
• DFA cannot change the state without any input character.
• DFA can contains multiple final state.
• DFA is used in lexical analysis in compiler.

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Cont..
a, b

q0 b q1
a
q2

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Formal Definition of DFA

• A DFA is a collection of 5 tuples (same as FA)

 Q is finite set of states
 ∑ is finite set of input symbols
 q0 is initial state
 F is final state
 δ is transition function
• Transition function can be defined as δ : Q x ∑ → Q

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Cont..

• The state is represented by vertices.

• The arc labeled with an input character show the transition
• The initial state is marked with an arrow.
• The final state is denoted by a double circle.
Acceptance of a Language
• A language acceptance is defined by “if a string w is accepted by a machine m”
• If it is reaching the final state F by taking the string w.
• Not accepted if not reaching the final state.
Example
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DFA Example 1
• DFA to accept ‘a’

• DFA to accept zero or more ‘a’

a

• L = { ∑, a, aa, aaa, aaaa, …. }

q0
Note : states depends on the length of the string

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Example 2

• Let DFA be Q = {q0, q1,q2}

∑ = {0, 1}
initial state ={q0}
final state ={q2}

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Example 3

• Example 2: Design DFA with given ∑ = {0,1} that accepts those string which
starts with 1 and ends with 0.
• Solution: minimum length of string is 2.
L = { 10, 100, 1010, 11001100, …. }
Number of states = |minimum length| + 1
=2+1
=3
• DFA Diagram

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 Example 4

• Design DFA with given ∑ = {0,1} that accepts even number of 0’s and even
number of 1’s.
• Solution: minimum length of string is 3.
L = { 001, 110, 100, …. }

DFA Diagram

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Example 5

• Construct DFA that accepting all strings over ∑ = {a, b} ending with ab.
• Solution: minimum length of string is 2.
number of states = 2+1 =3
L = {ab, aab, bab, bbab…. }
0
b a
DFA Diagram q0 a b q
q
1 a 2
b

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Non Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA)

• The finite automata are called NFA when there exist many paths for specific input
from the current state to the next state.
• It is easy to construct an NFA than DFA for a given regular language.
• Every NFA is not DFA, but each NFA can be translated into DFA.
• NFA is defined in the same way as DFA but with the following two exceptions:
1. it contains multiple next states, and
2. it contains ε transition.

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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.

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Formal definition of NFA

• NFA also has five tuples same as DFA, but with different transition function, as
shown follows:
• δ: Q x ∑ →2Q
• where,
• Q finite set of States
• ∑ finite set of input symbol
• q0 initial state
• F final state
• δ transition function
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Graphical Representation of an NFA

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

 The state is represented by vertices.
 The arc labeled with an input character show the transitions.
 The initial state is marked with an arrow.
 The final state is denoted by the double circle.
• Example 1: Construct transition diagram of NFA from the below given
information

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Transition Table for the above NFA diagram

• 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.

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 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
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Example 3

• NFA with ∑ = {0, 1} and accept all string of length at least 2.

• Solution

• Transition Table

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Example 4

• Design a NFA for the transition table as given below:

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Solution

• The transition diagram can be drawn by using the mapping function

as:

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Example 5

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

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Example 6

• Construct NFA for set of strings of all that starts with 0 over {0, 1}
Solution:

0,1

q0 0 q1

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NFA Accepting and Rejecting State
• An NFA accepts a string: If there is a computation of the NFA that accepts the
string. i.e., all the input string is processed and the automaton is in an accepting
state
• Example aa is accepted by the NFA

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 NFA with ε
• ε is empty symbol( no character to accept)
• Regular NFA with 5 tuples {Q, ∑, q0, F, δ}
where δ : Q x ∑ → 2Q
• ε -NFA with 5 tuples {Q, ∑, q0, F, δ}
where δ : Q x ∑ U ε → 2Q
• Example

• Note: Every state on ε goes to itself

B on seeing nothing, it can got o ‘C’

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Difference between DFA and NFA

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