VISHWAKARMA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Theory of Computation
TOPIC  Decision Properties of Regular Languages

Pprfgfevppesented by
PRESENTED BY 
Group 14

GUIDED BY 
CONTENT
 Regular Languages

 What are Decision property?

 Decision problem

 Types of Decision problems

• Membership problem
• Emptiness problem
• Finiteness problem
• Equivalence problem

 How to minimize DFA?

 Table Filling Algorithm

 References
 REGULAR LANGUAGES

A regular language is a language that can be expressed

with a regular expression or a deterministic or non-
deterministic finite automata or state machine.

The properties of Regular Language are of two types :

A) Closure Properties
B) Decision Properties
 WHAT IS DECISION PROPERTY?

A decision property for a class of languages is an algorithm that takes a

formal description of a language (e.g., a DFA) and tells whether or not some
property holds.

Example: Is Language L empty or not?

Types of Decision Problems are :

1. Membership problem
2. Emptiness problem
3. Finiteness problem
4. Equivalence problem
 DECISION PROBLEM

Any ‘decision problem’ looks like this:

Yes
Decision
Input
Problem
(generally a
Solver
question) No

What is Problem?

Decidable
Solvable
Not
Problem
decidable
Not
Solvable
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Membership is a property to verify an arbitrary string is accepted by a finite automata or not i.e. it is
a member of the language or not.

Let L is a finite automata that accepts some strings over an alphabet, and let ‘w’ be any string
defined over the alphabet

Decision problem : Does a string w belong to L? i.e. Is w ∈ L?

Possible answers : Yes or No

Approach :
1. Construct a DFA for L
2. Run w on DFA(L)
3. If there exist a transition path in L, which starts at initial state & ends in anyone of the final
state, then string ‘w’ is a member of L
4. Else ‘w’ is not a member of L
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1
Next
Symbol
0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1
Next
Symbol
0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1
Next
Symbol
0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1
Next
Symbol
0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1
Next
Symbol
0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 MEMBERSHIP PROBLEM
Example :
0 1 0 1 1

0 0,1

Start 1 1
A B C

Current
State
 As binary string doesn’t ends in final state, given string is not member of given language
 EMPTINESS PROBLEM

Emptiness is a property to check whether finite automata accepts empty language or non-empty
language.

Decision problem : Does finite automata accepts empty language or not? i.e. L = Ø ?

Possible answers : Yes or No

Approach :
1. Construct a DFA for L
2. Select the state that cannot be reached from the initial states & delete them
(remove unreachable states)
3. If there exists at least one final state that is reachable from start state, then the finite
automata accepts the non-empty language
4. Otherwise, finite automata accepts the empty language
 EMPTINESS PROBLEM
Example :

1
0
q1 1
0,1

Start
q0 1
q3

0
q2

 As there exists path from start state to final state, finite automata accepts non-empty language
 FINITENESS PROBLEM

Finiteness is a property to check whether finite automata accepts finite language or not i.e. is
language finite or infinite.

Decision problem : Is L finite or infinite?

Possible answers : Yes or No

Approach :
1. Construct a DFA for L
2. select the state that cannot be reached from the initial state & delete them (remove
unreachable states)
3. select the state from which final states are not reachable & delete them (remove dead
states)
4. In the resultant finite automata if there exist any loop, then language is infinite
5. Otherwise, Language is finite
 FINITENESS PROBLEM
Example 1: Is the language of this DFA finite or infinite?

0
q2 0
0,1

Start 0,1 0,1

q0 q1 q4 q5
1

0 1 0,1
q3
q6 1
FINITE
 FINITENESS PROBLEM
Example 2: Is the language of this DFA finite or infinite?

0
q2 0
0,1

Start 0,1 0,1

q0 q1 q4 q5
1

1 0
q3

1 due to this
INFINITE
 EQUIVALENCE PROBLEM

Equivalence is a property to check whether two finite automata accepts same language or not.

Decision problem : Is L1 = L2?

Possible answers : Yes or No

Approach :
1. Construct a DFA(L1) and DFA(L2)
2. Make pair of every final states and every non-final states
3. Make a comparison table and look 1-hop away for every state
4. If output of all the final states and all non-final states is equal, then two finite automata
accepts same language
5. Otherwise, it accepts different languages
 EQUIVALENCE PROBLEM
Example : Are two languages equal ?

2 0 2
1 C D 0
2 2
0 A B 1 0
1
1
2
0 E
Non-final state : A Non-final states : C, D
Final state : B Final state : E
1

Non-final states Final states

0 1 0 1

{A,C} {A,D} {B,E} {B,E} {A,C} {B,E}

{A,D} {A,D} {B,E}

 Both languages are same, as output for pair of every non-final state is equal
 EQUIVALENCE PROBLEM

Another Approach :
1. Construct a DFA(L1) and DFA(L2)
2. Reduce them to their minimal DFAs, MinDFA(L1) and MinDFA(L2)
3. If MinDFA(L1) = MinDFA(L2), then L1 = L2
4. Else L1 ≠ L2
 HOW TO MINIMIZE DFA?

Approach :
1. Construct a DFA(L1)
2. Eliminate states that are unreachable from the start state
3. Identify and remove equivalent states using Table filling algorithm
4. Output is the minimal DFA
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C =
D =
E X X X X =
F X =
G X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X =
A B C D E F G H
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X =
D X =
E X X X X =
F X X =
G X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X X =
D X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X =
G X X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X =
G X X X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X X =
G X X X = X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X X =
G X X X = X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X X =
G X X X = X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X X X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B = =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X X =
G X X X = X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X X X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings

3. Look 1 hop away again for distinguishing states or strings

continue…
 TABLE FILLING ALGORITHM

A =
B = =
C X X =
D X X X =
E X X X X =
F X X X X X =
G X X X = X X =
1. Mark X between accepting vs. non-accepting state H X X = X X X X =
A B C D E F G H
2. Look 1- hop away for distinguishing states or strings

3. Look 1 hop away again for distinguishing states or strings

continue… Equivalences :
•A=B
•C=H
•D=G
MINIMAL DFA

(Minimal DFA)

Equivalences :
•A=B
•C=H
•D=G
 REFERENCES

• http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/ialc/spr10/slides/rs1.pdf
• https://swaminathanj.github.io/fsm/rlproperties.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B0i9GuFFwk
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/closure-properties-of-regular-languages/
• https://eecs.wsu.edu/~ananth/CptS317/Lectures/RegularLanguageProperties.pdf
THANK
YOU