Friday, April 27, 2007

Automata Step by Step

Let’s see the definitions of “String”, “Alphabet”,” Sequence” and “Language”. Remember all above terms are connected. You can’t understand any of them without knowing the definitions of all of them.

String:

In computer programming and formal language theory, (and other branches of mathematics), a string is an ordered sequence of symbols. These symbols are chosen from a predetermined set.

Example: Empty String (contains no symbols)

Length of Empty String is zero.

Now we will define “Alphabet”.

Alphabet:
An alphabet is a finite set of symbols.
Examples:
Binary Alphabet = {0, 1}
Unary alphabet= {1}
ASCII Alphabet= {…..A, B, C………, a, b, c…………}
Decimal Alphabet= {0, 1, 2…….8, 9}

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