regular language-formal defnition continued

A regular language is a formal language (i.e., a possibly infinite set of finite sequences of symbols from a finite alphabet) that satisfies the following equivalent properties:
 it can be accepted by a deterministic finite state machine
 it can be accepted by a nondeterministic finite state machine
 it can be accepted by an alternating finite automaton
 it can be described by a regular expression
 it can be generated by a regular grammar
 it can be accepted by a read-only Turing machine
In next post, I will discuss formal definition of deterministic finite state machine (DFA). DFA is my Favorite topic.
I am sure you will also like it when we will discuss it in detail after completing all formal definitions.

Regular Language-formal definition

As I said in my previous post, we will discuss formal definitions of a single term at a time. Today, we are going to discuss “Regular languages”

Regular languages over an alphabet (Formal Definition):
The collection of regular languages over an alphabet Σ is defined recursively as follows:
 the empty language Ø is a regular language.
 the empty string language { ε } is a regular language.
 For each a ∈ Σ, the singleton language { a } is a regular language.
 If A and B are regular languages, then A ∪ B (union), A B (concatenation), and A* (Kleene star) are regular languages

Automata Step by Step

Now we will discuss regular languages in this post.

Regular language:
A regular language is the set of strings generated by a regular grammar. Regular grammars are also known as Type-3 grammars in the Chomsky hierarchy.
A regular grammar can be represented by a deterministic or non-deterministic finite automaton. Such automata can serve to either generate or accept sentences in a particular regular language. Note that since the set of regular languages is a subset of context-free languages, any deterministic or non-deterministic finite automaton can be simulated by a pushdown automaton.
Now you will be curious to know about the terms “deterministic finite automaton”, “non-deterministic finite automaton”, “pushdown automaton” and “context-free languages”.
In next Post, we will discuss only “deterministic finite automaton” and “nondeterministic finite state machine”.