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Questions tagged [regular-languages]

Questions about properties of the class of regular languages and individual languages.

The class of regular languages is the set of formal languages which is -- among other formalisms -- (equivalently) accepted by finite automata, generated by left- and right-linear grammars and described by regular expressions.

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How to prove that a language is not regular?

We learned about the class of regular languages $\mathrm{REG}$. It is characterised by any one concept among regular expressions, finite automata and left-linear grammars, so it is easy to show that a given language is regular. How do I show the…
Raphael
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How to prove a language is regular?

There are many methods to prove that a language is not regular, but what do I need to do to prove that some language is regular? For instance, if I am given that $L$ is regular, how can I prove that the following $L'$ is regular, too? $\qquad…
corium
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Is there a regular tree language in which the average height of a tree of size $n$ is neither $\Theta(n)$ nor $\Theta(\sqrt{n})$?

We define a regular tree language as in the book TATA: It is the set of trees accepted by a non-deterministic finite tree automaton (Chapter 1) or, equivalently, the set of trees generated by a regular tree grammar (Chapter 2). Both formalisms hold…
john_leo
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Can regular languages be Turing complete?

I was reading about Iota and Jot and found this section confusing: Unlike Iota, where the syntactic tree for a string can branch either on the left or on the right, Jot syntax is uniformly left-branching. As a result, Iota is strictly context-free,…
sdleihssirhc
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Planar regular languages

In my class a student asked whether all finite automata could be drawn without crossing edges (it seems all my examples did). Of course the answer is negative, the obvious automaton for the language $\{\; x\in\{a,b\}^* \mid \#_a(x)+2\#_b(x) \equiv 0…
Hendrik Jan
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Pumping lemma for simple finite regular languages

Wikipedia has the following definition of the pumping lemma for regular langauges... Let $L$ be a regular language. Then there exists an integer $p$ ≥ 1 depending only on $L$ such that every string $w$ in $L$ of length at least $p$ ($p$ is…
Phil Wright
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How to show that a "reversed" regular language is regular

I'm stuck on the following question: "Regular languages are precisely those accepted by finite automata. Given this fact, show that if the language $L$ is accepted by some finite automaton, then $L^{R}$ is also accepted by some finite; $L^{R}$…
Cat
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Why is a regular language called 'regular'?

I have just completed the first chapter of the Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser which explains the basics of finite automata. He defines a regular language as anything that can be described by a finite automata. But I…
Phil Wright
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Asymptotics of the number of words in a regular language of given length

For a regular language $L$, let $c_n(L)$ be the number of words in $L$ of length $n$. Using Jordan canonical form (applied to the unannotated transition matrix of some DFA for $L$), one can show that for large enough $n$, $$ c_n(L) = \sum_{i=1}^k…
Yuval Filmus
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"Dense" regular expressions generate $\Sigma^*$?

Here's a conjecture for regular expressions: For regular expression $R$, let the length $|R|$ be the number of symbols in it, ignoring parentheses and operators. E.g. $|0 \cup 1| = |(0 \cup 1)^*| = 2$ Conjecture: If $|R| > 1$ and $L(R)$ contains…
Lucas Cook
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What are the conditions for a NFA for its equivalent DFA to be maximal in size?

We know that DFAs are equivalent to NFAs in expressiveness power; there is also a known algorithm for converting NFAs to DFAs (unfortunately I do now know the inventor of that algorithm), which in worst case gives us $2^S$ states, if our NFA had $S$…
Daniil
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Why is English not a regular language?

Surely any language with a finite longest word can be made regular by having an automaton with paths to 26 states for all letters and then having each of those states go to another 26 states, etc., with states going to a looping non-final state…
Alex S
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Intersection of context free with regular languages

The intersection of a context free language L with a regular language M, is said to be always context free. I understood the cross product construction proof, but I still don't get why it is context free but not regular. The language generated by…
sanjeev mk
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Infinite Language vs. finite language

I'm unclear about the use of the phrases "infinite" language or "finite" language in computer theory. I think the root of the trouble is that a language like $L=\{ab\}^*$ is infinite in the sense that it can generate an infinite (but countable)…
timberly
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Regular expressions with backreferences over unary alphabet

Setting: regular expressions with backreferences unary language (1-symbol alphabet) Is the following problem decidable in this setting: Given a regular expression with backreferences, does it define a regular language? For example, (aa+)\1…
Jukka Suomela
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