Benjie Pabroa

Example
 Consider the language T defined over the
alphabet Σ = {a b c}:
T = {a c ab cb abb cbb abbb cbbb abbbb
cbbbb . . .}
All the words in T begin with an a or c and then
followed by some number of b’s. Symbolically,
we may write this as
T = language(a+c)b*)
= language(either a or c then some b’s)
Example
Now let us consider a finite language L that
contains all the strings of a’s and b’s of
length three exactly:
L ={aaa aab aba abb baa bab bba
bbb}
Observe, examine and try to construct the
Regular Expression of the given language
Consider the expression
(a+b)5= (a+b) (a+b) (a+b) (a+b) (a+b)
-define a language that begin with letter a,
and a language that begin with a and end
DEFINITION
The symbols that appear in regular
expressions are the letters of the alphabet Σ,
the symbol for the null string Λ, parenthesis,
the star operator, and the plus sign.

The set of regular expressions is defined by

the following rules:
RULE 1: Every letter of Σ can be made into a
regular expression by writing it in boldface; Λ
itself is a regular expression.
DEFINITION continued…
RULE 2 If r1 and r2 are regular expressions,
then so are:
(i) (r1)
(ii) r1 r2
(iii) r1 + r2
(iv) r1*
RULE 3 Nothing else is a regular expression.

Let us emphasize the implicit parentheses in
r1*. If r1= aa + b, then the expression r1*
technically refers to the expression
r1* = aa + b*
which is the formal concatenation of the
symbols r1 with the symbol *, but what we
generally mean when we write r1* is
actually (r1)*:
r1*=(r1)*=(aa + b)*
which is different.
EXAMPLE
Let us consider the language defined by the
expression
(a + b)*a(a + b)*
For example, the word abbaab can be derived
from this expression by three different ways.
(Try to derive)
 If the only words left out of the language defined
by the expression above are the words without a’s
(Λ and strings of b’s), then these omitted words
are exactly the language defined by the
expression b*. If we combine these two, we
should produce the language of all strings. In
other words, since

all strings = (all strings with an a) + (all strings

without an a)

it should make sense to write

(a + b)* = (a + b)*a(a + b)*+ b*

Notice that this use of the plus sign is far from
the normal meaning of addition in the
algebraic sense, as we can see from
a*=a*+a*
a*=a*+a*+a*
a*=a*+aaa
In algebra, they lead to presumptions of
subtractions that are misguided
EXAMPLE
The language of all words that have at
least two a’s can be described by the
expression
(a + b)*a(a + b)*a(a + b)*
= (some beginning)(the first important a)
(some middle)(the second important a)
(some end)
where the arbitrary parts can have as
many a’s (or b’s) as they want.

Examples:
 Expression that denotes all the words with at
least two a’s
 is
(a+b)*a(a+b)*a(a+b)*
is equal to
b*ab*a(a+b)*
 Write the expression that describe all words
with exactly two a’s
 Write the expression that describe all words
that have at least one a and at least one b.
Construct expression defining each of the
following language over the alphabet
Z={a,b}
 All words in which a appears tripled, if at
all. This means that every clump of a’s
contains 3 or 6 or 9 or 12….. a’s.
 All words that contain exactly two b’s or
exactly three b’s, not more.
 All strings that end in a d ouble letter
 All strings that do not end in a double letter