Generalized Nondeterministic Finite Automaton

Generalized Nondeterministic Finite Automaton

In the theory of computation, a generalized nondeterministic finite automaton (GNFA), also known as expression automaton or generalized nondeterministic finite state machine is a variation of NFA where each transition is labeled with any regular expression. The GNFA reads blocks of symbols from the input which constitute a string as defined by the regular expression on the transition. There are several differences between a standard finite state machine and a generalized nondeterministic finite state machine. A GNFA must have only one start state and one accept state, and these cannot be the same state, whereas a NFA or DFA both may have several accept states, and the start state can be an accept state. A GNFA must have only one transition between any two states, whereas a NFA or DFA both allow for numerous transitions between states. In a GNFA, a state has a single transition to every state in the machine, although often it is a convention to ignore the transitions that are labelled with the empty set when drawing generalized nondeterministic finite state machines.

Read more about Generalized Nondeterministic Finite Automaton:  Formal Definition

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