A Second Course in Formal Languages and Automata Theory

by Jeffrey Shallit

Overview

Intended for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in computer science, A Second Course in Formal Languages and Automata Theory treats topics in the theory of computation not usually covered in a first course. After a review of basic concepts, the book covers combinatorics on words, regular languages, context-free languages, parsing and recognition, Turing machines, and other language classes. Many topics often absent from other textbooks, such as repetitions in words, state complexity, the interchange lemma, 2DPDAs, and the incompressibility method, are covered here. The author places particular emphasis on the resources needed to represent certain languages. The book also includes a diverse collection of more than 200 exercises, suggestions for term projects, and research problems that remain open.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521865722
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/08/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey Shallit is Professor of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of Algorithmic Number Theory (co-authored with Eric Bach) and Automatic Sequences: Theory, Applications, Generalizations (co-authored with Jean-Paul Allouche). He has published approximately 90 articles on number theory, algebra, automata theory, complexity theory, and the history of mathematics and computing.

Table of Contents

1. Review of formal languages and automata theory; 2. Combinatorics on words; 3. Finite automata and regular languages; 4. Context-free grammars and languages; 5. Parsing and recognition; 6. Turing machines; 7. Other language classes.

Editorial Reviews

"The book is well organized and the topics are well chosen, with many example problems for readers to attempt."
Kevin A. Wilson, SIGACT News

From the Publisher