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Algorithms for Computing Small NFAs

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Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 2002 (MFCS 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2420))

Abstract

We give new methods for constructing small nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) from regular expressions or from other NFAs. Given an arbitrary NFA, we compute the largest right-invariant equivalence on the states and then merge the states in the same class to obtain a smaller automaton. When applying this method to position automata, we get a way to convert regular expressions into NFAs which can be arbitrarily smaller than the position, partial derivative, and follow automata. In most cases, it is smaller than all NFAs obtained by similar constructions.

Research partially supported by NSERC grant R3143A01.

Research partially supported by NSERC grant OGP0041630.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7, London, Ontario, Canada

    Lucian Iliea & Sheng Yu

Authors
  1. Lucian Iliea
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  2. Sheng Yu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucian Iliea .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Informatics, Warsaw University, ul. Banacha 2, 02-097, Warszawa, Poland

    Krzysztof Diks  & Wojciech Rytter  & 

  2. Department of Computer Science, Liverpool University, Peach Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZF, UK

    Wojciech Rytter

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Iliea, L., Yu, S. (2002). Algorithms for Computing Small NFAs. In: Diks, K., Rytter, W. (eds) Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science 2002. MFCS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2420. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45687-2_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45687-2_27

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44040-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45687-2

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