Deterministic context-free language

In formal language theory, deterministic context-free languages (DCFL) are a proper subset of context-free languages. They are the context-free languages that can be accepted by a deterministic pushdown automaton. DCFLs are always unambiguous, meaning that they admit an unambiguous grammar. There are non-deterministic unambiguous CFLs, so DCFLs form a proper subset of unambiguous CFLs. DCFLs are of great practical interest, as they can be parsed in linear time, and various restricted forms of DCFGs admit simple practical parsers. They are thus widely used throughout computer science. The notion of the DCFL is closely related to the deterministic pushdown automaton (DPDA). It is where the language power of pushdown automata is reduced to if we make them deterministic; the pushdown automata become unable to choose between different state-transition alternatives and as a consequence cannot recognize all context-free languages. Unambiguous grammars do not always generate a DCFL. For example, the language of even-length palindromes on the alphabet of 0 and 1 has the unambiguous context-free grammar S → 0S0 | 1S1 | ε. An arbitrary string of this language cannot be parsed without reading all its letters first, which means that a pushdown automaton has to try alternative state transitions to accommodate for the different possible lengths of a semi-parsed string. Deterministic context-free languages can be recognized by a deterministic Turing machine in polynomial time and O(log2 n) space; as a corollary, DCFL is a subset of the complexity class SC. The set of deterministic context-free languages is closed under the following operations: complement inverse homomorphism right quotient with a regular language pre: pre() is the subset of all strings having a proper prefix that also belongs to . min: min() is the subset of all strings that do not have a proper prefix in . max: max() is the subset of all strings that are not the prefix of a longer string in .

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Formal grammar

In formal language theory, a grammar (when the context is not given, often called a formal grammar for clarity) describes how to form strings from a language's alphabet that are valid according to the language's syntax. A grammar does not describe the meaning of the strings or what can be done with them in whatever context—only their form. A formal grammar is defined as a set of production rules for such strings in a formal language. Formal language theory, the discipline that studies formal grammars and languages, is a branch of applied mathematics.

Deterministic pushdown automaton

In automata theory, a deterministic pushdown automaton (DPDA or DPA) is a variation of the pushdown automaton. The class of deterministic pushdown automata accepts the deterministic context-free languages, a proper subset of context-free languages. Machine transitions are based on the current state and input symbol, and also the current topmost symbol of the stack. Symbols lower in the stack are not visible and have no immediate effect. Machine actions include pushing, popping, or replacing the stack top.

Palindrome

A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as madam or racecar, the date and time 12/21/33 12:21, and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama". The 19-letter Finnish word saippuakivikauppias (a soapstone vendor), is the longest single-word palindrome in everyday use, while the 12-letter term tattarrattat (from James Joyce in Ulysses) is the longest in English. The word palindrome was introduced by English poet and writer Henry Peacham in 1638.

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