Formal Methods

REHMAT ULLAH
Formal Methods Notations

► Z,
► Object-Z,
► VDM,
► Larch
Specification Language Z

► Jean-Raymond Abrial, late 1970s/early 1980s

► Under continuing development at the Programming Research Group,
Oxford University
► A state-based modeling/specification language
► Set theory, predicate logic
► Object-oriented variations
► Most popular formal methods notation
Z Schema

There are mainly three components In z Schema

1. Schema Name
2. Variable Declarations
3. Predicate
Z Schema

► Introduced, Schema Name will be associated with the schema

proper, which is the contents of the box

► The declarations part of the schema will contain:

1. a list of variable declarations;
2. and – references to other schemas (this is called schema inclusion).

3. Variable declarations have the usual form: x1, x2, . . . , x n : T;

Z Schema

► The predicate part of a schema contains a list of predicates,

separated either by semi-colons or new lines.
Z Schemas

The building-block for structuring specifications

Identifiers in Z

Identifiers may be composed of upper and lower case letters,

digits, and the underscore character; must begin with a letter
Identifiers may have suffixes:
? means an input variable
! means an output variable
′ means a new value (i.e., the after-operation value)
Identifiers in Z

Schema identifiers may have prefixes:

► – ∆ means the state has changed (described later)

► Ξ means no change in the state (described later)

Z Schemas

The Z schema is a 2-dimensional graphical notation for describing:

–

► state spaces
► operations.
Examples
Examples
SETS

Sets are the most basic types in Z. Examples of sets include:

SETS

Set Membership:

Set Equality:
{ 3, 6, 7 } = { 7, 6, 3, 6 }
SETS

► The following operators may be applied to sets:

► Union: S ∪ T
► Intersection: S ∩ T
► Difference: S \ T
► Subset: S ⊆ T E.g., {c, b} ⊆ {a, b, c}.
► Power Set: P S (set of subsets of S).
P{a, b, c} = { {}, {a}, {b}, {c}, {a, b}, {b, c}, {a, c}, {a, b, c} }