TOC Lecture-11

Simplification of
Context Free Grammar
 Introduction
• In a CFG, it may happen that all the production rules and symbols
are not needed for the derivation of strings.

• Besides, there may be some null productions and unit productions.

• Elimination of these productions and symbols is called

simplification of CFGs.

Simplification /Reduction of CFG

Removing Removing Removing

Useless productions NULL productions UNIT productions
Removing Useless Productions
 Removing Useless Productions
• Definition:
Symbol X is said to be useful for a grammar G = (V, T, P, S) if
∗
1. X is generating variable. i.e., if X ֜ w, where w ∈ T*.
∗
2. X is reachable, i.e., S ֜ αXβ

• If X is not useful, then it is useless.

• Omitting useless symbols from a grammar does not change

the language generated.
 Example-1
• Eliminate useless productions:
S  aSb |  | A
A  aA

• S  A is redundant as A cannot be transformed into a

terminal string.

• Therefore, reduced grammar is:

S  aSb | 
 Example-2
• Eliminate useless productions:
S A
A  aA | 
B  bA

• B is a useless symbol as it is not reachable from S.

• Therefore, reduced grammar is:

S A
A  aA | 
 Theorem

• Let G = (V, T, S, P) be a CFG and assume that L(G) ≠ φ, then

G’ =(V’, T’, P’, S) be a grammar without useless symbols by

1. Eliminating non-generating symbols

2. Eliminating symbols that are non-reachable

• Elimination has to be performed only in the order of 1

followed by 2. Otherwise the grammar produced will not be
completely useless symbols eliminated.
 Question-1
• Given G = ({S, A, B, C}, {a, b}, S, P). Find the useless symbols and
remove them.

S  aS | A | C
A a
B  aa
C  aCb

Step1: Non-generating symbols = {C} Step2: Non-reachable symbols = {B}

S  aS | A S  aS | A
A a A a
B  aa
 Question-2
• Given G = ({S, A, B, C}, {a, b}, S, P). Find the useless symbols and
remove them.

S  AB | CA
A a
B  BC | AB
C  AB | b

Step1: Non-generating symbols = {B} Step2: Non-reachable symbols = None

S  CA S  CA
A a A a
Cb Cb
Removing Null Productions
 Removing Null Productions
• If  is there in L(G), then we have to find out an equivalent G
without -productions.

• Example for a grammar G with -productions is:

S  ABA , A  aA |  , B  bB | 

• The procedure to find out an equivalent G without -productions:

1. Find nullable variables.

2. Add productions with nullable variables removed.

3. Remove -productions and duplicates.

 Removing Null Productions
• Step 1: Find nullable variables
– Variables that can be replaced by null ().
∗
– If A ֜  then A is a nullable variable.

• Example: Consider the grammar with productions

S  ABA , A  aA |  , B  bB | 

− A is nullable because of the production A  .

− B is nullable because of the production B  .

− S is nullable because both A and B are nullable.

 Removing Null Productions
• Step 2: Add productions with nullable variables removed
– For each production of the form A  w,
– Create all possible productions of the form A  w’,
– Where w’ is obtained from w by removing one or more
occurrences of nullable variables.

• Example: S  ABA , A  aA |  , B  bB | 
After finding A, B and S as nullable variables:

S  ABA | BA | AA | AB | A | B | 
A  aA |  | a
B  bB |  | b
 Removing Null Productions
• Step 3: Remove -productions and duplicates
– The desired grammar consists of the original productions
together with the productions constructed in step 2, minus any
productions of the form A  .

• Example: For the above example we get the final grammar

with productions
S  ABA | BA | AA | AB | A | B

A  aA | a

B  bB | b
 Question-1
Eliminate Null Productions:
G = ({S, A, B, D}, {a, b}, {S → aS | AB, A → , B→ , D →b}, S)

Step1: Find Nullable variables = {S, A, B}

Step2: Add productions with Nullable variables removed

S → aS | AB | a | A | B
A→
B→ 
D→b
Step3: Remove -productions and duplicates

S → aS | AB | a | A | B
D→b
 Question-2
Eliminate Null Productions:
G = ({S, X, Y}, {a, b}, {S → a | Xb | aYa , X → Y | , Y → b | X}, S)

Step1: Find Nullable variables = {X, Y}

Step2: Add productions with Nullable variables removed

S → a | Xb | aYa | b | aa
X→Y|
Y→b|X|

Step3: Remove -productions and duplicates

S → a | Xb | aYa | b | aa
X→Y
Y→b|X
 Note
• To get a grammar without -productions and useless symbols:

1. Eliminate -productions and obtain G1

2. Eliminate useless symbols from G1 and obtain G2

 Question
Eliminate -productions and useless symbols from the grammar:
S → a | aA | B | C , A →aB |  , B → aA , C → aCD , D → ddd

Step1: Eliminate -productions. Nullable variables = {A}

New set of productions are:

P1 = {S → a | aA | B | C , A → aB , B → aA | a , C → aCD , D → ddd}

Step2: Eliminate useless symbols:

Step2(a): Eliminate non-generating symbols = {C}

P2 = {S → a | aA | B , A → aB , B → aA | a , D → ddd}

Step2(b): Eliminate non-reachable symbols = {D}

P3 = {S → a | aA | B , A → aB , B → aA | a}
Removing Unit Productions
 Removing Unit Productions
• Unit production is of form A  B, where A and B are
variables.

• Algorithm for eliminating unit productions from productions

set P :
1. Add all non unit productions of P to P1

2. For each unit production A  B,

a) add to P1 all productions A  α,

b) where B  α is a non-unit production in P.

3. Delete all the unit productions

 Question-1
• Eliminate unit productions from:
S  ABA | BA | AA | AB | A | B,
A  aA | a,
B  bB | b
Solution: The unit productions are S → A, S →B.
A and B are derivable.
Add productions from derivable.
S→ ABA | BA | AA | AB | A | B | aA | a | bB | b
A → aA | a ; B → bB | b
Remove unit productions from above productions to get
S→ ABA | BA | AA | AB | aA | a | bB | b ;
A → aA | a ; B → bB | b
 Question-2
• Eliminate unit productions from
S  Aa | B , A  a | bc | B , B  A | bb

Solution:
Unit productions are S → B, A → B and B → A. So A and B are
derivable.
Add productions from derivable and eliminate unit productions to
get,
S → Aa | bb | a | bc
A → a | bc | bb
B → bb | a | bc