Tutorial 4 Solutions

MATH 239 Winter 2024

Week of February 5

T-4-1. For each of the following regular expressions, answer the following questions:

• Is S unambiguous?
• Does S generate all binary strings? If not, then what set of binary strings is generated by
S?
• What generating series does S lead to?
• What does the generating series tell you about the number of strings produced by S?

Justify your answer.

(a) S = (0 ⌣ 11)∗
(b) S = (00 ⌣ 01 ⌣ 11 ⌣ 10)∗
(c) S = 0∗ (111∗ 00∗ ⌣ 11∗ 000∗ ⌣ 10)∗ 1∗

Solution.

(a) S = (0 ⌣ 11)∗
This is unambiguous (it adds 0 or 11 in each iteration, and there is st most one way to
make each string this way). It doesn’t generate all binary strings; it doesn’t generate 1,
and more generally, it generates all binary strings in which each block of 1s has even
1
length. The generating series is ΦS (x) = 1−x−x 2 and its coefficients tell us the number of

strings of a given length produced by S.

(b) S = (00 ⌣ 01 ⌣ 11 ⌣ 10)∗
This is unambiguous; it generates a binary string two bits at a time. It doesn’t generate
binary strings of odd length, so it doesn’t generate all binary strings. It generates all
1
binary strings of even length. The generating series is ΦS (x) = 1−4x 2 . Its coefficients tell

us the number of binary strings produced by S.

(c) S = 0∗ (111∗ 00∗ ⌣ 11∗ 000∗ ⌣ 10)∗ 1∗
This is ambiguous; for example, it produces 111000 in two different ways. It does
produce all binary strings (it is a block decomposition; and for a block of 1s followed by
a block of 0s, if both have length one, we use 10, and otherwise we can use 111∗ 00∗ if the

1
 MATH 239 Winter 2024 Tutorial 4 Solutions

block of 1s has length at least two, and 11∗ 000∗ if the block of 2s has length at least two).
The generating series that S leads to is
!
1 1 1 1
· x3 x3
= 2 (1 − x2 ) − 2x3
.
1−x 1−x − 2
2 − 2
1 − x (1 − x)
(1−x) (1−x)

Since S is ambiguous, this generating series is not very helpful (its first few terms are
1, 2, 4, 8, 17, 36, . . . ). We could follow along the lines of 3.13 to show that the coefficients
of the generating series are an upper bound for the number distinct of strings of a given
length produced by S.

T-4-2. For each part, write the rational function the regular expression leads to (and simplify the
answer so it is a ratio of two polynomials).

∗
(a) 0 ⌣ 00 111 (11)∗ (0 ⌣ 00) 111(11)∗




∗
(b) ε ⌣ (00 (0000)∗ ) 111 00 (0000)∗ ε ⌣ 111

Solution.

(a)

1 x3
(x + x2 ) · x3 (x+x2 )
·
1− 1 − x2
1−x2
x4 + x5
=
1 − x2 − x4 − x5

(b)

x2
 
1
1+ · x5
· (1 + x3 )
1 − x4 1−1−x4
(1 + x2 − x4 )(1 + x3 ) 1 + x2 + x3 − x4 + x5 − x7
= =
1 − x4 − x5 1 − x4 − x5

T-4-3. For the languages described below, use either block or prefix decomposition to write an
unambiguous regular expression associated to the language.

(a) The language of binary strings which do not contain 010.

(b) The language of binary strings where all blocks of 0s are of even length and all blocks of
1s are of odd length.
(c) The language of binary strings where all 1s are followed by at least two 0s.

Solution.

2
MATH 239 Winter 2024 Tutorial 4 Solutions

(a) We modify the regular expression for all binary strings given by 0∗ (11∗ 00∗ )∗ 1∗ . If a word
given by this expression starts or ends with a block of 1s, then this block of ones could
be of length 1. All other blocks of 1s would be of length at least 2. This gives a block
decomposition
(ϵ ⌣ 10)0∗ (111∗ 0∗ 0)∗ 1∗

(b) We modify the regular expression for all binary strings given by 0∗ (11∗ 00∗ )∗ 1∗ . As we
wish to ensure blocks of 0s are even length we use (00)∗ for the prefix and 00(00)∗ for
the non-empty block of 0s inside the string. We use 1(11)∗ for the non-empty block of 1s
on the inside of the string and 1(11)∗ ⌣ ϵ for the suffix. This gives

(00)∗ (1(11)∗ 00(00)∗ )∗ (ϵ ⌣ 1(11)∗ )

(c) We modify the regular expression for all binary strings given by (0∗ 1)∗ 0∗ . This gives

(0∗ 100)∗ 0∗ .