A Second Course in Formal Languages and Automata Theory

A textbook for a graduate course on formal languages and automata theory, building on prior knowledge of theoretical computer models.

This graduate textbook covers topics in the theory of computation not usually covered in a first course. It explains combinatorics on words, regular languages, context-free languages, parsing and recognition, Turing machines, and other language classes, repetitions in words, state complexity, the interchange lemma, 2DPDAs, and more.Written for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in computer science, A Second Course in Formal Languages and Automata Theory treats topics in the theory of computation not usually covered in a first course. After a review of basic concepts, the book covers combinatorics on words, regular languages, context-free languages, parsing and recognition, Turing machines, and other language classes. Many topics often absent from other textbooks, such as repetitions in words, state complexity, the interchange lemma, 2DPDAs, and the incompressibility method, are covered here. The author places particular emphasis on the resources needed to represent certain languages. The book also includes a diverse collection of more than 200 exercises, suggestions for term projects, and research problems that remain open.