Finite State Automata in Java

Bradley Kjell, Cental Connecticut State University

FEBUARY 2012

These notes discuss finite-state automata, their practical uses, and how to implement them in Java. Finite-state automata are useful in many application areas: compiler design, natural language understanding, user interface design, and programming in general. Many programming problems are straightforward when understood as finite automata, but harder without that understanding.
To use these notes with maximum benefit, read though them interactively. Think about and answer the question at the bottom of each page. These notes assume that you have the Java Development Kit (JDK) version 5.0 or later.

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Finite-state Automata

• Section   1 — Finite-state Automata
• Section   2 — Java Implementation
• Section   3 — Finite-state Transducers
• Section   4 — Scanners
• Section   5 — Scanners with One Character Pushback
• Section   6 — Transition Tables

Regular Expressions

• Section   7 — Regular Expressions (Part 1)
• Section   8 — Regular Expressions (Part 2)
• Section   9 — Regular Expressions (Part 3)
• Section 10 — Java String Class and Regular Expressions
• Section 11 — Java Pattern and Matcher Classes

Index

• Index