DFA
A simple python implementation of a DFA.
Table of Contents
Features:
- State can be any Hashable object.
- Alphabet can be any finite sequence of Hashable objects.
- Designed to be immutable and hashable (assuming components are
immutable and hashable).
- Design choice to allow transition map and accepting set to be
given as functions rather than an explicit
dict
or set
.
Installation
If you just need to use dfa
, you can just run:
$ pip install dfa
For developers, note that this project uses the
poetry python package/dependency
management tool. Please familarize yourself with it and then
run:
$ poetry install
Usage
The dfa
api is centered around the DFA
object.
By default, the DFA
object models a Deterministic Finite Acceptor
,
e.g., a recognizer of a Regular Language.
Example Usage:
from dfa import DFA
dfa1 = DFA(
start=0,
inputs={0, 1},
label=lambda s: (s % 4) == 3,
transition=lambda s, c: (s + c) % 4,
)
dfa2 = DFA(
start="left",
inputs={"move right", "move left"},
label=lambda s: s == "left",
transition=lambda s, c: "left" if c == "move left" else "right",
)
Membership Queries
assert dfa1.label([1, 1, 1, 1])
assert not dfa1.label([1, 0])
assert dfa2.label(["move right"]*100 + ["move left"])
assert not dfa2.label(["move left", "move right"])
Transitions and Traces
assert dfa1.transition([1, 1, 1]) == 3
assert list(dfa1.trace([1, 1, 1])) == [0, 1, 2, 3]
Non-boolean output alphabets
Sometimes, it is useful to model an automata which can label a word
using a non-Boolean alphabet. For example, {True, False, UNSURE}
.
The DFA
object supports this by specifying the output alphabet.
UNSURE = None
def my_labeler(s):
if s % 4 == 2:
return None
return (s % 4) == 3
dfa3 = DFA(
start=0,
inputs={0, 1},
label=my_labeler,
transition=lambda s, c: (s + c) % 4,
outputs={True, False, UNSURE},
)
Note: If outputs
is set to None
, then no checks are done that
the outputs are within the output alphabet.
dfa3 = DFA(
start=0,
inputs={0, 1},
label=my_labeler,
transition=lambda s, c: (s + c) % 4,
outputs=None,
)
Moore Machines
Finally, by reinterpreting the structure of the DFA
object, one can
model a Moore Machine. For example, in 3 state counter, dfa1
, the
Moore Machine can output the current count.
assert dfa1.transduce(()) == ()
assert dfa1.transduce((1,)) == (False,)
assert dfa1.transduce((1, 1, 1, 1)) == (False, False, False, True)
Language Queries
Utility functions are available for testing if a language:
- Is empty:
utils.find_word
- Is equivilent to another language:
utils.find_equiv_counterexample
- Is a subset of a another language:
utils.find_subset_counterexample
These operate by returning None
if the property holds, i.e.,
lang(dfa1) = ∅, lang(dfa1) ≡ lang(dfa2), lang(dfa1) ⊆ lang(dfa2)
, and
returning a counterexample Word
otherwise.
DFA <-> Dictionary
Note that dfa
provides helper functions for going from a dictionary
based representation of a deterministic transition system to a DFA
object and back.
from dfa import dfa2dict, dict2dfa
dfa_dict = {
0: (False, {0: 0, 1: 1}),
1: (False, {0: 1, 1: 2}),
2: (False, {0: 2, 1: 3}),
3: (True, {0: 3, 1: 0})
}
dfa = dict2dfa(dfa_dict, start=0)
dfa_dict2, start = dfa2dict(dfa)
assert (dfa_dict, 0) == (dfa_dict2, start)
Computing Reachable States
assert dfa1.states() == {0, 1, 2, 3}
Finding Words and Access strings
To generate accepting strings (words) in a DFA (breadth first using string length) one can use the dfa.utils.words
function:
from dfa.utils.import dfa2dict, words, find_words
dfa_dict = {
0: (False, {0: 0, 1: 1}),
1: (False, {0: 1, 1: 2}),
2: (False, {0: 2, 1: 3}),
3: (True, {0: 3, 1: 0})
}
lang = dict2dfa(dfa_dict, start=0)
xs = set(fn.take(5, words(lang)))
assert len(xs) == 5
assert all(lang.label(x) for x in xs)
To get a single word, a helper function is provided in dfa.utils.find_word
which returns None
if the language of the DFA is empty:
x = find_word(lang)
assert x is not None
assert lang.label(x)
Often times, it is useful to sample a path between two states, say a
and b
. dfa
supports this using dfa.utils.paths
. This function
returns a generator of words, w
, such that dfa.transition(w, start=b) == a
. For example:
from dfa.utils import paths
access_strings = paths(
dfa1,
start=0,
end=1,
max_length=7,
randomize=True,
)
for word in access_strings:
assert dfa1.transition(word, start=0) == 1
DFA minimization
DFAs can be minimized using the minimize
method.
my_dfa = my_dfa.minimize()
DFA advancement (progression)
One can create the DFA starting at the state indexed by a given word by using
the advance
method.
my_dfa = my_dfa.advance(word)
Running interactively (Co-Routine API)
dfa
supports interactively stepping through a DFA
object via
co-routines. This is particularly useful when using DFA in a control
loop. For example, the following code counts how many 1
's it takes
to advance dfa1
's state back to the start state.
machine = dfa1.run()
next(machine)
state = None
count = 0
while state != dfa1.start:
count += 1
state = machine.send(1)
Visualizing DFAs
dfa
optionally supports visualizing DFAs using graphviz. To use this
functionality be sure to install dfa
using with the draw
option:
pip install dfa[draw]
or
poetry install -E draw
Then one can simply use dfa.draw.write_dot
to write a .dot
file
representing the DFA. This .dot
file can be rendered using any
graphviz supporting tool.
from dfa.draw import write_dot
write_dot(dfa1, "path/to/dfa1.dot")
Using the dot
command in linux results in the following rendering of dfa1
.
$ dot -Tsvg path/to/dfa1.dot > dfa1.svg
Visualization of dfa1 using graphviz.