Pushdown Automata Introduction

Basic Structure of PDA

A pushdown automaton is a way to implement a context-free grammar in a similar way we design DFA for a regular grammar. A DFA can remember a finite amount of information, but a PDA can remember an infinite amount of information.

Basically a pushdown automaton is −

"Finite state machine" + "a stack"

A pushdown automaton has three components −

• an input tape,
• a control unit, and
• a stack with infinite size.

The stack head scans the top symbol of the stack.

A stack does two operations −

• Push − a new symbol is added at the top.

• Pop − the top symbol is read and removed.

A PDA may or may not read an input symbol, but it has to read the top of the stack in every transition.

A PDA can be formally described as a 7-tuple (Q, ∑, S, δ, q₀, I, F) −

• Q is the finite number of states

• ∑ is input alphabet

• S is stack symbols

• is the transition function: Q × (∑ ∪ {ε}) × S × Q × S*

• q₀ is the initial state (q₀ ∈ Q)

• I is the initial stack top symbol (I ∈ S)

• F is a set of accepting states (F ∈ Q)

The following diagram shows a transition in a PDA from a state q₁ to state q₂, labeled as a,b → c −

This means at state q₁, if we encounter an input string a and top symbol of the stack is b, then we pop b, push c on top of the stack and move to state q₂.

Terminologies Related to PDA

Instantaneous Description

The instantaneous description (ID) of a PDA is represented by a triplet (q, w, s) where

• q is the state

• w is unconsumed input

• s is the stack contents

Turnstile Notation

The "turnstile" notation is used for connecting pairs of ID's that represent one or many moves of a PDA. The process of transition is denoted by the turnstile symbol "⊢".

Consider a PDA (Q, ∑, S, δ, q₀, I, F). A transition can be mathematically represented by the following turnstile notation −

(p, aw, Tβ) ⊢ (q, w, αb)

This implies that while taking a transition from state p to state q, the input symbol a is consumed, and the top of the stack T is replaced by a new string α.

Note − If we want zero or more moves of a PDA, we have to use the symbol (⊢*) for it.