automatteori
Automatteori is the branch of theoretical computer science and mathematics that studies abstract computational devices known as automata and the formal languages they recognize or generate. An automaton consists of a set of states, an input alphabet, a transition function, an initial state, and a set of accepting states. Automata can be deterministic or nondeterministic and may operate on finite or infinite input strings.
Finite automata, both deterministic (DFA) and nondeterministic (NFA), recognize regular languages. DFAs have exactly one transition
Pushdown automata extend finite automata with a stack and recognize context-free languages, described by context-free grammars.
Automatteori informs many practical areas, including compiler design (lexical analysis and parsing), formal verification and model