Difference between DFA and NFA
1. DFA: DFA refers to Deterministic Finite Automaton. A Finite Automata(FA) is said to be deterministic if corresponding to an input symbol, there is a single resultant state i.e. there is only one transition. A deterministic finite automata is set of five tuples represented as,
Where,
Q: A non-empty finite set of states in the finite control(qo, q1, q2, …).
Σ: A non-empty finite set of input symbols.
δ: It is a transition function that takes two arguments, a state, and an input symbol, it returns a single state.
qo: It is starting state, one of the states in Q.
F: It is a non-empty set of final states/ accepting states from the set belonging to Q.
2. NFA:
NFA refers to Nondeterministic Finite Automaton. A Finite Automata(FA) is said to be non-deterministic if there is more than one possible transition from one state on the same input symbol.
A non-deterministic finite automata is also a set of five tuples and represented as,
Where,
Q: A set of non empty finite states.
Σ: A set of non empty finite input symbols.
δ: It is a transition function that takes a state from Q and an input symbol from and returns a subset of Q.
qo: Initial state of NFA and member of Q.
F: A non-empty set of final states and member of Q.
Difference between DFA and NFA :
DFA | NFA |
---|---|
DFA stands for Deterministic Finite Automata. | NFA stands for Nondeterministic Finite Automata. |
For each symbolic representation of the alphabet, there is only one state transition in DFA. | No need to specify how does the NFA react according to some symbol. |
DFA cannot use Empty String transition. | NFA can use Empty String transition. |
DFA can be understood as one machine. | NFA can be understood as multiple little machines computing at the same time. |
In DFA, the next possible state is distinctly set. | In NFA, each pair of state and input symbol can have many possible next states. |
DFA is more difficult to construct. | NFA is easier to construct. |
DFA rejects the string in case it terminates in a state that is different from the accepting state. | NFA rejects the string in the event of all branches dying or refusing the string. |
Time needed for executing an input string is less. | Time needed for executing an input string is more. |
All DFA are NFA. | Not all NFA are DFA. |
DFA requires more space. | NFA requires less space then DFA. |
Dead state may be required. | Dead state is not required. |
δ: QxΣ -> Q i.e. next possible state belongs to Q. | δ: QxΣ -> 2^Q i.e. next possible state belongs to power set of Q. |
Backtracking is allowed in DFA. | Backtracking is not always possible in NFA. |
Conversion of Regular expression to DFA is difficult. | Conversion of Regular expression to NFA is simpler compared to DFA. |