computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

, a deterministic automaton is a concept of

automata theory Automata theory is the study of abstract machines and automata, as well as the computational problems that can be solved using them. It is a theory in theoretical computer science. The word ''automata'' comes from the Greek word αὐτόματο� ...

in which the outcome of a transition from one

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

to another is determined by the input. A common deterministic automaton is a

deterministic finite automaton In the theory of computation, a branch of theoretical computer science, a deterministic finite automaton (DFA)—also known as deterministic finite acceptor (DFA), deterministic finite-state machine (DFSM), or deterministic finite-state autom ...

(DFA) which is a finite state machine where for each pair of state and input symbol there is one and only one transition to a next state. DFAs recognize the set of

regular languages In theoretical computer science and formal language theory, a regular language (also called a rational language) is a formal language that can be defined by a regular expression, in the strict sense in theoretical computer science (as opposed to ...

and no other languages. A standard way to build a

from a

nondeterministic finite automaton In automata theory, a finite-state machine is called a deterministic finite automaton (DFA), if * each of its transitions is ''uniquely'' determined by its source state and input symbol, and * reading an input symbol is required for each state ...

is the

powerset construction In the theory of computation and automata theory, the powerset construction or subset construction is a standard method for converting a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) into a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) which recognizes the sa ...

References

Automata (computation) {{Comp-sci-theory-stub