State Machines

24-Jul-17
 What is a state machine?
A state machine is a different way of thinking about
computation
A state machine has some number of states, and
transitions between those states
Transitions occur because of inputs
A pure state machine only knows which state it is
init has no other memory or knowledge
This is the kind of state machine you learn about in your
math classes
When you program a state machine, you dont have that
restriction
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 State machine I/O
State machines are designed to respond to a sequence
of inputs, such as
The individual characters in a string
A series of external events
State machines may produce output (often as a result
of transitions)
Alternatively, the result of a state machine may be
the state it ends up in

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 Example I: Even or odd
The following machine determines whether the number of As
in a string is even or odd
Circles represent states; arrows represent transitions

A
even odd
start
A

anything but A anything but A

Inputs are the characters of a string

The output is the resultant state
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 Error states
Some state machines may have a error state with the
following characteristics:
An unexpected input will cause a transition to the error state
All subsequent inputs cause the state machine to remain in
the error state

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 Simplifying drawings I
State machines can get pretty complicated
We can simplify the drawing by leaving out the error
state
The error state is still part of the machine
Any input without a transition on our drawing is assumed to
go to the error state
Another simplification: Use * to indicate all other
characters
This is a convention when drawing the machineit does not
mean we look for an asterisk in the input

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 Example II: Nested parenthesis
The following example tests whether parentheses are properly
nested (up to 3 deep)

( ( (
OK
start
) ) ) )
* * * ( *
Error
How can we extend this machine to handle
*

arbitrarily deep nesting?

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 Nested parentheses II

Question: How can we use a state machine to

check parenthesis nesting to any depth?
Answer: We cant (with a finite number of states)
We need to count how deep we are into a parenthesis
nest: 1, 2, 3, ..., 821, ...
The only memory a state machine has is which state it
is in
However, if we arent required to use a pure state
machine, we can add memory (such as a counter)
and other features

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 Nested parentheses III

( do count++
( do count=1
start
OK

) and count==1 ) and count>1

do count=0 do count--

This machine is based on a state machine, but it

obviously is not just a state machine

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 The states of a Thread
A Thread is an object that represents a single flow of
execution through a program
A Threads lifetime can be described by a state machine

waiting

start ready running dead

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 German vocabulary tutor I
I once wrote a program to provide memorization drill on
English-German vocabulary
Words were presented in English
The user had to type in the German translation
A word was considered learned when the user answered
correctly three times in a row
Each word pair (English + German) could be thought of
as a state machine

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 German vocabulary tutor II

wrong wrong
wrong

start 0th right 1st right 2nd right 3rd right out

Whats the value in thinking of this as a state machine?

Answer: By measuring the percentage correct from each state,
I was better able to adjust the difficulty of the study session

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 Example: Making numbers bold

In HTML, you indicate boldface by surrounding the

characters with <b> ... </b>
Suppose we want to make all the integers bold in an HTML
pagewe can write a state machine to do this

end of input
digit output </b>
end
start output <b>digit

NORMAL NUMBER digit

output digit
nondigit
*: output * output </b>nondigit
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 State machines in Java
In a state machine, you can have transitions from any
state to any other state
This is difficult to implement with Javas loops and if
statements
The trick is to make the state a variable, and to
embed a switch (state) statement inside a loop
Each case is responsible for resetting the state variable as
needed to represent transitions

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Outline of the bold program

void run() {
int state = NORMAL;
for (int i = 0; i < testString.length(); i++) {
char ch = testString.charAt(i);
switch (state) {
case NORMAL: { not inside a number }
case NUMBER: { inside a number }
}
}
if (state == NUMBER) result.append("</b>");

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 The two states

case NORMAL: case NUMBER:

if (Character.isDigit(ch)) { if (!Character.isDigit(ch)) {
result.append("<b>" + ch); result.append("</b>" + ch);
state = NUMBER; state = NORMAL;
break; break;
} }
else { else {
result.append(ch); result.append(ch);
} }
break; break;

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 Conclusions
A state machine is a good model for a number of
problems
You can think of the problem in terms of a state machine
but not actually do it that way (e.g. German vocabulary)
You can implement the problem as a state machine (e.g.
making integers bold)
Best done as a switch inside some kind of loop

Pure state machines have some severe limitations

Java lets you do all kinds of additional tests and actions;
you can ignore these limitations

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The End

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