{"id":9084,"date":"2019-08-29T15:17:46","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T15:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/deterministic-finite-automaton\/"},"modified":"2019-08-29T15:17:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T15:17:46","slug":"deterministic-finite-automaton","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa","title":{"rendered":"Deterministic Finite Automaton"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_deterministic_finite_automaton_mean\">What Does Deterministic Finite Automaton Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A deterministic finite automaton is a type of deterministic algorithm based on a state that changes with inputs. These are also known as deterministic finite state machines or deterministic finite acceptors.<\/p>\n<p>They are different from probabilistic and non-deterministic models in that one input (X) results in one known output (Y).<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_deterministic_finite_automaton\">Techopedia Explains Deterministic Finite Automaton<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>DFAs are useful in many different types of applications. For example, they have been useful in video game programming, for instance, creating the algorithmic movements of characters in the classic game Pac-Man.<\/p>\n<p>Another common use of a DFA is in vending machines where a series of states reacts to transition functions in analyzing units of money inputted into the machine to determine when a purchase price has been met.<\/p>\n<p>Although deterministic models have been the traditional mainstay in programming, new probabilistic and non-deterministic models are slowly emerging. The difference is that non-deterministic models can choose between various outcomes according to inputs, and are able to learn or evolve independent of explicit programming instruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Deterministic Finite Automaton Mean? A deterministic finite automaton is a type of deterministic algorithm based on a state that changes with inputs. These are also known as deterministic finite state machines or deterministic finite acceptors. They are different from probabilistic and non-deterministic models in that one input (X) results in one known output [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[241,270,256],"class_list":["post-9084","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-computer-science","definitioncat-data-science","definitioncat-emerging-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deterministic Finite Automaton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Deterministic Finite Automaton\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\",\"name\":\"What is Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA)? - Definition from Techopedia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Emerging Technology\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/225\/emerging-technology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Data Science\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/320\/data-science\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Term\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Deterministic Finite Automaton\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\",\"name\":\"Techopedia\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Techopedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/techopedia-light.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/techopedia-light.svg\",\"width\":209,\"height\":37,\"caption\":\"Techopedia\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/techopedia\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/techopedia\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Techopedia\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\/editorial-policy\",\"ownershipFundingInfo\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\",\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Margaret Rouse\"},\"description\":\"Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret\u2019s idea of \u200b\u200ba fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other\u2019s highly specialized languages.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/@techdefinitions\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"Technology expert\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA)? - Definition from Techopedia","description":"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deterministic Finite Automaton","og_description":"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa","og_site_name":"Techopedia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@techopedia","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa"},"author":{"name":"Margaret Rouse","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5"},"headline":"Deterministic Finite Automaton","datePublished":"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa"},"wordCount":177,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#respond"]}],"articleSection":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa","name":"What is Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA)? - Definition from Techopedia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-29T15:17:46+00:00","description":"This definition explains the meaning of Deterministic Finite Automaton and why it matters.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/18835\/deterministic-finite-automaton-dfa#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Emerging Technology","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/225\/emerging-technology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Data Science","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/topic\/320\/data-science"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Term","item":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Deterministic Finite Automaton"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/","name":"Techopedia","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization","name":"Techopedia","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/techopedia-light.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/techopedia-light.svg","width":209,"height":37,"caption":"Techopedia"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/","https:\/\/x.com\/techopedia","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/techopedia\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Techopedia"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about\/editorial-policy","ownershipFundingInfo":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/about"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5","name":"Margaret Rouse","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/margaret-rouse-headshot.jpeg","caption":"Margaret Rouse"},"description":"Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret\u2019s idea of \u200b\u200ba fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other\u2019s highly specialized languages.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/margaretrouse\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/@techdefinitions"],"knowsAbout":["Technology expert"],"url":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/contributors\/margaret-rouse"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition\/9084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/definition"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definition\/9084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"definitioncat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/definitioncat?post=9084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}