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Alternation (formal language theory)

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Comparison of
programming languages
Comparison of individual
languages

In formal language theory and pattern matching, alternation is the union of two sets of strings or patterns.

In some programming languages, string concatenation is a binary infix operator, often notated "|". As a pattern, the alternation a|b matches either a or b.

References

  • John E. Hopcroft and Jeffrey D. Ullman, Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation, Addison-Wesley Publishing, Reading Massachusetts, 1979. ISBN 0-201-02988-X.
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