Interconvertibility of a Class of Set Constraints and Context-Free-Language Reachability
Abstract
We show the interconvertibility of context free language reachability problems and a class of set-constraint problems: given a context free language reachability problem, we show how to construct a set-constraint problem whose answer gives a solution to the reachability problem; given a set-constraint problem, we show how to construct a context-free-language reachability problem whose answer gives a solution to the set-constraint problem. The interconvertibility of these two formalisms offers a conceptual advantage akin to the advantage gained from the interconvertibility of finite-state automata and regular expressions in formal language theory, namely, a problem can be formulated in whichever formalism is most natural. It also offers some insight into the O(n^3) bottleneck for different types of program-analysis problems and allows results previously obtained for context-free-language reachability problems to be applied to set-constraint problems and vice versa.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 04, 1998
- Accession Number
- AD1004547
Entities
People
- David Melski
- Thomas Reps
Organizations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison