NIST

accepting state

(definition)

Definition: If a finite state machine finishes an input string and is in an accepting state, the string is accepted or considered to be valid.

See also recognizer.

Note: A machine may enter an accepting state, then leave it. Acceptance depends on whether the machine finishes in an accepting state.

Author: PEB


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Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:39 2015.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "accepting state", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/acceptingstt.html