Brzozowski derivative

English

Etymology

Named after the computer scientist Janusz Brzozowski, who investigated its properties.

Noun

Brzozowski derivative (plural Brzozowski derivatives)

1. (computing theory) The set of all strings obtainable from a given set of strings by cutting off a prefix. For example, for the set { cat, cow, dog }, the Brzozowski derivative with respect to c is { at, ow }. They have applications in regular expressions.