(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
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.
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