@inproceedings{a497cfb09cd7443b950915505ded2bc2,
title = "Synthesizing regular expressions from examples for introductory automata assignments",
abstract = "We present a method for synthesizing regular expressions for introductory automata assignments. Given a set of positive and negative examples, the method automatically synthesizes the simplest possible regular expression that accepts all the positive examples while rejecting all the negative examples. The key novelty is the search-based synthesis algorithm that leverages ideas from over-And under-Approximations to effectively prune out a large search space. We have implemented our technique in a tool and evaluated it with nontrivial benchmark problems that students often struggle with. The results show that our system can synthesize desired regular expressions in 6.7 seconds on the average, so that it can be interactively used by students to enhance their understanding of regular expressions.",
keywords = "Program synthesis, Programming, Regular expression",
author = "Mina Lee and Sunbeom So and Hakjoo Oh",
year = "2016",
month = oct,
day = "20",
doi = "10.1145/2993236.2993244",
language = "English",
series = "GPCE 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences, co-located with SPLASH 2016",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery, Inc",
pages = "70--80",
editor = "Ina Schaefer and Bernd Fischer",
booktitle = "GPCE 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming",
note = "15th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts and Experiences, GPCE 2016 ; Conference date: 31-10-2016 Through 01-11-2016",
}