Regular Expression Quantifiers — m to n Occurrences

Abstract

This article includes proofs of several facts that are supplemental to the theorems proved in [10]. Next, it builds upon that theory to extend the framework for proving facts about formal languages in general and regular expression operators in particular. In this article, two quantifiers are defined and their properties are shown: m to n occurrences (or the union of a range of powers) and optional occurrence. Although optional occurrence is a special case of the previous operator (0 to 1 occurrences), it is often defined in regex applications as a separate operator - hence its explicit definition and properties in the article. Notation and terminology were taken from [13].