In theoretical computer science and formal language theory, a regular language (also called a rational language) is a formal language that can be expressed using a regular expression, in the strict sense of the latter notion used in theoretical computer science. (Many regular expressions engines provided by modern programming languages are augmented with features that allow recognition of languages that cannot be expressed by a classic regular expression.) Alternatively, a regular language can be defined as a language recognized by a finite automaton. The equivalence of regular expressions and finite automata is known as Kleene’s theorem. In the Chomsky hierarchy, regular languages are defined to be the languages that are generated by Type-3 grammars (regular grammars). Regular languages are very useful in input parsing and programming language design.
