# Prove that every substring closed language L ⊆ {0, 1}* is regular

For $$x,y \in \{0,1\}^*$$ a language $$L ⊆ \{0, 1\}^*$$ is called substring closed, if $$y \in L$$ and $$x \preceq y$$ ($$x$$ substring of $$y$$) implies $$x \in L$$.

I want to prove that every substring closed language $$L ⊆ \{0, 1\}^*$$ is regular.

Is it enough to have a $$L$$ such that just $$x$$ in it, then prove that $$L$$ is regular?

• What do you mean by "just $x$ in it"? Can you clarify? Feb 20 at 15:30
• I mean all strings that don't have substring or the strings which are substring of other string. If I put them in a langauge and prove somehow that langauge is regular then I can prove also that substring closed language is also regular Feb 20 at 15:54

There are some substring-closed languages that are not regular.

Here is an example. Let $$C=\{01^n0^n1\mid n\ge1\}$$ and $$F=\{f\mid \exists c\in C, f\preceq c\}$$, i.e., $$F$$ is the language of all substrings of strings in $$C$$.

• $$F$$ is substring-closed, since a substring of a substring of string $$c$$ is also a substring of $$c$$.
• The intersection of $$F$$ and the regular language $$\{01w01\mid w\in \{0,1\}^*\}$$ is $$C$$, a non-regular language. So $$F$$ is not regular.

The result I know holds for SUBSEQUENCE closed languages, and not SUBSTRING closed. The confusion is frequent between english and french, since "subsequence" is translated into "sous-mot" which means litteraly "subword" or "substring"…

To be clear, $$u=u_1u_2…u_n$$ is a subsequence of $$v=v_1v_2…v_m$$ if and only if there exists $$1\leqslant i_1 < i_2 < … < i_n \leqslant m$$ such that $$u = v_{i_1}…v_{i_n}$$.

The proof I know is a bit long. I will add some details if necessary.

For $$L$$ any language, denote $$\widehat{L}$$ the set of words that have a subsequence in $$L$$: $$\widehat{L} = \{v\in\Sigma^*\mid \exists u\in L, u\preccurlyeq v\}$$

The proof goes as such:

• prove that for any sequence $$(u_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}} \in \left(\Sigma^*\right)^{\mathbb{N}}$$, there exists two indexes $$i such that $$u_i\preccurlyeq u_j$$;
• show that for any language $$L$$, there exists a finite language $$F$$ such that $$\widehat{F} = \widehat{L}$$;
• prove that if $$L = \widehat{L}$$, then $$L$$ is regular;
• conclude that if $$L$$ is a subsequence closed language, then it is regular.

Each step uses the result of the previous one.

• The word "subsequence" is usually translated into "sous-séquence" as shown by Google Translate. Feb 21 at 21:29
• @JohnL.: I don't know one way or the other, but I would not trust Google Translate on this. (If I go to the English Wikipedia article for "subsequence" and hit "Français", I get taken to a page titled "Sous-suite", which isn't either of the possibilities brought up so far.) Feb 21 at 22:00
• @JohnL. "Subsequence" is translated into « sous-suite » (more often than « sous-séquence ») when talking about the general sequence theory (not particularly for words). It is translated into « sous-mot » when talking about a subsequence of a word (see the fourth bullet point). Feb 21 at 22:38
• @JohnL. My answer was not a typo: the proof I know show first that a supersequence-closed language is regular, then uses this result to prove that a subsequence-closed language is regular. The second point of the proof was not so obvious for me using your definition. Feb 26 at 22:03
• @JohnL. If $L$ is subsequence-closed, then the complement $\overline{L}$ is supersequence-closed, hence regular, and so is $L$. Feb 27 at 22:31