Disjunctive normal form: Information from Answers.com

In boolean logic, a disjunctive normal form (DNF) is a standardization (or normalization) of a logical formula which is a disjunction of conjunctive clauses. As a normal form, it is useful in automated theorem proving. A logical formula is considered to be in DNF if and only if it is a disjunction of one or more conjunctions of one or more literals. A DNF formula is in full disjunctive normal form, if each of its variables appears exactly once in every clause. As in conjunctive normal form (CNF), the only propositional operators in DNF are and, or, and not. The not operator can only be used as part of a literal, which means that it can only precede a propositional variable. For example, all of the following formulas are in DNF:

$A \or B$

$A\!$

$(A \and B) \or C$

$(A \and \neg B \and \neg C) \or (\neg D \and E \and F)$

However, the following formulas are not in DNF:

$\neg(A \or B)$ — NOT is the outermost operator

$A \or (B \and (C \or D))$ — an OR is nested within an AND

Converting a formula to DNF involves using logical equivalences, such as the double negative elimination, De Morgan's laws, and the distributive law. Note that all logical formulas can be converted into disjunctive normal form. However, in some cases conversion to DNF can lead to an exponential explosion of the formula. For example, in DNF, logical formulas of the following form have 2ⁿ terms:

$(X_1 \or Y_1) \and (X_2 \or Y_2) \and \dots \and (X_n \or Y_n)$

The following is a formal grammar for DNF:

<or> → ∨
<and> → ∧
<not> → ¬
<disjunct> → <conjunct>
<disjunct> → <disjunct> <or> <conjunct>
<conjunct> → <literal>
<conjunct> → (<conjunct> <and> <literal>)
<literal> → <term>
<literal> → <not><term>

Where <term> is any variable.

External links

Java applet for converting boolean logic expressions to CNF and DNF, showing the laws used

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Disjunctive normal form

See also

External links