Building a Tokenizer from Scratch

📰 Dev.to AI

Building a tokenizer from scratch involves understanding finite state machine parser theory, which is rooted in automata theory and combinational logic

intermediate Published 24 Mar 2026
Action Steps
  1. Review the basics of combinational logic and its application in finite state machines
  2. Understand the class hierarchy of automata theory, from combinational logic to more complex models with memory
  3. Study the principles of finite state machine parser theory and its role in tokenization
  4. Apply this knowledge to design and implement a custom tokenizer from scratch
Who Needs to Know This

Natural Language Processing (NLP) engineers and developers working on text processing tasks can benefit from this knowledge to design and implement custom tokenizers, and the entire team can gain insight into the foundational concepts of automata theory

Key Insight

💡 Understanding the principles of finite state machine parser theory and automata theory is crucial for designing and implementing efficient and effective tokenizers from scratch

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💡 Building a tokenizer from scratch starts with finite state machine parser theory and automata theory fundamentals

Key Takeaways

Building a tokenizer from scratch involves understanding finite state machine parser theory, which is rooted in automata theory and combinational logic

Full Article

FSM Parser Theory. A friendly conversation with Claude Opus Q: automata theory have a class hierarchy, starting from combinational logic. right? Yes, that's a clean way to frame it. The hierarchy goes from "no memory" to "more memory": Combinational logic — output depends only on current input. No memory, no state. Just pure boolean functions ( AND , OR , etc.). Finite State Mach
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