State Machine Table

A State Machine table is one of two variants of a State Machine (the other is the State Machine diagram). It displays the information of the State Machine in table form, and is a method of specifying the discrete behavior of a finite state-transition system; that is, what state the State Machine moves to and the conditions under which the transition takes place.

You can display the state transition as one of two different relationships:

• State - Trigger: The rows indicate the current states and the columns indicate trigger events (or the other way around if you prefer, in a Trigger - State format). The cell at the intersection of a row and column identifies the target state in the transition if the trigger occurs, and the condition (or guard) of the transition.

• State - Next State: The rows and columns both indicate states, and the cell at the intersection of a row and column indicates the event that triggers a transition from the current (row) state to the next (column) state, the condition (or guard) of the event, and the effect of the transition.

Select Format

You can display a State Machine as a diagram or table, and as a table in one of three relationship formats.

To select the display format, follow the steps below:

1. Right-click on the diagram background to display the context menu.
2. Select the Statechart Editor option.
3. Select the appropriate display option:

• Diagram
• Table (State-Next State)
• Table (State-Trigger)
• Table (Trigger-State)

To define the State Machine Table further, see:

• State Machine Table Options
• State Machine Table Operations