print list of variable names in prolog - prolog

I'm using the swi-prolog build in predicate to get a list of variables from a term.
I am then trying to print them out with their sequence number.
Unfortunately I'm only able to print their internal _2902 names instead of X,Y, etc.
Is there a way to preserve the names? preferably not implementation dependant.
Here is what I have:
assign_numbers(Term) :-
term_variables(Term, L),
print_values(L,0).
% take a list of variables and print them out with their index according to their appearance order.
print_values([],_).
print_values([X|Xs],C) :-
C1 is C + 1,
write(X),tab(1),write(=),tab(1),write(C1),nl,
print_values(Xs,C1).
As a side question I would also like to see the implementation of the build in predicate term_variables from swi-prolog but I cant find it.

Related

How to list more than 1 output on prolog query?

Imagine my siblings, my cousins and me and our total count is 10. So i write this code and when i run it, it just give me 1 output. How can i print all the X values(names) on this query. And if possible how can i change what name comes first or how can i choose as a like what 3rd or 5th name would be ? (My granduncle is my grandfather's brother.)
Here is my code and output
granduncle(T,X) :- brother(T,Z),parent(Z,Y),parent(Y,X).
?- granduncle(john,X).
X=stan
You need to use the collection predicates:
bagof/3
setof/3
and
findall/3
to collect all the solutions into a single list.
For example:
bagof(X,granduncle(john,X),Bag).
will create a list of solutions in Bag.
Then you can slice & dice the list with predicates like:
sort/2
exclude/2
partition/4

Edit Prolog program to output the result of a computation

I've found something about this in other questions, but mine is a bit different.
Given a string, I have to output another string with no adjacent duplicates.
E.g., given [a,a,b,b,c,d,a], my output will be [a,b,c,d,a].
Now, I've wrote the following recursive program to check if a certain given string has adjacent duplicates:
notequal(A,[]).
notequal(A,[X|S]) :- not(A=X).
noadj([]):-!.
noadj([A|S]) :- notequal(A,S), noadj(S).
How would I modify it in order to output what I described? I've tried multiple times but I'm new to prolog and I can't seem to get into its logic.
Of course, I'll need another variable, which would contain an element if notequal is true for that element.
So my idea is to iterate through the list and only add a certain term to the result if it passes the "notequal" test.
I'll edit this: I finally managed to do something like that by adding
noadjlist([X|S],[X|LS]) :- notequal(X,S), noadjlist(S,LS).
noadjlist([X|S],LS) :- noadjlist(S,LS).
noadjlist([],LS):-!.
However, my results are like:
?- noadjlist([1,2,2,3],LS).
LS = [1, 2, 3|_19316] .
why do I get that uninstantiated variable at the end?
noadjlist([],LS):-!.
should be
noadjlist([],[]):-!.

Prolog (Sicstus) - setof and findall combination issues

Given a set of routes a given station has, such us :
route(TubeLine, ListOfStations).
route(green, [a,b,c,d,e,f]).
route(blue, [g,b,c,h,i,j]).
...
I am required to find names of lines that have a specific station in common. The result must be ordered, with non-repeated stations and must return an empty list, if there were no results. So, querying
| ?- lines(i, Ls).
Should give:
Ls = [blue,red,silver] ? ;
no
I tried doing the following:
lines(X, L) :- setof(L1, findall(W, (route(W, Stations),member(X, Stations)),L1), L).
However, it gives the following as an answer:
Is = [[blue,silver,red]];
no
So unordered with double braces. I tried using just findall, but the result is not ordered. I know I could then write sort function and pass that through, however I was wondering if it is possible to use just findall and setof in this instance?
Actually, it's easier than your attempt, but you need to grasp the peculiar setof' behaviour wrt free variables, and account for the eventuality that an unknown station was required (setof/3 fails if there are no solutions).
lines(X, Ls) :-
setof(L, Stations^(route(L, Stations), member(X, Stations)), Ls)
-> true ; Ls = [].
An easier alternative, as you said, use findall/3 exactly as you're doing (without setof!), and sort the output.

Using the prolog format predicate to print to file

Is it possible to use the prolog format predicate to print to file?
I have a table of data that I print to stdout using the format predicate, i.e.
print_table :-
print_table_header,
forall(range(1.0,10.0,0.1,N), print_row(N,L)).
%% print_row(L) :- take a list of the form, [a,b,c,d,e] and
%% print it to screen as a single row of tab separated float values (1DP)
print_row(N,L) :-
build_row(N,L),
format('~t~1f~10+ ~t~1f~10+ ~t~1f~10+ ~t~1f~10+ ~t~1f~10+ ~n', L).
print_table_header :-
format('~t~w~10+ ~t~w~10+ ~t~w~10+ ~t~w~10+ ~t~w~10+ ~n', ['N','N2','N3','N4','N5']).
would be nice to somehow reuse the code to print the same thing to file.
In addition to the other good answer (+1!), I would like to present a purer solution to such tasks.
The key idea is to make format/2 accessible within DCGs, and then to use a DCG to describe the output.
This is very easy, using the codes argument of format/3, provided by several Prolog implementations. All you need are the following short auxiliary definitions:
format_(Data, Args) --> call(format_dlist(Data, Args)).
format_dlist(Data, Args, Cs0, Cs) :- format(codes(Cs0,Cs), Data, Args).
The nonterminal call//1 calls its argument with two additional arguments that let you access the implicit DCG arguments, and this is used to describe additional codes via format/3.
Now, we can simply use the nonterminal format_//2 within DCGs.
For example, to describe a simple table:
table -->
row([a,b,c]),
row([d,e,f]).
row(Ls) --> format_("~t~w~10+~t~w~10+~t~w~10+~n", Ls).
Usage example and result:
?- phrase(table, Cs), format("~s", [Cs]).
a b c
d e f
Cs = [32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32|...].
Note that one last remaining format/2 is used to actually write the output to the screen.
However, everything else is free of side-effects and declaratively describes a table.
An important advantage of this method is that you can easily write test cases to see whether your tables are (still) correctly formatted. It is easy to reason about Prolog lists of codes (described with a DCG), but quite hard to reason about things that only appear on the terminal.
You can!
Consider the following extract of the SICStus Prolog documentation for format/[2,3]:
11.3.85 format/[2,3]
Synopsis
format(+Control, +Arguments)
format(+Stream, +Control, +Arguments)
Interprets the Arguments according to the Control string and prints the result on Stream.
The predicates format/[2,3] are widely supported across Prolog implementations.
However, as of right now, these predicates are not part of ISO Prolog.
I would write the output 'routines' with an additional parameter, a Stream, and then I would pass user while testing or printing to screen. See ISO predicates open/3, close/1 etc for stream handling...
Note that IO it's among the least 'declarative' areas of the language, because, for efficiency, an approach based on side effects is required...
SWI-Prolog has a builtin with_output_to, that would allows to reuse your existing code without adding a parameter. But since you tagged iso-prolog your question, you should really add the Stream parameter...

Converting Terms to Atoms preserving variable names in YAP prolog

Is there a way to configure YAP (and/or SWI prolog) so they will preserve variable names in any call to term_to_atom/2 ?.
For example, when I execute this:
term_to_atom(member(X, [1,2]), A).
I obtain this answer:
A = 'member(_131405,[1,2])'
Where X has been replaced by its internal representation.
However, I would like to get this answer instead:
A = 'member(X,[1,2])'
Thanks for any help!
There are two issues involved. How to get the variable name X into the system, and how to get a term with such a variable into the atom.
The X you type in is read by the top level which converts it to a regular variable which does not have a name associated. Let's see that in YAP:
?- read(Term).
|: X+3*Y+X.
Term = _A+3*_B+_A
The |: is YAP's prompt for input. And we have entered X+3*Y+X. However, the variable Term contains _A and _B (names chosen by the top level) in place of X and Y. So the information is lost and cannot be restored once it is read by read/1.
You have to access that information differently with the more general built-in for reading read_term/2,3 and the option variable_names/1.
?- read_term(T,[variable_names(Eqs)]).
|: X+3*Y+X.
Eqs = ['X'=_A,'Y'=_B],
T = _A+3*_B+_A
So the read option variable_names/1 gives you the information to restore the variable names. For each named variable read by read_term/2 there is a structure Name = Variable where Name is an atom representing the variable name. Above, 'X' is the name capital X.
Anonymous variables, that is variables whose name is _, do not occur in the list of variable names. They can be rapidly extracted like so:
?- read_term(T,[variable_names(Eqs)]),
term_variables(Eqs, Named),
term_variables(Named+T, Vars),
append(Named, Anons, Vars).
So much for the reading.
Now for the writing. We cannot write the term directly but have to accompany it with the list Eqs. Let's call the new predicate term_to_atom(Term, Eqs, Atom). In both YAP and SWI there is with_output_to(Output, Goal) which writes the output of Goal to different destinations like atom(A). So you can now use write_term/2 to write the term as you please. An example:
?- with_output_to(atom(A),write_term('a b'+X,[quoted(true)])).
A = '\'a b\'+_131284'.
The variable _131284 looks very ugly. To get variables associated with their names for printing we can implement term_to_atom/3 as follows:
term_to_atom(T, Eqs, A) :-
with_output_to(atom(A), write_term(T,[variable_names(Eqs),quoted(true)]) ).
And use it like so:
?- read_term(T,[variable_names(Eqs)]), term_to_atom(T, Eqs, Atom).
|: X+3*Y+X.
Atom = 'X+3*Y+X',
Eqs = ['X'=_A,'Y'=_B],
T = _A+3*_B+_A
variable_names/1 exists as a write option in ISO, Minerva, Jekejeke, GNU, B, SWI, YAP, and SICStus.
In SICStus, the originator of writing terms to lists, one writes:
:- use_module(library(codesio)).
term_to_atom(T, Eqs, Atom) :-
write_term_to_codes(T, Codes, [variable_names(Eqs),quoted(true)]),
atom_codes(Atom, Codes).
The following was an ISO incompatible work around for YAP prior to 6.3.4. It is no longer necessary. As for the differences to a separate write option: term_to_atom/3 as defined below interferes with constraints and does not correctly render '$VAR'/1.
But for the moment we can only approximate the ideal option
variable_names/1. To print terms with our own variable names,
variables have to be substituted in YAP by '$VAR'(Codes) where
Codes is a list of character codes. This does not do exactly the
same, but it is very close. This goes into a file:
:- use_module(library(apply)).
:- use_module(library(lambda)).
write_eqs_term(T, Eqs) :-
\+ \+ (
maplist(\Eq^( Eq = (N='$VAR'(Chs)), atom_codes(N,Chs)), Eqs),
write_term(T,[numbervars(true),quoted(true)])
).
term_to_atom(T, Eqs, A) :-
with_output_to(atom(A), write_eqs_term(T, Eqs) ).
For SWI, you would have to replace atom_codes(N,Chs) by N = Ch.
and install library(lambda) first. It's pre-installed in YAP.

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