Prolog subgroup of list of size n - prolog

Question

I'm trying to create a rule to determine if a list is a sublist of size n of another list.
isSubgroup/3
isSubgroup(+Subgroup, +Group, +N)
For example, isSubgroup([1, 2, 4], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 3) would return True
However, isSubgroup([4, 2, 1], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 3) would return False (because of the different order)
I thought of checking for each member of the subgroup whether or not it's a member of the large group, but that would ignore the order.
Is the idea feasible?

Answer 1

Really, try to write an inductive relation. Meanwhile, library(yall) coupled with library(apply) can make one liner:
isSubgroup(S,G,N) :- length(S,N),
foldl({G}/[E,P,X]>>(nth1(X,G,E),X>=P),S,1,_F).

Answer 2

As #WillemVanOnsem suggested, an inductive solution:
subGroups([], []).
subGroups([X|Xs], [X|Ys]):-
subGroups(Xs, Ys).
subGroups(Xs, [_|Ys]):-
subGroups(Xs, Ys).
subGroupsN(Options, N, Solution) :-
length(Solution, N),
subGroups(Solution, Options).

Answer 3

We can define this predictate by an inductive definition. A Subgroup is a subgroup of Group if:
the Subgroup is an empty list;
the first element of the Subgroup is the same as the first element of Group, and the rest of the Subgroup is a subgroup of the rest of the Group;
the Subgroup is a subgroup of the rest of the Group.
We need to update N accordingly such that, if the Subgroup is empty, then the length is 0:
isSubgroup([], _, 0). %% (1)
isSubgroup([H|TS], [H|TG], N) :- %% (2)
N1 is N-1,
isSubgroup(TS, TG, N1).
isSubgroup(S, [_|TG], N) :- %% (3)
isSubgroup(S, TG, N).
The above however results in duplicate trues for the same subgroup. This is due to the fact that we can satisfy the predicate in multiple ways. For example if we call:
isSubgroup([], [1,2], 0).
then it is satisfied through the fact (1), but the last clause (3) also calls this with isSubgroup([], [1], 0)., that will then get satisfied through the fact (1), etc.
We can avoid this by making the last clause more restrictive:
isSubgroup([], _, 0). %% (1)
isSubgroup([H|TS], [H|TG], N) :- %% (2)
N1 is N-1,
isSubgroup(TS, TG, N1).
isSubgroup([HS|TS], [_|TG], N) :- %% (3)
isSubgroup([HS|TS], TG, N).
The above works for the given "directions" (all arguments should be grounded, are "input"). But typically one wants to use a predicate in other directions as well. We can implement a version that works basically when we use arguments as "output" as well, and still make use of tail-call optimization (TCO):
isSubgroup(S, G, N) :-
isSubgroup(S, G, 0, N).
isSubgroup([], _, L, L). %% (1)
isSubgroup([H|TS], [H|TG], L, N) :- %% (2)
L1 is L+1,
isSubgroup(TS, TG, L1, N).
isSubgroup([HS|TS], [_|TG], L, N) :- %% (3)
isSubgroup([HS|TS], TG, L, N).
For example:
?- isSubgroup([1,4,2], G, N).
G = [1, 4, 2|_2974],
N = 3 ;
G = [1, 4, _2972, 2|_2986],
N = 3 ;
G = [1, 4, _2972, _2984, 2|_2998],
N = 3 ;
G = [1, 4, _2972, _2984, _2996, 2|_3010],
N = 3 .
Here Prolog is thus able to propose groups for which [1,4,2] is a subgroup, and it is capable to determining the length N of the subgroup.
We can query in the opposite direction as well:
?- isSubgroup(S, [1,4,2], N).
S = [],
N = 0 ;
S = [1],
N = 1 ;
S = [1, 4],
N = 2 ;
S = [1, 4, 2],
N = 3 ;
S = [1, 2],
N = 2 ;
S = [4],
N = 1 ;
S = [4, 2],
N = 2 ;
S = [2],
N = 1 ;
false.
Prolog can, for a given group [1,4,2] enumerate exhaustively all possible subgroups, together with N the length of that subgroup.