Adding numbers in Prolog and unifying it with same variable - prolog

Suppose I have a recursive definition which runs for say 4 times giving new value to X1 every time,and the final value of A1 should be sum of all the X1.(That is I want to implement A1=A1+X1 where X1 gets new values after every recursive call)
add(A1,X1,L1,L):-
L1 is L+1,
A1 is A1+X1.
Sum(A1,L):-
nth1(L,[1,2,4,5],X1),
add(A1,X1,L1,L),
( L1<=4 ->Sum(A1,L1)
; write('')
).

I have the feeling looking at your code and the names you use for variables, that you think that variables are somehow always global. And you don't have to "declare" or "instantiate" a number with N is 1. So your code could be:
main :-
add(2, 3).
add(X, Y) :-
sum(X, Y, Sum), write(Sum), /* X is Sum */ write(X), nl.
sum(X, Y, Sum) :-
Sum is X + Y.
Saying X is Sum means in this case that X and Sum must be the same number.
Now, if you wanted to actually add two things together and keep the new sum, you would have to use a new variable for it, since this is how variables work:
add(X, Y) :-
sum(X, Y, Sum), write(Sum),
nl,
sum(Sum, X, X1), write(X1),
nl.

Variables, once bound to a value (unified) cease to be variable. They become an immutable object.
However, to accomplish what you want (as I understand your problem statement), you can say something like this:
sum(A,X,1,S) :- % one iteration, and we're done. Just compute the sum of A+X.
S is A+X . % - just compute the sum of A+X and unify it with S.
sum(A,X,N,S) :- % otherwise...
N > 1 , % - so long as N > 1 ,
N1 is N-1 , % - decrement N
A1 is A+X , % - compute a new A, the sum of the current A+X
sum(A1,X,N1,S) . % - and recurse down, passing the new values.

Related

Assigning a variable to a "return" value of a function in Prolog

I know that functions in prolog don't "return" a value and moreover, functions don't exist (?), but instead we have predicates. However, I'm trying to write code to use Newton's method to find roots of a real-valued function. My code looks something like this:
newton(0,_).
newton(N,X) :-
N > 0,
write(X), nl,
Y is f(X),
Y_prime is f_prime(X),
X_new is X - ((Y)/(Y_prime)),
S is N-1,
newton(S,X_new).
By simply writing, for example, 3*(X*X*X)-6*X+3 instead of f(X) and 6*(X*X)-6 instead of f_prime(X) we get a code that works perfectly when calling something like:
newton(10, 2).
However I would like to add some kind of previous statements (or predicates) like:
f(X,Y):-
Y is 3*(X*X*X) - (X*X) + 6.
f_prime(X,Y):-
Y is 6*(X*X) - 2*X.
And use these to somehow assign a value to Y and Y_prime in the main newton predicate. Is there a way to do this?
The same way you do with querying newton(N,X)
newton(0,_).
newton(N,X) :-
N > 0,
write(X), nl,
f(X, Y), % <--
f_prime(X, Y_prime), % <--
X_new is X - ((Y)/(Y_prime)),
S is N-1,
newton(S,X_new).

Magic Square NxN

I'm new to Prolog and I'm trying to write fully working magic square program, but to say the truth I don't really know how to do, I have started but I feel that I'm doing it wrong. I'm sharing my code and I hope someone will help me, now when numbers are good I get true, but when they are not I get like out of stack error... (here is only checking rows and columns I know about obliquely check)
thanks for your attention!
:- use_module(library(clpfd)).
:- use_module(library(lists)).
magicSq(List, N) :-
Number is N * N,
belongs(Number ,List), % check if numbers are correct.
all_different(List), % check if numbers not occur.
Suma is N*(N*N + 1)/2,
checkC(List,N,N,Suma), % check column
checkR(List,1,N,Suma). % check row
belongs(0, _).
belongs(N, List) :- member(N,List) , Index is N - 1 , belongs(Index, List).
consecutiveSum(_, 0 , _,0).
consecutiveSum(List, HowMuch , From,Sum):-
Index is HowMuch - 1,
From1 is From +1,
nth1(From, List,Element),
consecutiveSum(List,Index,From1,Z),
Sum is Z + Element,!.
sumObliCol(0,_, [], _,_). % sums by columns or obliquely
sumObliCol(X,Number, [H|T], Ind, Residue) :-
Index is Ind + 1,
Y is mod(Index,Number),
Y =:= Residue,
sumObliCol(Z,Number, T, Index,Residue),
X is Z + H, !.
sumObliCol(X,Number, [_|T], Ind,Residue) :-
Index is Ind + 1,
sumObliCol(X,Number, T, Index,Residue).
checkC(_,0,_,_). % check column
checkC(List,N, Number,Answ):-
N1 is N-1,
checkC(List,N1, Number,Answ),
sumObliCol(Ats,Number,List,0,N1),Ats is Answ,!.
checkR(_,N,Number,_):- N>(Number*Number). % check row
checkR(List,N,Number,Answ):-
consecutiveSum(List,Number,N,Sum), Sum is Answ,
N1 is N + Number,
checkR(List,N1, Number,Answ),!.
In programming one often assumes that
everything is deeply intertwingled ... since the cross-connections among the myriad topics of this world/program simply cannot be divided up neatly.1
But in Prolog, sometimes, we can divide things up much more neatly. In particular, if you concentrate on a single property like non-termination. So let's consider magic squares of size one — very magic indeed! Like so using a failure-slice:
?- magicSq(Xs,1), false.
magicSq(List, N) :-
Number is N * N,
belongs(Number ,List), false,
all_different(List),
Suma is N*(N*N + 1)/2,
checkC(List,N,N,Suma),
checkR(List,1,N,Suma).
belongs(0, _) :- false.
belongs(N1, List) :-
member(N1,List), false,
N2 is N1 - 1,
belongs(N2, List).
That's all you need to understand! Evidently, the List is unconstrained and thus the goal member(N1, List) cannot terminate. That's easy to fix, adding a goal length(List, Number). And still, the program does not terminate but in a different area:
?- magicSq(Xs,1), false.
magicSq(List, N) :-
Number is N * N,
length(List, Number),
belongs(Number ,List), false,
all_different(List),
Suma is N*(N*N + 1)/2,
checkC(List,N,N,Suma),
checkR(List,1,N,Suma).
belongs(0, _) :- false.
belongs(N1, List) :-
member(N1,List),
N2 is N1 - 1,
belongs(N2, List), false.
Now this does not terminate, for N1 may be negative, too. We need to improve that adding N1 > 0.
Now, considering the program with a false in front of all_different/1, I get:
?- time(magicSq(List, 3)).
% 8,571,007 inferences
That looks like an awful lot of inferences! In fact, what you are doing is to enumerate all possible configurations first. Thus, you do not use the powers of constraint programming. Please go through tutorials on this. Start here.
However, the problems do not stop here! There is much more to it, but the remaining program is very difficult to understand, for you are using the ! in completely unrelated places.

Prolog Ending a Recursion

countdown(0, Y).
countdown(X, Y):-
append(Y, X, Y),
Y is Y-1,
countdown(X, Y).
So for this program i am trying to make a countdown program which will take Y a number and count down from say 3 to 0 while adding each number to a list so countdown(3, Y). should produce the result Y=[3,2,1]. I can't seem the end the recursion when i run this and i was wondering if anyone could help me?
I cant seem to get this code to work any help? I seem to be getting out of global stack so I dont understand how to end the recursion.
Your original code
countdown( 0 , Y ) .
countdown( X , Y ) :-
append(Y, X, Y),
Y is Y-1,
countdown(X, Y).
has some problems:
countdown(0,Y). doesn't unify Y with anything.
Y is Y-1 is trying to unify Y with the value of Y-1. In Prolog, variables, once bound to a value, cease to be variable: they become that with which they were unified. So if Y was a numeric value, Y is Y-1 would fail. If Y were a variable, depending on your Prolog implementation, it would either fail or throw an error.
You're never working with lists. You are expecting append(Y,X,Y) to magically produce a list.
A common Prolog idiom is to build lists as you recurse along. The tail of the list is passed along on each recursion and the list itself is incomplete. A complete list is one in which the last item is the atom [], denoting the empty list. While building a list this way, the last item is always a variable and the list won't be complete until the recursion succeeds. So, the simple solution is just to build the list as you recurse down:
countdown( 0 , [] ) . % The special case.
countdown( N , [N|Ns] ) :- % The general case: to count down from N...
N > 0 , % - N must be greater than 0.
N1 is N-1 , % - decrement N
countdown(N1,Ns) % - recurse down, with the original N prepended to the [incomplete] result list.
. % Easy!
You might note that this will succeed for countdown(0,L), producing L = []. You could fix it by changing up the rules a we bit. The special (terminating) case is a little different and the general case enforces a lower bound of N > 1 instead of N > 0.
countdown( 1 , [1] ) .
countdown( N , [N|Ns] ) :-
N > 1 ,
N1 is N-1 ,
countdown(N1,Ns)
.
If you really wanted to use append/3, you could. It introduces another common Prolog idiom: the concept of a helper predicate that carries state and does all the work. It is common for the helper predicate to have the same name as the "public" predicate, with a higher arity. Something like this:
countdown(N,L) :- % to count down from N to 1...
N > 0 , % - N must first be greater than 0,
countdown(N,[],L) % - then, we just invoke the helper with its accumulator seeded as the empty list
. % Easy!
Here, countdown/2 is our "public predicate. It calls countdown/3 to do the work. The additional argument carries the required state. That helper will look like something like this:
countdown( 0 , L , L ) . % once the countdown is complete, unify the accumulator with the result list
countdown( N , T , L ) . % otherwise...
N > 0 , % - if N is greater than 0
N1 is N-1 , % - decrement N
append(T,[N],T1) , % - append N to the accumulator (note that append/3 requires lists)
countdown(N1,T1,L) % - and recurse down.
. %
You might notice that using append/3 like this means that it iterates over the accumulator on each invocation, thus giving you O(N2) performance rather than the desired O(N) performance.
One way to avoid this is to just build the list in reverse order and reverse that at the very end. This requires just a single extra pass over the list, meaning you get O(2N) performance rather than O(N2) performance. That gives you this helper:
countdown( 0 , T , L ) :- % once the countdown is complete,
reverse(T,L) % reverse the accumulator and unify it with the result list
. %
countdown( N , T , L ) :- % otherwise...
N > 0 , % - if N is greater than 0
N1 is N-1 , % - decrement N
append(T,[N],T1) , % - append N to the accumulator (note that append/3 requires lists)
countdown(N1,T1,L) % - and recurse down.
. %
There are several errors in your code:
first clause does not unify Y.
second clause uses append with first and third argument Y, which would only succeed if X=[].
in that clause you are trying to unify Y with another value which will always fail.
Y should be a list (according to your comment) in the head but you are using it to unify an integer.
You might do it this way:
countdown(X, L):-
findall(Y, between(1, X, Y), R),
reverse(R, L).
between/3 will give you every number from 1 to X (backtracking). Therefore findall/3 can collect all the numbers. This will give you ascending order so we reverse/2 it to get the descending order.
If you want to code yourself recursively:
countdown(X, [X|Z]):-
X > 1,
Y is X-1,
countdown(Y, Z).
countdown(1, [1]).
Base case (clause 2) states that number 1 yields a list with item 1.
Recursive clause (first clause) states that if X is greater than 1 then the output list should contain X appended with the result from the recursive call.

How does the recursing work in prolog for adding number

My aim is to take the numbers between X and Y and produce Z.
num_between(3,6, All)
For example, if X is 3 and Y is 6 then Z is a list of the numbers between X and Y inclusive. Something like num_between(3,6,[3,4,5,6]) should evaluate as true. Here's what I have so far:
num_between(0,0, []).
num_between(X,Y, All) :-
increase(X, New) , % increase number X++
\+(X = Y) , % check if X is not equal to Y
num_between(New,Y,[All|X]) . % requestion ???
increase(F,N) :- N is F+1 .
increase/1 is working and returns number that is required, but
when recursion is gone through num_between/3 it goes unlit: X is 6 then it fails as I want,
but I can not manage to keep numbers or to return them. All = [3,4,5,6].
All = All + F. Could anyone help please.
Your base clause is incorrect: since you never decrease X or Y, they would never get to zero (unless Y starts at zero, and X starts at a non-positive value). The base clause should look like this:
num_between(X, Y, []) :- X > Y.
This ensures that you get an empty result when the user enters an invalid "backward" range (say, from 6 to 3).
Now to the main clause: all you need to do is to check that the range is valid, get the next value, and make a recursive call, like this:
num_between(X, Y, [X|Tail]) :-
X =< Y,
Next is X + 1,
num_between(Next, Y, Tail).
Demo.
Your original code made an error when constructing a list - it tried to use X as the "tail" of the list, which is incorrect:
num_between(New,Y,[All|X]).
you pass on All, the result after an "expansion", down through the recursive chain of invocation. It should be the other way around - you need to pass in a Tail to collect the result, and then pre-pend X to it when the recursive invocation is over.
You have to change both your base case and your recursive clause:
num_between(X, X, [X]).
num_between(X, Y, [X|L]):-
X < Y,
increase(X, New),
num_between(New, Y, L).
First clause is the base case, it states that the number ranging from X and X is just [X].
The recursive clause states that a number X which is less than a number Y should have it in the output list (thus the [X|L] in the third argument of the head), then it increases the value (i'm just using your helper procedure for that) and recursively calling itself now with the New value for the first argument.
I would write this along these lines:
numbers_between( X , X , [X] ) . % if X and Y have converged, we have the empty list
numbers_between( X , Y , [X|Zs] ) :- % otherwise, add X to the result list
X < Y , % - assuming X is less than Y
X1 is X+1 , % - increment X
numbers_between(X1,Y,Zs) % - recurse down
. %
numbers_between( X , Y , [X|Zs] ) :- % otherwise, add X to the result list
X > Y , % - assuming X > Y
X1 is X-1 , % - decrement X
numbers_between(X1,Y,Zs) % - recurse down
. %

Prolog - sequence in list

We want to build a predicate that gets a list L and a number N and is true if N is the length of the longest sequence of list L.
For example:
?- ls([1,2,2,4,4,4,2,3,2],3).
true.
?- ls([1,2,3,2,3,2,1,7,8],3).
false.
For this I built -
head([X|S],X). % head of the list
ls([H|T],N) :- head(T,X),H=X, NN is N-1 , ls(T,NN) . % if the head equal to his following
ls(_,0) :- !. % get seq in length N
ls([H|T],N) :- head(T,X) , not(H=X) ,ls(T,N). % if the head doesn't equal to his following
The concept is simply - check if the head equal to his following , if so , continue with the tail and decrement the N .
I checked my code and it works well (ignore cases which N = 1) -
ls([1,2,2,4,4,4,2,3,2],3).
true ;
false .
But the true answer isn't finite and there is more answer after that , how could I make it to return finite answer ?
Prolog-wise, you have a few problems. One is that your predicate only works when both arguments are instantiated, which is disappointing to Prolog. Another is your style—head/2 doesn't really add anything over [H|T]. I also think this algorithm is fundamentally flawed. I don't think you can be sure that no sequence of longer length exists in the tail of the list without retaining an unchanged copy of the guessed length. In other words, the second thing #Zakum points out, I don't think there will be a simple solution for it.
This is how I would have approached the problem. First a helper predicate for getting the maximum of two values:
max(X, Y, X) :- X >= Y.
max(X, Y, Y) :- Y > X.
Now most of the work sequence_length/2 does is delegated to a loop, except for the base case of the empty list:
sequence_length([], 0).
sequence_length([X|Xs], Length) :-
once(sequence_length_loop(X, Xs, 1, Length)).
The call to once/1 ensures we only get one answer. This will prevent the predicate from usefully generating lists with sequences while also making the predicate deterministic, which is something you desired. (It has the same effect as a nicely placed cut).
Loop's base case: copy the accumulator to the output parameter:
sequence_length_loop(_, [], Length, Length).
Inductive case #1: we have another copy of the same value. Increment the accumulator and recur.
sequence_length_loop(X, [X|Xs], Acc, Length) :-
succ(Acc, Acc1),
sequence_length_loop(X, Xs, Acc1, Length).
Inductive case #2: we have a different value. Calculate the sequence length of the remainder of the list; if it is larger than our accumulator, use that; otherwise, use the accumulator.
sequence_length_loop(X, [Y|Xs], Acc, Length) :-
X \= Y,
sequence_length([Y|Xs], LengthRemaining),
max(Acc, LengthRemaining, Length).
This is how I would approach this problem. I don't know if it will be useful for you or not, but I hope you can glean something from it.
How about adding a break to the last rule?
head([X|S],X). % head of the list
ls([H|T],N) :- head(T,X),H=X, NN is N-1 , ls(T,NN) . % if the head equal to his following
ls(_,0) :- !. % get seq in length N
ls([H|T],N) :- head(T,X) , not(H=X) ,ls(T,N),!. % if the head doesn't equal to his following
Works for me, though I'm no Prolog expert.
//EDIT: btw. try
14 ?- ls([1,2,2,4,4,4,2,3,2],2).
true ;
false.
Looks false to me, there is no check whether N is the longest sequence. Or did I get the requirements wrong?
Your code is checking if there is in list at least a sequence of elements of specified length. You need more arguments to keep the state of the search while visiting the list:
ls([E|Es], L) :- ls(E, 1, Es, L).
ls(X, N, [Y|Ys], L) :-
( X = Y
-> M is N+1,
ls(X, M, Ys, L)
; ls(Y, 1, Ys, M),
( M > N -> L = M ; L = N )
).
ls(_, N, [], N).

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