List unification in Prolog - prolog

I am a Prolog newbie with very simple question regarding list unification.
If [a,b,c] unifies with [a|T] resulting in T=[b,c]
why doesn't [a,b,c] unify with [b|T]?

To unify means, in a very simplified way, to match patterns. When you unify:
[a, b, c] = [a | T]
you're saying, in the right side, that the first list contains an element a followed by a tail T. Now, if you say:
[a, b, c] = [b | T]
the previous statement does not apply, since you do not have, on the left side, a list that begins with a and is followed by a tail-list T, i.e., the [a, b, c] does not unify with the list [b | T].

Because b is not the head of the list [a,b,c]. Prolog list notation is syntactic sugar over a very simple structure.
The empty list is represented as the atom [].
Non-empty lists (that is, list of length 1 or more) are represented as a single ./2 structure (.(A,B)) where the first (leftmost) argument to the structure is the head (first item) of the list and the second (rightmost) argument is the tail (the list that is the remainder of the list of the list, which may be either the empty list or — recursively — another non-empty list. So
A list of one item, [a], is represented internally as this prolog term:
.(a,[]).
A list of two items, [a,b] is represented internally as you might expect:
.(a,.(b,[]))
A list of three items, [a,b,c] is represented in the same way:
.(a,.(b,.(c,[])))
And so on.
The vertical bar (|) operator in prolog list notation, used to divide a list into its head and tail, is likewise syntactic sugar for the same ./2 structure. The term
[H|T]
is exactly identical to
.(H,T)
And an expressions like
[A,B|Rest]
[A,B,C|Rest]
are, respectively, identical to
.(A,.(B,Rest))
.(A,.(B,.(C,Rest)))
Given all that, it should be pretty obvious why an expression like
[a,b,c] = [b|T]
fails, because it's exactly identical to:
.(a,.(b,.(c,[]))) = .(b,T)
The first elements of each side, respectively a and b are different and so the unification fails.

Related

What exactly is the vertical slash function in PROLOG? Is it an operator?

I was studying the PROLOG programming language, testing some examples and reading documentations. I started then to do heavy research about lists in PROLOG. The idea is: Head and Tail. I then learned that lists can be expressed in PROLOG like this:
[Head | Tail]
The syntax is pretty simple, square brackets with a head and a tail, separated by a vertical slash |. I then asked myself what is the meaning (the semantics) of the vertical slash | in PROLOG. As I said, I had done research concerning lists and the vertical slash as well, but I was not able to find something helpful about the it.
So this is why I am a little bit confused. I suppose it is indeed a special character, but why does it necessarily have to be a vertical slash? Is it an operator? Is it used for system or language (meta) applications? What is its specific function in the language?
Yes, | is a right-associative infix operator of precedence 1105, right-associative meaning that an expression like
a|b|c|d
binds as
'|'( a , '|'( b , '|'( c , d ) ) )
rather than the left-associative binding
'|'( '|'( '|'( a , b ) , c ) , d )
It is part of Prolog's syntactic sugar for list notation. In Prolog, any non-empty list, has a single item that is denoted as its head, and the remainder of the list, itself another list (which may be empty), denoted as the tail. (A rather nice recursive definition, eh?)
So one can easily partition a list into its head and tail using |. So
[Head|Tail] = [a,b,c,d]
results in
Head = a
Tail = [b,c,d]
From my answer here,
Prolog's list notation is syntactic sugar on top of very simple prolog terms. Prolog lists are denoted thus:
The empty list is represented by the atom []. Why? Because that looks like the mathematical notation for an empty list. They could have used an atom like nil to denote the empty list but they didn't.
A non-empty list is represented by the term .\2, where the first (leftmost) argument is the head of the list and the second (rightmost) argument is the tail of the list, which is, recursively, itself a list.
Some examples:
An empty list: [] is represented as the atom it is:
[]
A list of one element, [a] is internally stored as
.(a,[])
A list of two elements [a,b] is internally stored as
.(a,.(b,[]))
A list of three elements, [a,b,c] is internally stored as
.(a,.(b,.(c,[])))
Examination of the head of the list is likewise syntactic sugar over the same ./2 notation:
[X|Xs] is identical to .(X,Xs)
[A,B|Xs] is identical to .(A,.(B,Xs))
[A,B] is (see above) identical to .(A,.(B,[]))
There seems to be a bit of confusion b/w the usage of vertical bar | generally used in list pattern matching and the |/2 operator.
I am not familiar with other prologs so this might be swi-prolog specific. Help for '|' states the following:
help('|').
:Goal1 | :Goal2
Equivalent to ;/2. Retained for compatibility only. New code should use ;/2.
So, the | used in list notation is not this operator.
?- X = '[|]'(1, []).
X = [1].
?- X = '|'(1, []).
X = (1| []).
?- [1] = '|'(1, []).
false.
?- [1] = '[|]'(1, []).
true.
As seen above using just | only creates a compound term and not a list.
Following uses Univ =.. and makes it more clear.
?- X = '[|]'(a, '[|]'(b, [])).
X = [a, b].
?- [a, b, c] =.. X.
X = ['[|]', a, [b, c]].
?- deep_univ([a, b, c, d], X).
X = ['[|]', a, ['[|]', b, ['[|]', c, ['[|]', d, []]]]].
I have used deep_univ/2 from here

How can I pair all elements in a list in Prolog?

The goal is to create pairs/triplets/quartets from short lists, since these lists occur in a list of lists that I flatten. Since I want these elements to stay connected, I need a way to flatten the lists without losing the connection between the items in these particular lists.
In short, [a, b, c] needs to be converted to a-b-c. In theory long lists need to be handled too, but in reality only short lists will be relevant.
What I tried so far (which I know is horribly wrong):
create_pair([], Pair).
create_pair([H, H1|T], Pair):-
NPair = H-H1,
create_pair(T, NPair).
This is just for the case of where the list has 2 elements.
You can build your pair/triplet/quartet/... by joining the two first items of the list and replacing it with your connection term until the whole list is processed:
create_ntets([H], H).
create_ntets([H,H1|T], NTet):-
create_ntets([H-H1|T], NTet).
This procedure assumes there is no 0-tet.
Sample runs
?- create_ntets([a,b,c], Triplet).
Triplet = a-b-c
?- create_ntets([a,b,c,d], Quartet).
Quartet = a-b-c-d
If the data structure you want to convert the short lists to doesn't really matter, you can just use =../2 to convert the list to a term. Something like:
list_term(L,T) :- T =.. [ listlet | L ].
So evaluating list_to_term( [a,b,c], T) binds T as listlet(a,b,c) and evaluating list_to_term( L , listlet(a,b,c,d) ) binds L as [a,b,c,d].
See https://swish.swi-prolog.org/p/list-to-term.pl for a runnable playground.

List with if - plus and minus

I should create a list with integer.It should be ziga_arnitika(L,ML).Which take L list (+) integer and will return the list ML only (-) integer the even numbers of list L.
Warning:The X mod Y calculates X:Y.
Example: ziga_arnitika([3,6,-18,2,9,36,31,-40,25,-12,-5,-15,1],ML).
ML =[-18,-40,-12]
i know for example with not list to use if but not with lists,what i did is..:
something(12) :-
write('Go to L).
something(10) :-
write('Go to Ml).
something(other) :-
Go is other -10,
format('Go to list ~w',[ML]).
You want to compute a list with elements satisfying some properties from a given list. Lists in Prolog have a very simple representation. The empty list is represent by []. A non-empty list is a sequence of elements separated by a comma. E.g. [1,2,3]. Prolog also provides handy notation to split a list between its head (or first element) and its tail (a list with the remaining arguments):
?- [1,2,3] = [Head| Tail].
Head = 1,
Tail = [2, 3].
Walking a list (from its first element to its last element) can be done easily using a simple recursive predicate. The trivial case is when a list is empty:
walk([]).
If a list is not empty, we move to the list tail:
walk([Head| Tail]) :- walk(Tail).
However, if you try this predicate definition in virtually any Prolog system, it will warn you that Head is a singleton variable. That means that the variable appears once in a predicate clause. You can solve the warning by replacing the variable Head with an anonymous variable (which we can interpret as "don't care" variable). Thus, currently we have:
walk([]).
walk([_| Tail]) :- walk(Tail).
We can try it with our example list:
?- walk([1,2,3]).
true.
Prolog being a relational language, what happens if we call the walk/1 predicate with a variable instead?
?- walk(List).
List = [] ;
List = [_4594] ;
List = [_4594, _4600] ;
List = [_4594, _4600, _4606]
...
Now back to the original problem: constructing a list from elements of other list. We want to process each element of the input list and, if it satisfies some property, adding it to the output list. We need two arguments. The simple case (or base case) is again when the input list is empty:
process([], []).
The general case (or recursive case) will be:
process([Head| Tail], [Head| Tail2]) :-
property(Head),
process(Tail, Tail2).
assuming a predicate property/1 that is true when its argument satisfies some property. In your case, being a even, negative integer. But not all elements will satisfy the property. To handle that case, we need a third clause that will skip an element that doesn't satisfy the property:
process([Head| Tail], List) :-
\+ property(Head),
process(Tail, List).
The \+/1 predicate is Prolog standard negation predicate: it's true when its argument is false.
Let's try our process/2 predicate it by defining a property/1 predicate that is true if the argument is the integer zero:
property(0).
A sample call would then be:
?- process([1,0,2,0,0,3,4,5], List).
List = [0, 0, 0] ;
false
We have successfully written a predicate that extracts all the zeros from a list. Note that our query have a single solution. If we type a ; to ask for the next solution at the prompt, the Prolog top-level interpreter will tell us that there are no more solutions (the exact printout depends on the chosen Prolog system; some will print e.g. no instead of falsebut the meaning is the same).
Can you now solve your original question by defining a suitable property/1 predicate?
Update
You can combine the two recursive clauses in one by writing for example:
process([Head| Tail], List) :-
( % condition
property(Head) ->
% then
List = [Head| Tail2],
process(Tail, Tail2)
; % else
process(Tail, List)
).
In this case, we use the Prolog standard if-then-else control construct. Note, however, that this construct does an implicit cut in the condition. I.e. we only take the first solution for the property/1 predicate and discard any other potential solutions. The use of this control construct also prevents using the process/2 predicate in reverse (e.g. calling it with an unbound first argument and a bound second argument) or using it to generate pairs of terms that satisfy the relation (e.g. calling it with both arguments unbound). These issues may or may not be significant depending on the property that you're using to filter the list and on the details of the practical problem that you're solving. More sophisticated alternatives are possible but out of scope for this introductory answer.

What does the following recursive Prolog call output?

I'm trying to learn prologue, but man am I having trouble.
I have an example below as well as what it outputs, and I'm clearly stuck on some concepts but not sure what.
output([]).
output([c|R]):- output(R), !, nl.
output([X|R]) :- output(R), write(X).
?- output([a,b,c,d,e]).
Answer:
ed
ba
true.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but here is what I understand so far...
When we call output([a,b,c,d,e]).
prologue looks for a solution using unification,
it tries output([]) and fails, so it proceeds to the second output([c|R]) which then passes the tail of the list recursively into output([c|R]) until it hits the base case of output([]).
Now I get confused...It then hits the cut which locks R to [] and c with a value of e? how does the output afterwards happens? I'm really confused.
I think you're having a fundamental misunderstanding of what Prolog is doing and what unification is about. In Prolog when you make a query such as output([a,b,c,d,e]). Prolog will start from the beginning of your asserted facts and predicates and attempt to unify this term (your query) with a fact or the head of a predicate.
Unification
We need to stop here for a moment and understand what unification is. In Prolog, the operator =/2 is the unification operator and can be used to query the unification of two terms, term1 = term2. This query will succeed if term and term2 can be successfully unified. How can they be successfully unified? This can happen if there is a binding of variables in term1 and term2 such that the terms become, essentially, identical (by "essentially" I mean they might differ only in syntactic representation but are truly identical when in canonical form - see details below on what that is).
Here are examples of unification attempts that fail. You can enter these at a Prolog prompt and it will show immediate failure.
a = e. % This fails because the atom `a` is different than the atom `e1`
% There are no variables here that can change this fact
foo(X) = bar(Y)
% This fails because the functor `foo` is different than
% the functor `bar`. There's no way to get these terms to match
% regardless of how the variables `X` or `Y` might be instantiated
foo(a, Y) = foo(b, Y)
% This fails because no matter how the variable `Y` is instantiated
% the 1st argument of `foo` just cannot match. That is, the atom
% `a` doesn't match the atom `b`.
foo(a, b, X) = foo(a, b)
% This fails because the `foo/3` and `foo/2` have a different
% number of arguments. No instantiation of the variable `X` can
% change that fact
[1,2] = [1,2,3] % Fails because a list of 2 elements cannot match a list of 3 elements
[] = [_|_] % Fails because the empty list cannot match a list of at
% least one element.
[a,b,c] = [x|T] % Fails, regardless of how `T` might be bound, because `[a,b,c]`
% is a list whose first element is `a`
% and `[x|T]` is a list whose first element is `x`. The
% atoms `a` and `x` do not and cannot match.
Here are examples of successful unifications. You can test these as well at a Prolog prompt and you should get success or, if variables are involved, get at least one solution showing binding of variables that causes it to succeed:
a = a. % Trivial case: an atom successfully unifies with itself
X = a. % Succeeds with `X` bound to `a`
foo(X) = foo(a). % Succeeds with `X` bound to `a`
[a,b,c] = [a|T] % Succeeds with `T` bound to `[b,c]` because the first element
% `a` is the same in both cases.
[1,2,3] = [H|T] % Succeeds with `H` bound to 1, and `T` bound to `[2,3]`
% since `[1,2,3]` is equivalent to `[1|[2,3]]` (they are two
% different syntaxes representing the same term)
Just an aside: Prolog list syntax
We're writing lists using a form that's familiar from other languages. So [] is an empty list, and [1,2,3] is a list of the 3 elements 1, 2, and 3. You can also have lists inside of lists, or any terms in a list for that matter. This, for example, is a valid list of 3 elements: [a, [1,foo(a)], bar(x,Y,[])]. The first element is a, the second is a list of two elements, [1, foo(a)], and the third element is bar(x,Y,[]). In Prolog, you can also write a list in a form that describes the first of one or more elements and a tail. For example [H|T] is a list whose first element is H and the rest of the list is T (itself a list). A list of at least two elements could be written as [H|T] and you'd know that T has at least one element. Or you could write it as [H1,H2|T] and explicitly indicate the first two elements and understand that T would be a list of zero or more arguments. The first elements are individual elements of the list, and the tail is a list representing the rest of the list. The following forms all represent the list [a,b,c,d,e]:
[a,b,c,d,e]
[a|[b,c,d,e]]
[a,b|[c,d,e]]
[a,b,c|[d,e]]
[a,b,c,d|[e]]
[a,b,c,d,e|[]]
If you had a list, L, and wanted prolog to ensure that L had at least two arguments, you could unify L with an anonymous list of 2 elements: L = [_,_|_]. This will only succeed if L is a list of at least two elements.
Another aside: canonical form
Prolog, though, has what it calls a canonical form for terms which is its fundamental representation of a given term. You can see the canonical form of a term by calling write_canonical(Term):
| ?- write_canonical([a,b,c]).
'.'(a,'.'(b,'.'(c,[])))
yes
So that's interesting, what on earth is that? It doesn't look like a list at all! It's actually the canonical form in Prolog of what a list really looks like to Prolog (if you want to think of it that way). The fundamental term form in Prolog is a functor and zero or more arguments. The atom a is a term which could be viewed as a functor a with no arguments. The term foo(1,X) has functor foo and arguments 1 and X. The list [a,b,c] written that way is just a convenient syntax for programmers that make it easy to read. A list is actually formed by the functor '.' and two arguments: the head and the tail. So the list [H|T] in general is '.'(H,T) and the empty list [] is just itself, an atom representing the empty list. When Prolog unifies (or attempts to unify) two lists, it's really looking at a list as '.'(H, T) so it matches the '.' functor, then attempts to match arguments. In the case of multiple elements, it's a recursive match since T is itself a list.
Expressions in Prolog such as X + 3 are also a syntactic convenience for the canonical form, '+'(X, 3).
Back to our story
As we were saying, when you query output([a,b,c,d,e])., Prolog tries to unify this with heads of predicate clauses or facts that you have already asserted. Here's what you have asserted:
output([]).
output([c|R]):- output(R), !, nl.
output([X|R]) :- output(R), write(X).
Starting from the top, Prolog attempts this unification:
output([a,b,c,d,e]) = output([])
This fails since there are no variables to change the terms to make them match. It fails because the list [a,b,c,d,e] and the empty list [] cannot match.
On to the next clause:
output([a,b,c,d,e]) = output([c|R])
This can only succeed if the unification [a,b,c,d,e] = [c|R] can succeed with some binding of R. You can look at this as [a|[b,c,d,e,]] = [c|R]. Clearly, for this unification to succeed, the first element of each list must match. But a and c don't match, so this fails.
On to the next one:
output([a,b,c,d,e]) = output([X|R])
Prolog attempts then to unify [a,b,c,d,e] with [X|R], or [a|[b,c,d,e]] with [X|R]... and this succeeds since X and R are variables and they can be bound as X = a and R = [b,c,d,e]. Now the body of the clause can be executed:
output([b,c,d,e]), write(a).
Before we can get to the write(a), the call output([b,c,d,e]) must execute first and succeed. Following the same logic above, the the first and second clauses of the output/1 predicate do not match. But the 3rd clause matches again with [b,c,d,e] = [X|R] resulting in X = b and R = [c,d,e]. Now the body of this clause is executed again (and you must remember we're now one level deep in a recursive call... the above call to output([b,c,d,e]) is pending awaiting the result):
output([c,d,e]), write(b).
Now it gets more interesting. The first clause of output/1 still doesn't match since [c,d,e] = [] fails. But the second clause now does match since [c,d,e] = [c|R] succeeds with the binding R = [d,e]. So that body is executed:
output([d,e]), !, nl.
Now we need to chase down the call to output([d,e]) (we're now another level deep in recursion remember!). This one fails to match the first two clauses but matches the 3rd clause, by [d,e] = [X|R] with bindings X = d and R = [e].
I could keep going but I'm getting tired of typing and I do have a real job I work at and am running out of time. You should get the idea hear and start working through this logic yourself. The big hint moving forward is that when you finally get to output([]) in a recursive call an you match the first clause, you will start "unwinding" the recursive calls (which you need to keep track of if you're doing this by hand) and the write(X) calls will start to be executed as well as the !, nl portion of the second clause in the case where c was matched as the first element.
Have fun...
The main problem with your reasoning is that c is not a variable but an atom. It cannot be unified with any other value.
So with your example input, for the first 2 calls it will not execute output([c|R]) (since a nor b can be unified with c), but it goes on to output([X|R]) instead. Only for the third call, when the head is c, the former clause is called. After this it will call the latter clause another 2 times for d and e, and then it hits the base case.
From that point on we can easily see the output: if first writes 'e', then 'd', then a new line (for the time we matched c), ad then b and a. Finally you get true as output, indicating that the predicate call succeeded.
Also note that due to the cut we only get a single output. If the cut wasn't there, we would also get edcba, since the c case would also be able to match the last clause.

Understanding difference lists (Prolog)

I'm having trouble understanding difference list, particularly in this predicate:
palindrome(A, A).
palindrome([_|A], A).
palindrome([C|A], D) :-
palindrome(A, B),
B=[C|D].
Could anyone help me follow what's happening?
palindrome(A, A).
palindrome([_|A], A).
palindrome([C|A], D) :-
palindrome(A, B),
B=[C|D].
Seeing the arguments to this predicate as a difference list, the first clause says, a list from A to A (i.e., an empty list) is a palindrome.
The second clause says, a one-element list is a palindrome, whatever that one element is.
Don't panic! Difference lists are just lists with explicit end "pointer"
A normal list, say [1,2,3], is a difference between its start and its end; the end of a normal list is always an empty list, []. That is to say, for a list [1,2,3] we are supposed to call this predicate as palindrome( [1,2,3], []) — namely, check whether the difference list [1,2,3] - [] is a palindrome.
From the operational point of view, a difference list is nothing but a (possibly open-ended) list with explicitly maintained "end pointer", for example: A - Z where A = [1,2,3|Z] and Z = []. Indeed, [1,2,3|[]] is the same as [1,2,3]. But when Z is not instantiated yet, the list A is still open ended - its "end pointer" Z can be instantiated to anything (but only once, of course, sans the backtracking).
If we were to instantiate Z later to an open-ended list, say, Z = [4|W], we'd get a new, extended difference list A - W where A = [1,2,3,4|W]. The old one would become A - Z = [1,2,3,4|W] - [4|W], i.e. still representing a prefix [1,2,3] of an open-ended list [1,2,3,4 ...]. Once closed, e.g. with W = [5], all the pairs of logvars still represent their corresponding difference lists (i.e. A - Z, A - W ...), but A is not open-ended anymore, so can't be extended anymore.
Instead of using the - functor, it is customary to just use both parts of the diff list definition as separate arguments to a predicate. When we always use / treat them as if they were two parts of a pair, then they form a pair, conceptually. It's the same thing.
Continuing. The third clause says, for [C|A]-D to be a palindrome, A-B must be a palindrome, and B must be [C|D]. A, D, B are lists, C is an element of a list. This might be confusing; let's use V instead. Also, use Z and Y instead of D and B, to remind us of "the end" of a list:
palindrome([V|A], Z):- palindrome(A, Y), Y=[V|Z].
V ................. V ----
^ ^ ^
| | |
| | Z
A Y = [V|Z]
Indeed, when the ...... core is a palindrome, putting two Vs around it gives us another palindrome.
The following is a summary that hopefully distills the best of the previous discussion, and adds one small but significant simplification.
First, the original question should be understood in the context of the problem at hand, which can be formulated as defining a Prolog predicate which will check whether a list is a palindrome, or more generally to generate palindromes. We wish to explore an implementation using difference lists, so we can begin as follows:
% List is a palindrome if List - [] is a palindrome:
palindrome( List ) :- palindrome(List, []).
(As explained elsewhere, if a list, List, is the concatenation of two lists
Front and Back, then Front can be viewed as being the difference
between List and Back, that is, Front can be regarded as equivalent to (List - Back).)
To define palindrome/2, we begin with the two "base cases", an empty list and a singleton:
% The empty list (L-L) is a palindrome:
palindrome(L, L).
% A singleton list, ([X|L] - L), is a palindrome:
palindrome([X|L], L).
Let us now turn to the general case.
If a list with more than one element is to be a palindrome, then it
will look like this: E ... E
where ... is a (possibly empty) palindrome.
Tacking on a tail, Tail, our list must look like: E ... E Tail
Writing this regular list as [E|Rest], we can now see that the original list ( [E|Rest] - Tail ) is a palindrome if (Rest - [E|Tail]) is a palindrome,
or in terms of our predicate palindrome/2:
palindrome( [E|Xs], Tail ) :- palindrome(Xs, [E|Tail]).
It's easy to see that this is equivalent to the original formulation.
That's it! Now we can, for example, generate templates for palindromes:
?- palindrome( X ).
X = [] ;
X = [_G1247] ;
X = [_G1247, _G1247] ;
X = [_G1247, _G1253, _G1247] ;
X = [_G1247, _G1253, _G1253, _G1247]
....

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