Prolog: reverse([], A) vs reverse(A, []) - prolog

I can't make any sense out of this: If I give Prolog reverse([], A). it works fine, if I give it reverse(A, []). and answer ; on first suggestion it hangs!
Why? (Same result for both GNU Prolog and SICStus Prolog!)
aioobe#r60:~$ prolog
GNU Prolog 1.3.0
By Daniel Diaz
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Daniel Diaz
| ?- reverse([], A).
A = []
yes
| ?- reverse(A, []).
A = [] ? ;
Fatal Error: global stack overflow (size: 32768 Kb,
environment variable used: GLOBALSZ)
aioobe#r60:~$

Looks like an overzealous optimization for a built-in predicate to me. The same problem occurs regardless of the contents of the list in the second argument. Based on the GProlog manual this is a bug. Notice that the template for reverse is
reverse(?list, ?list)
And further that ? means "the argument can be instantiated or a variable."
SWI-Prolog version 5.6.64 gives the expected result.
?- reverse([], A).
A = [].
?- reverse(A, []).
A = [] ;
false.

My reverse did the same, because I assumed argument 1 would be instantiated (i.e. reverse(+,?), as above), knowing that my Prolog would index on it.
Here:
reverse(L, R) :- reverse_1(L, [], R).
reverse_1([], X, X). % <-- doesn't loop on unbound arg #1 if this clause cuts
reverse_1([A|As], X, R) :-
reverse_1(As, [A|X], R).

Related

Prolog: How to create a list of predicates?

d_edge(a, b, 5).
e_edge(a, c, 6).
f_edge(b, c, 8).
% I will have a list of rules for the graph point
% from source to destination with weight.
list2pair([T], [A,B], [(T,A,B)]).
list2pair([T1|Tt], [A1,A2|T], Result) :-
list2pair(Tt, [A1|T], R1),
append([(T1,A1,A2)], R1, Result).
I want to come up with the result like
[d_edge(a,b), f_edge(b,c)]
my 1st arg will be the list of names [d_edge,f_edge]
my 2nd arg will be the list of vertexes [a,b,c].
My current code generates [(d_edge,a,b),(f_edge,b,c)].
Whenever I try to update the predicate from (T1,A1,A2) to T1(,A1,A2)
I get an error saying that it is not valid predicate.
I understand why I am getting the error. But I couldn't find a way around it.
First things first: T1(,A1,A2) is syntactically incorrect.
Here's how you could proceed using the built-in predicate (=..)/2 (a.k.a. "univ"):
list2pair([T], [A1,A2], [X]) :-
X =.. [T,A1,A2].
list2pair([T1|Tt], [A1,A2|T], [X|Xs]) :-
X =.. [T1,A1,A2],
list2pair(Tt, [A2|T], Xs).
Sample query using SICStus Prolog 4.3.2:
| ?- list2pair([d_edge,f_edge], [a,b,c], Xs).
Xs = [d_edge(a,b),f_edge(b,c)] ? ; % expected result
no
Note that the above only "constructs" these compound terms—it does not ensure that suitable facts d_edge/3, f_edge/3 etc really do exist.

PROLOG: Determining if elements in list are equal if order does not matter

I'm trying to figure out a way to check if two lists are equal regardless of their order of elements.
My first attempt was:
areq([],[]).
areq([],[_|_]).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L).
However, this only checks if all elements of the list on the left exist in the list on the right; meaning areq([1,2,3],[1,2,3,4]) => true. At this point, I need to find a way to be able to test thing in a bi-directional sense. My second attempt was the following:
areq([],[]).
areq([],[_|_]).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L), append([H1], T1, U), areq(U, L).
Where I would try to rebuild the lest on the left and swap lists in the end; but this failed miserably.
My sense of recursion is extremely poor and simply don't know how to improve it, especially with Prolog. Any hints or suggestions would be appreciated at this point.
As a starting point, let's take the second implementation of equal_elements/2 by #CapelliC:
equal_elements([], []).
equal_elements([X|Xs], Ys) :-
select(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elements(Xs, Zs).
Above implementation leaves useless choicepoints for queries like this one:
?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true ; % succeeds, but leaves choicepoint
false.
What could we do? We could fix the efficiency issue by using
selectchk/3 instead of
select/3, but by doing so we would lose logical-purity! Can we do better?
We can!
Introducing selectd/3, a logically pure predicate that combines the determinism of selectchk/3 and the purity of select/3. selectd/3 is based on
if_/3 and (=)/3:
selectd(E,[A|As],Bs1) :-
if_(A = E, As = Bs1,
(Bs1 = [A|Bs], selectd(E,As,Bs))).
selectd/3 can be used a drop-in replacement for select/3, so putting it to use is easy!
equal_elementsB([], []).
equal_elementsB([X|Xs], Ys) :-
selectd(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elementsB(Xs, Zs).
Let's see it in action!
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true. % succeeds deterministically
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3],[A,B,C]), C=3,B=2,A=1.
A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 ; % still logically pure
false.
Edit 2015-05-14
The OP wasn't specific if the predicate
should enforce that items occur on both sides with
the same multiplicities.
equal_elementsB/2 does it like that, as shown by these two queries:
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2]).
true.
?- equal_elementsB([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2,3]).
false.
If we wanted the second query to succeed, we could relax the definition in a logically pure way by using meta-predicate
tfilter/3 and
reified inequality dif/3:
equal_elementsC([],[]).
equal_elementsC([X|Xs],Ys2) :-
selectd(X,Ys2,Ys1),
tfilter(dif(X),Ys1,Ys0),
tfilter(dif(X),Xs ,Xs0),
equal_elementsC(Xs0,Ys0).
Let's run two queries like the ones above, this time using equal_elementsC/2:
?- equal_elementsC([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2]).
true.
?- equal_elementsC([1,2,3,2,3],[3,3,2,1,2,3]).
true.
Edit 2015-05-17
As it is, equal_elementsB/2 does not universally terminate in cases like the following:
?- equal_elementsB([],Xs), false. % terminates universally
false.
?- equal_elementsB([_],Xs), false. % gives a single answer, but ...
%%% wait forever % ... does not terminate universally
If we flip the first and second argument, however, we get termination!
?- equal_elementsB(Xs,[]), false. % terminates universally
false.
?- equal_elementsB(Xs,[_]), false. % terminates universally
false.
Inspired by an answer given by #AmiTavory, we can improve the implementation of equal_elementsB/2 by "sharpening" the solution set like so:
equal_elementsBB(Xs,Ys) :-
same_length(Xs,Ys),
equal_elementsB(Xs,Ys).
To check if non-termination is gone, we put queries using both predicates head to head:
?- equal_elementsB([_],Xs), false.
%%% wait forever % does not terminate universally
?- equal_elementsBB([_],Xs), false.
false. % terminates universally
Note that the same "trick" does not work with equal_elementsC/2,
because of the size of solution set is infinite (for all but the most trivial instances of interest).
A simple solution using the sort/2 ISO standard built-in predicate, assuming that neither list contains duplicated elements:
equal_elements(List1, List2) :-
sort(List1, Sorted1),
sort(List2, Sorted2),
Sorted1 == Sorted2.
Some sample queries:
| ?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[1,2,3,4]).
no
| ?- equal_elements([1,2,3],[3,1,2]).
yes
| ?- equal_elements([a(X),a(Y),a(Z)],[a(1),a(2),a(3)]).
no
| ?- equal_elements([a(X),a(Y),a(Z)],[a(Z),a(X),a(Y)]).
yes
In Prolog you often can do exactly what you say
areq([],_).
areq([H1|T1], L):- member(H1, L), areq(T1, L).
bi_areq(L1, L2) :- areq(L1, L2), areq(L2, L1).
Rename if necessary.
a compact form:
member_(Ys, X) :- member(X, Ys).
equal_elements(Xs, Xs) :- maplist(member_(Ys), Xs).
but, using member/2 seems inefficient, and leave space to ambiguity about duplicates (on both sides). Instead, I would use select/3
?- [user].
equal_elements([], []).
equal_elements([X|Xs], Ys) :-
select(X, Ys, Zs),
equal_elements(Xs, Zs).
^D here
1 ?- equal_elements(X, [1,2,3]).
X = [1, 2, 3] ;
X = [1, 3, 2] ;
X = [2, 1, 3] ;
X = [2, 3, 1] ;
X = [3, 1, 2] ;
X = [3, 2, 1] ;
false.
2 ?- equal_elements([1,2,3,3], [1,2,3]).
false.
or, better,
equal_elements(Xs, Ys) :- permutation(Xs, Ys).
The other answers are all elegant (way above my own Prolog level), but it struck me that the question stated
efficient for the regular uses.
The accepted answer is O(max(|A| log(|A|), |B|log(|B|)), irrespective of whether the lists are equal (up to permutation) or not.
At the very least, it would pay to check the lengths before bothering to sort, which would decrease the runtime to something linear in the lengths of the lists in the case where they are not of equal length.
Expanding this, it is not difficult to modify the solution so that its runtime is effectively linear in the general case where the lists are not equal (up to permutation), using random digests.
Suppose we define
digest(L, D) :- digest(L, 1, D).
digest([], D, D) :- !.
digest([H|T], Acc, D) :-
term_hash(H, TH),
NewAcc is mod(Acc * TH, 1610612741),
digest(T, NewAcc, D).
This is the Prolog version of the mathematical function Prod_i h(a_i) | p, where h is the hash, and p is a prime. It effectively maps each list to a random (in the hashing sense) value in the range 0, ...., p - 1 (in the above, p is the large prime 1610612741).
We can now check if two lists have the same digest:
same_digests(A, B) :-
digest(A, DA),
digest(B, DB),
DA =:= DB.
If two lists have different digests, they cannot be equal. If two lists have the same digest, then there is a tiny chance that they are unequal, but this still needs to be checked. For this case I shamelessly stole Paulo Moura's excellent answer.
The final code is this:
equal_elements(A, B) :-
same_digests(A, B),
sort(A, SortedA),
sort(B, SortedB),
SortedA == SortedB.
same_digests(A, B) :-
digest(A, DA),
digest(B, DB),
DA =:= DB.
digest(L, D) :- digest(L, 1, D).
digest([], D, D) :- !.
digest([H|T], Acc, D) :-
term_hash(H, TH),
NewAcc is mod(Acc * TH, 1610612741),
digest(T, NewAcc, D).
One possibility, inspired on qsort:
split(_,[],[],[],[]) :- !.
split(X,[H|Q],S,E,G) :-
compare(R,X,H),
split(R,X,[H|Q],S,E,G).
split(<,X,[H|Q],[H|S],E,G) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
split(=,X,[X|Q],S,[X|E],G) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
split(>,X,[H|Q],S,E,[H|G]) :-
split(X,Q,S,E,G).
cmp([],[]).
cmp([H|Q],L2) :-
split(H,Q,S1,E1,G1),
split(H,L2,S2,[H|E1],G2),
cmp(S1,S2),
cmp(G1,G2).
A simple solution using cut.
areq(A,A):-!.
areq([A|B],[C|D]):-areq(A,C,D,E),areq(B,E).
areq(A,A,B,B):-!.
areq(A,B,[C|D],[B|E]):-areq(A,C,D,E).
Some sample queries:
?- areq([],[]).
true.
?- areq([1],[]).
false.
?- areq([],[1]).
false.
?- areq([1,2,3],[3,2,1]).
true.
?- areq([1,1,2,2],[2,1,2,1]).
true.

Prolog ERROR out of global stack

ass(a).
ass(b).
ass(c).
con(c,r).
arg(A, L) :- forall(member(S, L), (ass(S), \+ con(S,A))).
If I run arg(r, [a,b]) it will work but if I run arg(r,X) it returns: ERROR out of global stack. I would like it to return [a,b]. I understand this is because L is unbounded, but how can I fix this.
In the predicate:
arg(A, L) :- forall(member(S, L), (ass(S), \+ con(S,A))).
May have a limitation in your case as described in the SWI Prolog documentation for forall/2:
If your intent is to create variable bindings, the forall/2 control
structure is inadequate. Possibly you are looking for maplist/2,
findall/3 or foreach/2.
So in this case, you may be better off with:
arg(A, L) :- findall(S, (ass(S), \+ con(S,A)), L).
Which will yield:
?- arg(r, X).
X = [a, b].
?- arg(r, [a,b]).
true.
?-

Predicate to detect if Prolog Term was specified (became more specific)

Is it possible to get a predicate with already built-in ones (in swi-prolog) such that:
Wanted_Pred(X, a) %false
Wanted_Pred(b, a) %false
Wanted_Pred(X, Y) %true
Wanted_Pred(X, X) %true
Wanted_Pred(X, [Y|Z]) %false
Wanted_Pred([A|B], [X,Y|Z]) %false
Wanted_Pred([A,C|B], [X,Y|Z]) %true
e.g. succeeds iff both arguments represent each others free variable renaming,
note that copy_term doesn't do it as it unifies arguments in the end:
copy_term(X, a) %true
copy_term(X, [Y|Z]) %true
copy_term([A|B], [X,Y|Z]) %true
subsumes_term/2 perfectly fits your requirements, just swap the arguments:
?- subsumes_term(a,X).
false.
?- subsumes_term(a,b).
false.
?- subsumes_term(Y,X).
true.
?- subsumes_term(X,X).
true.
?- subsumes_term([Y|Z],X).
false.
?- subsumes_term([X,Y|Z],[A|B]).
false.
?- subsumes_term([X,Y|Z],[A,C|B]).
true.
I've seen a fairly recent thread on SWI-Prolog mailing list on the efficient implementation of (=#=)/2, that I think it's related (actually, it also satisfies your requirements): putting it to good use should be the best option available.
edit correcting the link to mailing list. Recent switch of list' hosting to google groups made the archive unavailable...
You can find the thread for instance in archived discussions, searching for the author, Kuniaki Mukai
Here is the predicated I am searching implemented by me but
I WANT TO FIND OUT IF THIS KIND OF PREDICATE IS BUILT_IN OR SIMILAR ONE IN SWI-PROLOG.
true_copy(X, Y) :-
(X == Y, !);
(var(X), var(Y), !);
((var(X); var(Y)) -> !, fail);
(atom(X), atom(Y) -> !, fail).
true_copy([X | L1], [Y | L2]) :-
!,
true_copy(X, Y),
true_copy(L1, L2).
true_copy(Term1, Term2) :-
Term1 =.. L1,
Term2 =.. L2,
true_copy(L1, L2).

Prolog -- better way to eliminate duplicate answer in special case?

I was having trouble with these two lines:
list_swizzle(L, [], L).
list_swizzle([], L, L).
The problem was that if the both of the first two arguments are the empty list, the first two statements would both be used, returning the same answer. However, if I put a cut in one, it wrecks backtracking. I eventually put in this line above them:
list_swizzle([], [], []):- !.
And it works. But I was wondering if there is a more elegant solution.
Here's my version:
list_swizzle([H|T], [], [H|T]).
list_swizzle([], L, L).
I'm counting on [] not unifying against [H|T] in the first fact. In other words [] has no T because it's the empty list so the first fact doesn't match goals with a [] in the first arg.
I've run this successfully on SWI-Prolog (Multi-threaded, 32 bits, Version 5.8.2)
$ cat tt.pl
s([H|T], [], [H|T]).
s([], L, L).
....
For help, use ?- help(Topic). or ?- apropos(Word).
?- [tt].
% tt compiled 0.00 sec, 920 bytes
true.
?- s(L,[],[]).
L = [].
?-
% halt

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