YAP User’s Manual

Version [No value for “VERSION”]

Vı́tor Santos Costa,

Luı́s Damas,
Rogério Reis, and
Rúben Azevedo
Copyright c 1989-2000 L. Damas, V. Santos Costa and Universidade do Porto.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the
copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the con-
ditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed
under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another lan-
guage, under the above conditions for modified versions.
 i

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1 Installing YAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Tuning the Functionality of YAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Tuning YAP for a Particular Machine and Compiler . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Tuning YAP for GCC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Compiling Under Visual C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.2 Compiling Under SGI’s cc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 Running YAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Running Yap Interactively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Running Prolog Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1 Syntax of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2 Prolog Tokens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1 Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1.1 Integers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1.2 Floating-point Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2.2 Character Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2.3 Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.4 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.5 Punctuation Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2.6 Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4 Loading Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.1 Program loading and updating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2 Changing the Compiler’s Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.3 Saving and Loading Prolog States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5 The Module System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.1 Module Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.2 Defining a New Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.3 Using Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.4 Meta-Predicates in Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
ii YAP Prolog User’s Manual

6 Built-In Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.1 Control Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.2 Handling Undefined Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.3 Predicates on terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.4 Comparing Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.5 Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.6 I/O Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.6.1 Handling Streams and Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.6.2 Handling Streams and Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.6.3 Handling Input/Output of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.6.4 Handling Input/Output of Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.6.5 Input/Output Predicates applied to Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.6.6 Compatible C-Prolog predicates for Terminal I/O . . . . . . . . 51
6.6.7 Controlling Input/Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.6.8 Using Sockets From Yap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.7 Using the Clausal Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.7.1 Modification of the Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.7.2 Looking at the Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.7.3 Using Data Base References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.8 Internal Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.9 The Blackboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.10 Collecting Solutions to a Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.11 Grammar Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.12 Access to Operating System Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.13 Term Modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.14 Profiling Prolog Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.15 Counting Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.16 Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.17 Predicate Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.18 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

7 Library Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.1 Apply Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.2 Association Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
7.3 AVL Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.4 Heaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7.5 List Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.6 Ordered Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
7.7 Pseudo Random Number Integer Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.8 Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.9 Random Number Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7.10 Red-Black Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
7.11 Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.12 Splay Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.13 Reading From and Writing To Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
7.14 Calling The Operating System from YAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7.15 Utilities On Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.16 Call Cleanup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
 iii

7.17 Calls With Timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

7.18 Updatable Binary Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.19 Unweighted Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.20 Directed Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.21 Undirected Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

8 SWI-Prolog Emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

8.1 Invoking Predicates on all Members of a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
8.2 Forall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
8.3 hProlog and SWI-Prolog Attributed Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
8.3.1 Special Purpose SWI Predicates for Attributes . . . . . . . . . . 112
8.4 SWI Global variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
8.4.1 Compatibility of SWI-Prolog Global Variables . . . . . . . . . . 114

9 Extensions to Prolog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

9.1 Rational Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
9.2 Coroutining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

10 Attributed Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

10.1 Attribute Declarations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
10.2 Attribute Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
10.3 Attributed Unification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
10.4 Displaying Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
10.5 Projecting Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
10.6 Attribute Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

11 Constraint Logic Programming over Reals

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
11.1 Solver Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
11.2 Syntax of the predicate arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
11.3 Use of unification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
11.4 Non-Linear Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

12 CHR: Constraint Handling Rules . . . . . . . . 127

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
12.2 Syntax and Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
12.2.1 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
12.2.2 Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Rule Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Rule Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Pragmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
12.3 CHR in YAP Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
12.3.1 Embedding in Prolog Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
12.3.2 Constraint declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
12.3.3 Compilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
iv YAP Prolog User’s Manual

12.4 Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

12.4.1 Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
12.4.2 Tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
12.4.3 CHR Debugging Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
12.5 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
12.6 Compatibility with SICStus CHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
12.7 Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

13 Logtalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

14 Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
14.1 Creating and Destroying Prolog Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
14.2 Monitoring Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
14.3 Thread communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
14.3.1 Message Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
14.3.2 Signalling Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
14.3.3 Threads and Dynamic Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
14.4 Thread Synchronisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

15 Parallelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

16 Tabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

17 Tracing at Low Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

18 Profiling the Abstract Machine . . . . . . . . . . 153

19 Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
19.1 Debugging Predicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
19.2 Interacting with the debugger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

20 Indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

21 C Language interface to YAP . . . . . . . . . . . 161

21.1 Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
21.2 Unification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
21.3 Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
21.4 Memory Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
21.5 Controlling Yap Streams from C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
21.6 From C back to Prolog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
21.7 Writing predicates in C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
21.8 Loading Object Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
21.9 Saving and Restoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
21.10 Changes to the C-Interface in Yap4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
 v

22 Using YAP as a Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

23 Compatibility with Other Prolog systems

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
23.1 Compatibility with the C-Prolog interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
23.1.1 Major Differences between YAP and C-Prolog. . . . . . . . . . 175
23.1.2 Yap predicates fully compatible with C-Prolog . . . . . . . . . 175
23.1.3 Yap predicates not strictly compatible with C-Prolog . . . 177
23.1.4 Yap predicates not available in C-Prolog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
23.1.5 Yap predicates not available in C-Prolog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
23.2 Compatibility with the Quintus and SICStus Prolog systems
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
23.2.1 Major Differences between YAP and SICStus Prolog. . . . 183
23.2.2 Yap predicates fully compatible with SICStus Prolog . . . 184
23.2.3 Yap predicates not strictly compatible with SICStus Prolog
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
23.2.4 Yap predicates not available in SICStus Prolog . . . . . . . . . 189
23.3 Compatibility with the ISO Prolog standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Appendix A Summary of Yap Predefined

Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Predicate Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Concept Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

vi YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Introduction 1

Introduction
This document provides User information on version [No value for “VERSION”] of YAP (yet
another prolog). The YAP Prolog System is a high-performance Prolog compiler developed
at LIACC, Universidade do Porto. YAP provides several important features:
• Speed: YAP is widely considered one of the fastest available Prolog systems.
• Functionality: it supports stream I/O, sockets, modules, exceptions, Prolog debugger,
C-interface, dynamic code, internal database, DCGs, saved states, co-routining, arrays.
• We explicitly allow both commercial and non-commercial use of YAP.
YAP is based on the David H. D. Warren’s WAM (Warren Abstract Machine), with
several optimizations for better performance. YAP follows the Edinburgh tradition, and
was originally designed to be largely compatible with DEC-10 Prolog, Quintus Prolog, and
especially with C-Prolog.
YAP implements most of the ISO-Prolog standard. We are striving at full compatibil-
ity, and the manual describes what is still missing. The manual also includes a (largely
incomplete) comparison with SICStus Prolog.
The document is intended neither as an introduction to Prolog nor to the implementation
aspects of the compiler. A good introduction to programming in Prolog is the book The Art
of Prolog, by L. Sterling and E. Shapiro, published by "The MIT Press, Cambridge MA".
Other references should include the classical Programming in Prolog, by W.F. Clocksin and
C.S. Mellish, published by Springer-Verlag.
YAP 4.3 is known to build with many versions of gcc (<= gcc-2.7.2, >= gcc-2.8.1, >=
egcs-1.0.1, gcc-2.95.*) and on a variety of Unixen: SunOS 4.1, Solaris 2.*, Irix 5.2, HP-UX
10, Dec Alpha Unix, Linux 1.2 and Linux 2.* (RedHat 4.0 thru 5.2, Debian 2.*) in both the
x86 and alpha platforms. It has been built on Windows NT 4.0 using Cygwin from Cygnus
Solutions (see README.nt) and using Visual C++ 6.0.
The overall copyright and permission notice for YAP4.3 can be found in the Artistic
file in this directory. YAP follows the Perl Artistic license, and it is thus non-copylefted
freeware.
If you have a question about this software, desire to add code, found a bug,
want to request a feature, or wonder how to get further assistance, please send
e-mail to [email protected]. To subscribe to the mailing list, send a request to
[email protected] with body "subscribe yappers".
Online documentation is available for YAP at:
http://www.ncc.up.pt/~vsc/Yap/
Recent versions of Yap, including both source and selected binaries, can be found from
this same URL.
This manual was written by Vı́tor Santos Costa, Luı́s Damas, Rogério Reis, and Rúben
Azevedo. The manual is largely based on the DECsystem-10 Prolog User’s Manual by D.L.
Bowen, L. Byrd, F. C. N. Pereira, L. M. Pereira, and D. H. D. Warren. We have also used
comments from the Edinburgh Prolog library written by R. O’Keefe. We would also like to
gratefully acknowledge the contributions from Ashwin Srinivasian.
We are happy to include in YAP several excellent packages developed under separate
licenses. Our thanks to the authors for their kind authorization to include these packages.
2 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

The packages are, in alphabetical order:

• The CHR package developed by Tom Schrijvers, Christian Holzbaur, and Jan Wiele-
maker.
• The CLP(R) package developed Leslie De Koninck, Bart Demoen, Tom Schrijvers and
Jan Wielemaker and based on the CLP(Q,R) implementation by Christian Holzbauer.
• The Logtalk Object-Oriented system is developed at the University of Beira Interior,
Portugal, by Paulo Moura. The package is distributed under the Perl Artistic License.
Instructions about loading this package are included in this document. The documen-
tation on this package (including full installation instructions) is distributed separately
from yap.tex.
Copyright c 1998-2006 Paulo Moura
• The Pillow WEB library developed at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid by the CLIP
group. This package is distributed under the FSF’s LGPL. Documentation on this
package is distributed separately from yap.tex.
• The yap2swi library implements some of the functionality of SWI’s PL interface. Please
do refer to the SWI-Prolog home page:
http://www.swi-prolog.org
for more information on SWI-Prolog and for a detailed description of its foreign inter-
face.
Chapter 1: Installing YAP 3

1 Installing YAP
To compile YAP it should be sufficient to:
1. mkdir ARCH.
2. cd ARCH.
3. ../configure ...options....
Notice that by default configure gives you a vanilla configuration. For instance, in
order to use coroutining and/or CLP you need to do
../configure --enable-coroutining ...options...
Please see Section 1.1 [Configuration Options], page 3 for extra options.
4. check the Makefile for any extensions or changes you want to make.
YAP uses autoconf. Recent versions of Yap try to follow GNU conventions on where
to place software.
• The main executable is placed at BINDIR. This executable is actually a script that
calls the Prolog engine, stored at LIBDIR.
• LIBDIR is the directory where libraries are stored. YAPLIBDIR is a subdirectory
that contains the Prolog engine and a Prolog library.
• INCLUDEDIR is used if you want to use Yap as a library.
• INFODIR is where to store info files. Usually /usr/local/info, /usr/info, or
/usr/share/info.
5. make.
6. If the compilation succeeds, try ./yap.
7. If you feel satisfied with the result, do make install.
8. make install-info will create the info files in the standard info directory.
9. make html will create documentation in html format in the predefined directory.
In most systems you will need to be superuser in order to do make install and make
info on the standard directories.

1.1 Tuning the Functionality of YAP

Compiling Yap with the standard options give you a plain vanilla Prolog. You can tune
Yap to include extra functionality by calling configure with the appropriate options:
• --enable-rational-trees=yes gives you support for infinite rational trees.
• --enable-coroutining=yes gives you support for coroutining, including freezing of
goals, attributed variables, and constraints. This will also enable support for infinite
rational trees.
• --enable-depth-limit=yes allows depth limited evaluation, say for implementing it-
erative deepening.
• --enable-low-level-tracer=yes allows support for tracing all calls, retries, and
backtracks in the system. This can help in debugging your application, but results
in performance loss.
• --enable-wam-profile=yes allows profiling of abstract machine instructions. This is
useful when developing YAP, should not be so useful for normal users.
4 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• --enable-condor=yes allows using the Condor system that support High Throughput
Computing (HTC) on large collections of distributively owned computing resources.
• --enable-tabling=yes allows tabling support. This option is still experimental.
• --enable-parallelism={env-copy,sba,a-cow} allows or-parallelism supported by
one of these three forms. This option is still highly experimental.
• --with-gmp[=DIR] give a path to where one can find the GMP library if not installed
in the default path.
Next follow machine dependent details:

1.2 Tuning YAP for a Particular Machine and Compiler

The default options should give you best performance under GCC. Although the system is
tuned for this compiler we have been able to compile versions of Yap under lcc in Linux,
Sun’s cc compiler, IBM’s xlc, SGI’s cc, and Microsoft’s Visual C++ 6.0.

1.3 Tuning YAP for GCC.

Yap has been developed to take advantage of GCC (but not to depend on it). The major
advantage of GCC is threaded code and explicit register reservation.
YAP is set by default to compile with the best compilation flags we know. Even so, a
few specific options reduce portability. The option
• --enable-max-performance=yes will try to support the best available flags for a spe-
cific architectural model. Currently, the option assumes a recent version of GCC.
• --enable-debug-yap compiles Yap so that it can be debugged by tools such as dbx or
gdb.
Here follow a few hints:
On x86 machines the flags:
YAP_EXTRAS= ... -DBP_FREE=1
tells us to use the %bp register (frame-pointer) as the emulator’s program counter. This
seems to be stable and is now default.
On Sparc/Solaris2 use:
YAP_EXTRAS= ... -mno-app-regs -DOPTIMISE_ALL_REGS_FOR_SPARC=1
and YAP will get two extra registers! This trick does not work on SunOS 4 machines.
Note that versions of GCC can be tweaked to recognize different processors within the
same instruction set, e.g. 486, Pentium, and PentiumPro for the x86; or Ultrasparc, and
Supersparc for Sparc. Unfortunately, some of these tweaks do may make Yap run slower or
not at all in other machines with the same instruction set, so they cannot be made default.
Last, the best options also depends on the version of GCC you are using, and it is a good
idea to consult the GCC manual under the menus "Invoking GCC"/"Submodel Options".
Specifically, you should check -march=XXX for recent versions of GCC/EGCS. In the case
of GCC2.7 and other recent versions of GCC you can check:
486: In order to take advantage of 486 specific optimizations in GCC 2.7.*:
YAP_EXTRAS= ... -m486 -DBP_FREE=1
Chapter 1: Installing YAP 5

Pentium:
YAP_EXTRAS= ... -m486 -malign-loops=2 -malign-jumps=2 \
-malign-functions=2
PentiumPro and other recent Intel and AMD machines:
PentiumPros are known not to require alignment. Check your version of GCC
for the best -march option.
Super and UltraSparcs:
YAP_EXTRAS= ... -msupersparc
MIPS: if have a recent machine and you need a 64 bit wide address
space you can use the abi 64 bits or eabi option, as in:
CC="gcc -mabi=64" ./configure --...
Be careful. At least for some versions of GCC, compiling with -g seems to result
in broken code.
WIN32: GCC is distributed in the MINGW32 and CYGWIN packages.
The Mingw32 environment is available from the URL:
http://www.mingw.org
You will need to install the msys and mingw packages. You should be able to
do configure, make and make install.
If you use mingw32 you may want to search the contributed packages for the
gmp multi-precision arithmetic library. If you do setup Yap with gmp note that
libgmp.dll must be in the path, otherwise Yap will not be able to execute.
CygWin environment is available from the URL:
http://www.cygwin.com
and mirrors. We suggest using recent versions of the cygwin shell. The compi-
lation steps under the cygwin shell are as follows:
mkdir cyg
$YAPSRC/configure --enable-coroutining \\
--enable-depth-limit \\
--enable-max-performance
make
make install
By default, Yap will use the --enable-cygwin=no option to disable the use of
the cygwin dll and to enable the mingw32 subsystem instead. Yap thus will
not need the cygwin dll. It instead accesses the system’s CRTDLL.DLL C run
time library supplied with Win32 platforms through the mingw32 interface.
Note that some older WIN95 systems may not have CRTDLL.DLL, in this case it
should be sufficient to import the file from a newer WIN95 or WIN98 machine.
You should check the default installation path which is set to /Yap in the stan-
dard Makefile. This string will usually be expanded into c:\Yap by Windows.
The cygwin environment does not provide gmp. You can fetch a dll for the gmp
library from http://www.sf.net/projects/mingwrep.
It is also possible to configure Yap to be a part of the cygwin environment. In
this case you should use:
6 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

mkdir cyg
$YAPSRC/configure --enable-coroutining \\
--enable-max-performance \\
--enable-cygwin=yes
make
make install
Yap will then compile using the cygwin library and will be installed in cyg-
win’s /usr/local. You can use Yap from a cygwin console, or as a standalone
application as long as it can find cygwin1.dll in its path.

1.3.1 Compiling Under Visual C++

Yap compiles cleanly under Microsoft’s Visual C++ release 6.0. We next give a step-by-step
tutorial on how to compile Yap manually using this environment.
First, it is a good idea to build Yap as a DLL:
1. create a project named yapdll using File.New. The project will be a DLL project,
initially empty.
Notice that either the project is named yapdll or you must replace the prepro-
cessors variable YAPDLL EXPORTS to match your project names in the files
YapInterface.h and c_interface.c.
2. add all .c files in the $YAPSRC/C directory and in the $YAPSRC\OPTYap directory
to the Project’s Source Files (use FileView).
3. add all .h files in the $YAPSRC/H directory, $YAPSRC\include directory and in the
$YAPSRC\OPTYap subdirectory to the Project’s Header Files.
4. Ideally, you should now use m4 to generate extra .h from .m4 files and use
configure to create a config.h. Or, you can be lazy, and fetch these files from
$YAPSRC\VC\include.
5. You may want to go to Build.Set Active Configuration and set Project Type to
Release
6. To use Yap’s own include directories you have to set the Project option
Project.Project Settings.C/C++.Preprocessor.Additional Include
Directories to include the directories $YAPSRC\H, $YAPSRC\VC\include,
$YAPSRC\OPTYap and $YAPSRC\include. The syntax is:
$YAPSRC\H, $YAPSRC\VC\include, $YAPSRC\OPTYap, $YAPSRC\include
7. Build: the system should generate an yapdll.dll and an yapdll.lib.
8. Copy the file yapdll.dll to your path. The file yapdll.lib should also be copied to
a location where the linker can find it.
Now you are ready to create a console interface for Yap:
1. create a second project say wyap with File.New. The project will be a WIN32 console
project, initially empty.
2. add $YAPSRC\console\yap.c to the Source Files.
3. add $YAPSRC\VC\include\config.h and the files in $YAPSRC\include to the Header
Files.
Chapter 1: Installing YAP 7

4. You may want to go to Build.Set Active Configuration and set Project Type to
Release.
5. you will eventually need to bootstrap the system by booting from boot.yap, so write:
-b $YAPSRC\pl\boot.yap
in Project.Project Settings.Debug.Program Arguments.
6. You need the sockets and yap libraries. Add
ws2_32.lib yapdll.lib to
to
to Project.Project Settings.Link.Object/Library Modules
You may also need to set the Link Path so that VC++ will find yapdll.lib.
7. set Project.Project Settings.C/C++.Preprocessor.Additional Include
Directories to include the $YAPSRC/VC/include and $YAPSRC/include.
The syntax is:
$YAPSRC\VC\include, $YAPSRC\include
8. Build the system.
9. Use Build.Start Debug to boot the system, and then create the saved state with
[’$YAPSRC\\pl\\init’].
save_program(startup).
^Z
That’s it, you’ve got Yap and the saved state!
The $YAPSRC\VC directory has the make files to build Yap4.3.17 under VC++ 6.0.

1.3.2 Compiling Under SGI’s cc

YAP should compile under the Silicon Graphic’s cc compiler, although we advise using the
GNUCC compiler, if available.
64 bit Support for 64 bits should work by using (under Bourne shell syntax):
CC="cc -64" $YAP_SRC_PATH/configure --...
8 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 2: Running YAP 9

2 Running YAP
We next describe how to invoke Yap in Unix systems.

2.1 Running Yap Interactively

Most often you will want to use Yap in interactive mode. Assuming that YAP is in the
user’s search path, the top-level can be invoked under Unix with the following command:
yap [-s n] [-h n] [-a n] [-c IP_HOST port ] [filename]
All the arguments and flags are optional and have the following meaning:
-? print a short error message.
-s n allocate n K bytes for local and global stacks
-h n allocate n K bytes for heap and auxiliary stacks
-t n allocate n K bytes for the trail stack
-l YAP_FILE
compile the Prolog file YAP FILE before entering the top-level.
-L YAP_FILE
compile the Prolog file YAP FILE and then halt. This option is useful for
implementing scripts.
-g Goal run the goal Goal before top-level. The goal is converted from an atom to a
Prolog term.
-z Goal run the goal Goal as top-level. The goal is converted from an atom to a Prolog
term.
-b BOOT_FILE
boot code is in Prolog file BOOT FILE. The filename must define the predicate
’$live’/0.
-c IP_HOST port
connect standard streams to host IP_HOST at port port
filename restore state saved in the given file
-- separator for arguments to Prolog code. These arguments are visible through
the unix/1 built-in.
Note that YAP will output an error message on the following conditions:
• a file name was given but the file does not exist or is not a saved YAP state;
• the necessary amount of memory could not be allocated;
• the allocated memory is not enough to restore the state.
When restoring a saved state, YAP will allocate the same amount of memory as that in
use when the state was saved, unless a different amount is specified by flags in the command
line. By default, YAP restores the file ‘startup’ from the current directory or from the
YAP library.
10 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• YAP usually boots from a saved state. The saved state will use the default installation
directory to search for the YAP binary unless you define the environment variable
YAPBINDIR.
• YAP always tries to find saved states from the current directory first. If it cannot it
will use the environment variable YAPLIBDIR, if defined, or search the default library
directory.
• YAP will try to find library files from the YAPSHAREDIR/library directory.

2.2 Running Prolog Files

YAP can also be used to run Prolog files as scripts, at least in Unix-like environments. A
simple example is shown next:

#!/usr/local/bin/yap -L --
#
# Hello World script file using Yap
#
# put a dot because of syntax errors .

:- write(’Hello World’), nl.

The #! characters specify that the script should call the binary file Yap. Notice that
many systems will require the complete path to the Yap binary. The -L flag indicates that
YAP should consult the current file when booting and then halt. The remaining arguments
are then passed to YAP. Note that YAP will skip the first lines if they start with # (the
comment sign for Unix’s shell). YAP will consult the file and execute any commands.
A slightly more sophisticated example is:

#!/usr/bin/yap -L --
#
# Hello World script file using Yap
# .

:- initialization(main).

main :- write(’Hello World’), nl.

The initialization directive tells Yap to execute the goal main after consulting the
file. Source code is thus compiled and main executed at the end. The . is useful while
debugging the script as a Prolog program: it guarantees that the syntax error will not
propagate to the Prolog code.
Notice that the -- is required so that the shell passes the extra arguments to YAP. As
an example, consider the following script dump_args:
Chapter 2: Running YAP 11

#!/usr/bin/yap -L --
#.

main( [] ).
main( [H|T] ) :-
write( H ), nl,
main( T ).

:- unix( argv(AllArgs) ), main( AllArgs ).

If you this run this script with the arguments:

./dump_args -s 10000
the script will start an YAP process with stack size 10MB, and the list of arguments to the
process will be empty.
Often one wants to run the script as any other program, and for this it is convenient to
ignore arguments to YAP. This is possible by using L -- as in the next version of dump_args:

#!/usr/bin/yap -L --

main( [] ).
main( [H|T] ) :-
write( H ), nl,
main( T ).

:- unix( argv(AllArgs) ), main( AllArgs ).

The -- indicates the next arguments are not for YAP. Instead, they must be sent directly
to the argv built-in. Hence, running
./dump_args test
will write test on the standard output.
12 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 3: Syntax 13

3 Syntax
We will describe the syntax of YAP at two levels. We first will describe the syntax for
Prolog terms. In a second level we describe the tokens from which Prolog terms are built.

3.1 Syntax of Terms

Below, we describe the syntax of YAP terms from the different classes of tokens defined
above. The formalism used will be BNF, extended where necessary with attributes denoting
integer precedence or operator type.

term ----> subterm(1200) end_of_term_marker

subterm(N) ----> term(M) [M <= N]

term(N) ----> op(N, fx) subterm(N-1)

| op(N, fy) subterm(N)
| subterm(N-1) op(N, xfx) subterm(N-1)
| subterm(N-1) op(N, xfy) subterm(N)
| subterm(N) op(N, yfx) subterm(N-1)
| subterm(N-1) op(N, xf)
| subterm(N) op(N, yf)

term(0) ----> atom ’(’ arguments ’)’

| ’(’ subterm(1200) ’)’
| ’{’ subterm(1200) ’}’
| list
| string
| number
| atom
| variable

arguments ----> subterm(999)

| subterm(999) ’,’ arguments

list ----> ’[]’

| ’[’ list_expr ’]’

list_expr ----> subterm(999)

| subterm(999) list_tail

list_tail ----> ’,’ list_expr

| ’,..’ subterm(999)
| ’|’ subterm(999)
14 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Notes:
• op(N,T) denotes an atom which has been previously declared with type T and base
precedence N.
• Since ’,’ is itself a pre-declared operator with type xfy and precedence 1000, is subterm
starts with a ’(’, op must be followed by a space to avoid ambiguity with the case of a
functor followed by arguments, e.g.:
+ (a,b) [the same as ’+’(’,’(a,b)) of arity one]
versus
+(a,b) [the same as ’+’(a,b) of arity two]
• In the first rule for term(0) no blank space should exist between atom and ’(’.
• Each term to be read by the YAP parser must end with a single dot, followed by a
blank (in the sense mentioned in the previous paragraph). When a name consisting
of a single dot could be taken for the end of term marker, the ambiguity should be
avoided by surrounding the dot with single quotes.

3.2 Prolog Tokens

Prolog tokens are grouped into the following categories:

3.2.1 Numbers
Numbers can be further subdivided into integer and floating-point numbers.

3.2.1.1 Integers
Integer numbers are described by the following regular expression:

<integer> := {<digit>+<single-quote>|0{xXo}}<alpha_numeric_char>+

where {...} stands for optionality, + optional repetition (one or more times), <digit> denotes
one of the characters 0 ... 9, | denotes or, and <single-quote> denotes the character "’".
The digits before the <single-quote> character, when present, form the number basis, that
can go from 0, 1 and up to 36. Letters from A to Z are used when the basis is larger than
10.
Note that if no basis is specified then base 10 is assumed. Note also that the last digit
of an integer token can not be immediately followed by one of the characters ’e’, ’E’, or ’.’.
Following the ISO standard, YAP also accepts directives of the form 0x to represent
numbers in hexadecimal base and of the form 0o to represent numbers in octal base. For
usefulness, YAP also accepts directives of the form 0X to represent numbers in hexadecimal
base.
Example: the following tokens all denote the same integer
10 2’1010 3’101 8’12 16’a 36’a 0xa 0o12
Numbers of the form 0’a are used to represent character constants. So, the following
tokens denote the same integer:
Chapter 3: Syntax 15

0’d 100
YAP (version [No value for “VERSION”]) supports integers that can fit the word size
of the machine. This is 32 bits in most current machines, but 64 in some others, such as
the Alpha running Linux or Digital Unix. The scanner will read larger or smaller integers
erroneously.

3.2.1.2 Floating-point Numbers

Floating-point numbers are described by:

<float> := <digit>+{<dot><digit>+}
<exponent-marker>{<sign>}<digit>+
|<digit>+<dot><digit>+
{<exponent-marker>{<sign>}<digit>+}

where <dot> denotes the decimal-point character ’.’, <exponent-marker> denotes one of ’e’
or ’E’, and <sign> denotes one of ’+’ or ’-’.
Examples:
10.0 10e3 10e-3 3.1415e+3
Floating-point numbers are represented as a double in the target machine. This is usually
a 64-bit number.

3.2.2 Character Strings

Strings are described by the following rules:
string --> ’"’ string_quoted_characters ’"’

string_quoted_characters --> ’"’ ’"’ string_quoted_characters

string_quoted_characters --> ’\’
escape_sequence string_quoted_characters
string_quoted_characters -->
string_character string_quoted_characters

escape_sequence --> ’a’ | ’b’ | ’r’ | ’f’ | ’t’ | ’n’ | ’v’

escape_sequence --> ’\’ | ’"’ | ’’’ | ’‘’
escape_sequence --> at_most_3_octal_digit_seq_char ’\’
escape_sequence --> ’x’ at_most_2_hexa_digit_seq_char ’\’
where string_character in any character except the double quote and escape charac-
ters.
Examples:
"" "a string" "a double-quote:"""
The first string is an empty string, the last string shows the use of double-quoting. The
implementation of YAP represents strings as lists of integers. Since Yap4.3.0 there is no
static limit on string size.
16 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Escape sequences can be used to include the non-printable characters a (alert), b

(backspace), r (carriage return), f (form feed), t (horizontal tabulation), n (new line),
and v (vertical tabulation). Escape sequences also be include the meta-characters \, ", ’,
and ‘. Last, one can use escape sequences to include the characters either as an octal or
hexadecimal number.
The next examples demonstrates the use of escape sequences in YAP:
"\x0c\" "\01\" "\f" "\\"
The first three examples return a list including only character 12 (form feed). The last
example escapes the escape character.
Escape sequences were not available in C-Prolog and in original versions of YAP up to
4.2.0. Escape sequences can be disable by using:
:- yap_flag(character_escapes,off).

3.2.3 Atoms
Atoms are defined by one of the following rules:
atom --> solo-character
atom --> lower-case-letter name-character*
atom --> symbol-character+
atom --> single-quote single-quote
atom --> ’’’ atom_quoted_characters ’’’

atom_quoted_characters --> ’’’ ’’’ atom_quoted_characters

atom_quoted_characters --> ’\’ atom_sequence string_quoted_characters
atom_quoted_characters --> character string_quoted_characters

where:
<solo-character> denotes one of: ! ;
<symbol-character> denotes one of: # & * + - . / : <
= > ? @ \ ^ ‘ ~
<lower-case-letter> denotes one of: a...z
<name-character> denotes one of: _ a...z A...Z 0....9
<single-quote> denotes: ’
and string_character denotes any character except the double quote and escape char-
acters. Note that escape sequences in strings and atoms follow the same rules.
Examples:
a a12x ’$a’ ! => ’1 2’
Version 4.2.0 of YAP removed the previous limit of 256 characters on an atom. Size of
an atom is now only limited by the space available in the system.

3.2.4 Variables
Variables are described by:
<variable-starter><variable-character>+
where
Chapter 3: Syntax 17

<variable-starter> denotes one of: _ A...Z

<variable-character> denotes one of: _ a...z A...Z
If a variable is referred only once in a term, it needs not to be named and one can use
the character _ to represent the variable. These variables are known as anonymous vari-
ables. Note that different occurrences of _ on the same term represent different anonymous
variables.

3.2.5 Punctuation Tokens

Punctuation tokens consist of one of the following characters:
( ) , [ ] { } |
These characters are used to group terms.

3.2.6 Layout
Any characters with ASCII code less than or equal to 32 appearing before a token are
ignored.
All the text appearing in a line after the character % is taken to be a comment and
ignored (including % ). Comments can also be inserted by using the sequence /* to start
the comment and */ to finish it. In the presence of any sequence of comments or layout
characters, the YAP parser behaves as if it had found a single blank character. The end of
a file also counts as a blank character for this purpose.
18 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 4: Loading Programs 19

4 Loading Programs

4.1 Program loading and updating

consult(+F )
Adds the clauses written in file F or in the list of files F to the program.
In YAP consult/1 does not remove previous clauses for the procedures defined
in F. Moreover, note that all code in YAP is compiled.
reconsult(+F )
Updates the program replacing the previous definitions for the predicates de-
fined in F.
[+F ] The same as consult(F).
[-+F ] The same as reconsult(F)
Example:
?- [file1, -file2, -file3, file4].
will consult file1 file4 and reconsult file2 and file3.
compile(+F )
In YAP, the same as reconsult/1.
ensure_loaded(+F ) [ISO]
When the files specified by F are module files, ensure_loaded/1 loads them if
they have note been previously loaded, otherwise advertises the user about the
existing name clashes and prompts about importing or not those predicates.
Predicates which are not public remain invisible.
When the files are not module files, ensure_loaded/1 loads them if they have
not been loaded before, does nothing otherwise.
F must be a list containing the names of the files to load.
include(+F ) [ISO]
The include directive includes the text files or sequence of text files specified
by F into the file being currently consulted.

4.2 Changing the Compiler’s Behavior

This section presents a set of built-ins predicates designed to set the environment for the
compiler.
source_mode(-O,+N )
The state of source mode can either be on or off. When the source mode is on,
all clauses are kept both as compiled code and in a "hidden" database. O is
unified with the previous state and the mode is set according to N.
source After executing this goal, YAP keeps information on the source of the predicates
that will be consulted. This enables the use of listing/0, listing/1 and
clause/2 for those clauses.
The same as source_mode(_,on) or as declaring all newly defined static pro-
cedures as public.
20 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

no_source
The opposite to source.
The same as source_mode(_,off).

compile_expressions
After a call to this predicate, arithmetical expressions will be compiled. (see
example below). This is the default behavior.

do_not_compile_expressions
After a call to this predicate, arithmetical expressions will not be compiled.
?- source, do_not_compile_expressions.
yes
?- [user].
| p(X) :- X is 2 * (3 + 8).
| :- end_of_file.
?- compile_expressions.
yes
?- [user].
| q(X) :- X is 2 * (3 + 8).
| :- end_of_file.
:- listing.

p(A):-
A is 2 * (3 + 8).

q(A):-
A is 22.

hide(+Atom )
Make atom Atom invisible.

unhide(+Atom )
Make hidden atom Atom visible.

hide_predicate(+Pred )
Make predicate Pred invisible to current_predicate/2, listing, and friends.

expand_exprs(-O,+N )
Puts YAP in state N (on or off) and unify O with the previous state, where
On is equivalent to compile_expressions and off is equivalent to do_not_
compile_expressions. This predicate was kept to maintain compatibility with
C-Prolog.

path(-D ) Unifies D with the current directory search-path of YAP. Note that this search-
path is only used by YAP to find the files for consult/1, reconsult/1 and
restore/1 and should not be taken for the system search path.

add_to_path(+D )
Adds D to the end of YAP’s directory search path.
Chapter 4: Loading Programs 21

add_to_path(+D,+N )
Inserts D in the position, of the directory search path of YAP, specified by N.
N must be either of first or last.
remove_from_path(+D )
Remove D from YAP’s directory search path.
style_check(+X )
Turns on style checking according to the attribute specified by X, which must
be one of the following:
single_var
Checks single occurrences of named variables in a clause.
discontiguous
Checks non-contiguous clauses for the same predicate in a file.
multiple Checks the presence of clauses for the same predicate in more than
one file when the predicate has not been declared as multifile
all Performs style checking for all the cases mentioned above.
By default, style checking is disabled in YAP unless we are in sicstus or iso
language mode.
The style_check/1 built-in is now deprecated. Please use the set_prolog_
flag/1 instead.
no_style_check(+X )
Turns off style checking according to the attribute specified by X, which has
the same meaning as in style_check/1.
The no_style_check/1 built-in is now deprecated. Please use the set_prolog_
flag/1 instead.
multifile P [ISO]
Instructs the compiler about the declaration of a predicate P in more than
one file. It must appear in the first of the loaded files where the predicate is
declared, and before declaration of any of its clauses.
Multifile declarations affect reconsult/1 and compile/1: when a multifile
predicate is reconsulted, only the clauses from the same file are removed.
Since Yap4.3.0 multifile procedures can be static or dynamic.
discontiguous(+G ) [ISO]
Declare that the arguments are discontiguous procedures, that is, clauses for
discontigous procedures may be separated by clauses from other procedures.
initialization(+G ) [ISO]
The compiler will execute goals G after consulting the current file.
library_directory(+D )
Succeeds when D is a current library directory name. Library directories are
the places where files specified in the form library(File ) are searched by the
predicates consult/1, reconsult/1, use_module/1 or ensure_loaded/1.
22 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

file_search_path(+NAME,-DIRECTORY )
Allows writing file names as compound terms. The NAME and DIRECTORY
must be atoms. The predicate may generate multiple solutions. The predicate
is originally defined as follows:
file_search_path(library,A) :-
library_directory(A).
file_search_path(system,A) :-
prolog_flag(host_type,A).
Thus, [library(A)] will search for a file using library directory/1 to obtain the
prefix.
library_directory(+D )
Succeeds when D is a current library directory name. Library directories are
the places where files specified in the form library(File ) are searched by the
predicates consult/1, reconsult/1, use_module/1 or ensure_loaded/1.
prolog_file_name(+Name,-FullPath )
Unify FullPath with the absolute path YAP would use to consult file Name.
public P [ISO]
Instructs the compiler that the source of a predicate of a list of predicates P
must be kept. This source is then accessible through the clause/2 procedure
and through the listing family of built-ins.
Note that all dynamic procedures are public. The source directive defines all
new or redefined predicates to be public.
Since Yap4.3.0 multifile procedures can be static or dynamic.

4.3 Saving and Loading Prolog States

save(+F ) Saves an image of the current state of YAP in file F. From Yap4.1.3 onwards,
YAP saved states are executable files in the Unix ports.
save(+F,-OUT )
Saves an image of the current state of YAP in file F. From Yap4.1.3 onwards,
YAP saved states are executable files in the Unix ports.
Unify OUT with 1 when saving the file and OUT with 0 when restoring the
saved state.
save_program(+F )
Saves an image of the current state of the YAP database in file F.
save_program(+F, :G )
Saves an image of the current state of the YAP database in file F, and guarantee
that execution of the restored code will start by trying goal G.
restore(+F )
Restores a previously saved state of YAP from file F.
YAP always tries to find saved states from the current directory first. If it
cannot it will use the environment variable YAPLIBDIR, if defined, or search
the default library directory.
Chapter 5: The Module System 23

5 The Module System

Module systems are quite important for the development of large applications. YAP imple-
ments a module system compatible with the Quintus Prolog module system.
The YAP module system is predicate-based. This means a module consists of a set of
predicates (or procedures), such that some predicates are public and the others are local
to a module. Atoms and terms in general are global to the system. Moreover, the module
system is flat, meaning that we do not support an hierarchy of modules. Modules can
automatically import other modules, though. For compatibility with other module systems
the YAP module system is non-strict, meaning both that there is both a way to access
predicates private to a module and that is possible to declare predicates for a module from
some other module.
YAP allows one to ignore the module system if one does not want to use it. Last note
that using the module system does not introduce any significant overheads: only meta-calls
that cross module boundaries are slowed down by the presence of modules.

5.1 Module Concepts

The YAP module system applies to predicates. All predicates belong to a module. System
predicates belong to the module primitives, and by default new predicates belong to the
module user. Predicates from the module primitives are automatically visible to every
module.
Every predicate must belong to a module. This module is called its source module.
By default, the source module for a clause occurring in a source file with a module decla-
ration is the declared module. For goals typed in a source file without module declarations,
their module is the module the file is being loaded into. If no module declarations exist,
this is the current type-in module. The default type-in module is user, but one can set the
current module by using the built-in module/1.
Note that in this module system one can explicitly specify the source mode for a clause
by prefixing a clause with its module, say:
user:(a :- b).
In fact, to specify the source module for a clause it is sufficient to specify the source mode
for the clause’s head:
user:a :- b.

The rules for goals are similar. If a goal appears in a text file with a module declaration,
the goal’s source module is the declared module. Otherwise, it is the module the file is
being loaded into or the type-in module.
One can override this rule by prefixing a goal with the module it is supposed to be
executed into, say:
nasa:launch(apollo,13).
will execute the goal launch(apollo,13) as if the current source module was nasa.
Note that this rule breaks encapsulation and should be used with care.
24 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

5.2 Defining a New Module

A new module is defined by a module declaration:

module(+M,+L )
This predicate defines the file where it appears as a module file; it must be the
first declaration in the file. M must be an atom specifying the module name;
L must be a list containing the module’s public predicates specification, in the
form [predicate_name/arity,...].
The public predicates of a module file can be made accessible by other files
through the predicates consult/1, reconsult/1, ensure_loaded/1 or use_
module/2. The non-public predicates of a module file are not visible by other
files; they can, however, be accessed if the module name is prefixed to the file
name through the :/2 operator.

The built-in module/1 sets the current source module:

module(+M,+L, +Options )
Similar to module/2, this predicate defines the file where it appears as a module
file; it must be the first declaration in the file. M must be an atom specifying
the module name; L must be a list containing the module’s public predicates
specification, in the form [predicate_name/arity,...].
The last argument Options must be a list of options, which can be:
filename the filename for a module to import into the current module.
library(file)
a library file to import into the current module.
hide(Opt )
if Opt is false, keep source code for current module, if true, dis-
able.
module(+M )
Defines M to be the current working or type-in module. All files which are not
binded to a module are assumed to belong to the working module (also referred
to as type-in module). To compile a non-module file into a module which is
not the working one, prefix the file name with the module name, in the form
Module :File , when loading the file.

5.3 Using Modules

By default, all procedures to consult a file will load the modules defined therein. The two
following declarations allow one to import a module explicitly. They differ on whether one
imports all predicate declared in the module or not.

use_module(+F )
Loads the files specified by F, importing all their public predicates. Predi-
cate name clashes are resolved by asking the user about importing or not the
predicate. A warning is displayed when F is not a module file.
Chapter 5: The Module System 25

use_module(+F,+L )
Loads the files specified by F, importing the predicates specified in the list L.
Predicate name clashes are resolved by asking the user about importing or not
the predicate. A warning is displayed when F is not a module file.
use_module(?M,?F,+L )
If module M has been defined, import the procedures in L to the current module.
Otherwise, load the files specified by F, importing the predicates specified in
the list L.

5.4 Meta-Predicates in Modules

The module system must know whether predicates operate on goals or clauses. Otherwise,
such predicates would call a goal in the module they were defined, instead of calling it in
the module they are currently executing. So, for instance:
:- module(example,[a/1]).

...

a(G) :- call(G)

...

The expected behavior for this procedure is to execute goal G within the current module,
that is, within example. On the other hand, when executing call/1 the system only knows
where call/1 was defined, that is, it only knows of primitives. A similar problem arises
for assert/1 and friends.
The meta_predicate/1 declaration informs the system that some arguments of a pro-
cedure are goals, clauses or clauses heads, and that these arguments must be expanded to
receive the current source module:
meta_predicate G1,....,Gn
Each Gi is a mode specification. For example, a declaration for call/1 and
setof/3 would be of the form:
:- meta_predicate call(:), setof(?,:,?).
If the argument is : or an integer, the argument is a call and must be expanded.
Otherwise, the argument should not be expanded. Note that the system already
includes declarations for all built-ins.
In the previous example, the only argument to call/1 must be expanded, resulting in
the following code:
:- module(example,[a/1]).

...

a(G) :- call(example:G)

...
26 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 27

6 Built-In Predicates

6.1 Control Predicates

This chapter describes the predicates for controlling the execution of Prolog programs.
In the description of the arguments of functors the following notation will be used:
• a preceding plus sign will denote an argument as an "input argument" - it cannot be
a free variable at the time of the call;
• a preceding minus sign will denote an "output argument";
• an argument with no preceding symbol can be used in both ways.
+P, +Q [ISO]
Conjunction of goals (and).
Example:
p(X) :- q(X), r(X).
should be read as "p(X) if q(X ) and r(X )".
+P ; +Q [ISO]
Disjunction of goals (or).
Example:
p(X) :- q(X); r(X).
should be read as "p(X) if q(X ) or r(X )".
true [ISO]
Succeeds once.
fail [ISO]
Fails always.
false The same as fail
! [ISO] Read as "cut". Cuts any choices taken in the current procedure. When first
found "cut" succeeds as a goal, but if backtracking should later return to it,
the parent goal (the one which matches the head of the clause containing the
"cut", causing the clause activation) will fail. This is an extra-logical predicate
and cannot be explained in terms of the declarative semantics of Prolog.
example:
member(X,[X|_]).
member(X,[_|L]) :- member(X,L).
With the above definition
?- member(X,[1,2,3]).
will return each element of the list by backtracking. With the following defini-
tion:
member(X,[X|_]) :- !.
member(X,[_|L]) :- member(X,L).
the same query would return only the first element of the list, since backtracking
could not "pass through" the cut.
28 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

\+ +P [ISO]
Goal P is not provable. The execution of this predicate fails if and only if the
goal P finitely succeeds. It is not a true logical negation, which is impossible
in standard Prolog, but "negation-by-failure".
This predicate might be defined as:
\+(P) :- P, !, fail.
\+(_).
if P did not include "cuts".
not +P Goal P is not provable. The same as ’\+ P ’.
This predicate is kept for compatibility with C-Prolog and previous versions of
YAP. Uses of not/1 should be replace by (\+)/1, as YAP does not implement
true negation.
+P -> +Q [ISO]
Read as "if-then-else" or "commit". This operator is similar to the conditional
operator of imperative languages and can be used alone or with an else part as
follows:
+P -> +Q "if P then Q".
+P -> +Q; +R
"if P then Q else R".
These two predicates could be defined respectively in Prolog as:
(P -> Q) :- P, !, Q.
and
(P -> Q; R) :- P, !, Q.
(P -> Q; R) :- R.
if there were no "cuts" in P, Q and R.
Note that the commit operator works by "cutting" any alternative solutions of
P.
Note also that you can use chains of commit operators like:
P -> Q ; R -> S ; T.
Note that (->)/2 does not affect the scope of cuts in its arguments.
repeat [ISO]
Succeeds repeatedly.
In the next example, repeat is used as an efficient way to implement a loop.
The next example reads all terms in a file:
a :- repeat, read(X), write(X), nl, X=end_of_file, !.
the loop is effectively terminated by the cut-goal, when the test-goal X=end
succeeds. While the test fails, the goals read(X), write(X), and nl are executed
repeatedly, because backtracking is caught by the repeat goal.
The built-in repeat/1 could be defined in Prolog by:
repeat.
repeat :- repeat.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 29

call(+P ) [IS0]
If P is instantiated to an atom or a compound term, the goal call(P ) is
executed as if the value of P was found instead of the call to call/1, except
that any "cut" occurring in P only cuts alternatives in the execution of P.
incore(+P )
The same as call/1.
call_with_args(+Name,...,?Ai,...)
Meta-call where Name is the name of the procedure to be called and the Ai are
the arguments. The number of arguments varies between 0 and 10.
If Name is a complex term, then call_with_args/n behaves as call/n:
call(p(X1,...,Xm), Y1,...,Yn) :- p(X1,...,Xm,Y1,...,Yn).
+P The same as call(P ). This feature has been kept to provide compatibility
with C-Prolog. When compiling a goal, YAP generates a call(X ) whenever a
variable X is found as a goal.
a(X) :- X.
is converted to:
a(X) :- call(X).
if(?G,?H,?I ) [IS0]
Call goal H once per each solution of goal H. If goal H has no solutions, call
goal I.
The built-in if/3 is similar to ->/3, with the difference that it will backtrack
over the test goal. Consider the following small data-base:
a(1). b(a). c(x).
a(2). b(b). c(y).
Execution of an if/3 query will proceed as follows:
?- if(a(X),b(Y),c(Z)).

X = 1,
Y = a ? ;

X = 1,
Y = b ? ;

X = 2,
Y = a ? ;

X = 2,
Y = b ? ;

no
The system will backtrack over the two solutions for a/1 and the two solutions
for b/1, generating four solutions.
Cuts are allowed inside the first goal G, but they will only prune over G.
30 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

If you want G to be deterministic you should use if-then-else, as it is both more

efficient and more portable.
once(:G ) [IS0]
Execute the goal G only once. The predicate is defined by:
once(G) :- call(G), !.
Note that cuts inside once/1 can only cut the other goals inside once/1.
abort Abandons the execution of the current goal and returns to top level. All break
levels (see break/0 below) are terminated. It is mainly used during debugging
or after a serious execution error, to return to the top-level.
break Suspends the execution of the current goal and creates a new execution level
similar to the top level, displaying the following message:
[ Break (level <number>) ]
telling the depth of the break level just entered. To return to the previous
level just type the end-of-file character or call the end of file predicate. This
predicate is especially useful during debugging.
halt [ISO]
Halts Prolog, and exits to the calling application. In YAP, halt/0 returns the
exit code 0.
halt(+ I ) [ISO]
Halts Prolog, and exits to the calling application returning the code given by
the integer I.
catch(+Goal,+Exception,+Action ) [IS0]
The goal catch(Goal,Exception,Action ) tries to execute goal Goal. If during
its execution, Goal throws an exception E’ and this exception unifies with
Exception, the exception is considered to be caught and Action is executed.
If the exception E’ does not unify with Exception, control again throws the
exception.
The top-level of YAP maintains a default exception handler that is responsible
to capture uncaught exceptions.
throw(+Ball ) [ISO]
The goal throw(Ball ) throws an exception. Execution is stopped, and the
exception is sent to the ancestor goals until reaching a matching catch/3, or
until reaching top-level.
garbage_collect
The goal garbage_collect forces a garbage collection.
garbage_collect_atoms
The goal garbage_collect forces a garbage collection of the atoms in the data-
base. Currently, only atoms are recovered.
gc The goal gc enables garbage collection. The same as yap_flag(gc,on).
nogc The goal nogc disables garbage collection. The same as yap_flag(gc,off).
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 31

grow_heap(+Size )
Increase heap size Size kilobytes.
grow_stack(+Size )
Increase stack size Size kilobytes.

6.2 Handling Undefined Procedures

A predicate in a module is said to be undefined if there are no clauses defining the predicate,
and if the predicate has not been declared to be dynamic. What YAP does when trying to
execute undefined predicates can be specified through three different ways:
• By setting an YAP flag, through the yap_flag/2 or set_prolog_flag/2 built-ins.
This solution generalizes the ISO standard.
• By using the unknown/2 built-in (this solution is compatible with previous releases of
YAP).
• By defining clauses for the hook predicate user:unknown_predicate_handler/3. This
solution is compatible with SICStus Prolog.
In more detail:
unknown(-O,+N )
Specifies an handler to be called is a program tries to call an undefined static
procedure P.
The arity of N may be zero or one. If the arity is 0, the new action must be one
of fail, warning, or error. If the arity is 1, P is an user-defined handler and
at run-time, the argument to the handler P will be unified with the undefined
goal. Note that N must be defined prior to calling unknown/2, and that the
single argument to N must be unbound.
In YAP, the default action is to fail (note that in the ISO Prolog standard
the default action is error).
After defining undefined/1 by:
undefined(A) :- format(’Undefined predicate: ~w~n’,[A]), fail.
and executing the goal:
unknown(U,undefined(X)).
a call to a predicate for which no clauses were defined will result in the output
of a message of the form:
Undefined predicate: user:xyz(A1,A2)
followed by the failure of that call.
yap_flag(unknown,+SPEC )
Alternatively, one can use yap_flag/2, current_prolog_flag/2, or
set_prolog_flag/2, to set this functionality. In this case, the first argument
for the built-ins should be unknown, and the second argument should be either
error, warning, fail, or a goal.
user:unknown_predicate_handler(+G,+M,?NG)
The user may also define clauses for user:unknown_predicate_handler/3
hook predicate. This user-defined procedure is called before any system pro-
cessing for the undefined procedure, with the first argument G set to the current
32 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

goal, and the second M set to the current module. The predicate G will be
called from within the user module.
If user:unknown_predicate_handler/3 succeeds, the system will execute NG.
If user:unknown_predicate_handler/3 fails, the system will execute default
action as specified by unknown/2.

6.3 Predicates on terms

var(T ) [ISO]
Succeeds if T is currently a free variable, otherwise fails.
atom(T ) [ISO]
Succeeds if and only if T is currently instantiated to an atom.
atomic(T) [ISO]
Checks whether T is an atomic symbol (atom or number).
compound(T ) [ISO]
Checks whether T is a compound term.
db_reference(T )
Checks whether T is a database reference.
float(T ) [ISO]
Checks whether T is a floating point number.
integer(T ) [ISO]
Succeeds if and only if T is currently instantiated to an integer.
nonvar(T ) [ISO]
The opposite of var(T ).
number(T ) [ISO]
Checks whether T is an integer or a float.
primitive(T )
Checks whether T is an atomic term or a database reference.
simple(T )
Checks whether T is unbound, an atom, or a number.
callable(T )
Checks whether T is a callable term, that is, an atom or a compound term.
name(A,L )
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument A will be unified with an
atomic symbol and L with the list of the ASCII codes for the characters of the
external representation of A.
name(yap,L).
will return:
L = [121,97,112].
and
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 33

name(3,L).
will return:
L = [51].
atom_chars(?A,?L ) [ISO]
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument A must be unifiable with an
atom, and the argument L with the list of the ASCII codes for the characters
of the external representation of A.
The ISO-Prolog standard dictates that atom_chars/2 should unify the sec-
ond argument with a list of one-char atoms, and not the character codes. For
compatibility with previous versions of YAP, and with other Prolog imple-
mentations, YAP unifies the second argument with the character codes, as in
atom_codes/2. Use the set_prolog_flag(to_chars_mode,iso) to obtain ISO
standard compatibility.
atom_codes(?A,?L ) [ISO]
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument A will be unified with an
atom and L with the list of the ASCII codes for the characters of the external
representation of A.
atom_concat(+As,?A )
The predicate holds when the first argument is a list of atoms, and the second
unifies with the atom obtained by concatenating all the atoms in the first list.
atomic_concat(+As,?A )
The predicate holds when the first argument is a list of atoms, and the second
unifies with the atom obtained by concatenating all the atomic terms in the
first list. The first argument thus may contain atoms or numbers.
atom_concat(+A1,+A2,?A )
The predicate holds when the first argument and second argument are atoms,
and the third unifies with the atom obtained by concatenating the first two
arguments.
atom_length(+A,?I ) [ISO]
The predicate holds when the first argument is an atom, and the second unifies
with the number of characters forming that atom.
atom_concat(?A1,?A2,?A12 ) [ISO]
The predicate holds when the third argument unifies with an atom, and the
first and second unify with atoms such that their representations concatenated
are the representation for A12.
If A1 and A2 are unbound, the built-in will find all the atoms that concatenated
give A12.
number_chars(?I,?L )
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument I must be unifiable with a
34 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

number, and the argument L with the list of the ASCII codes for the characters
of the external representation of I.
The ISO-Prolog standard dictates that number_chars/2 should unify the sec-
ond argument with a list of one-char atoms, and not the character codes. For
compatibility with previous versions of YAP, and with other Prolog imple-
mentations, YAP unifies the second argument with the character codes, as in
number_codes/2. Use the set_prolog_flag(to_chars_mode,iso) to obtain
ISO standard compatibility.
number_codes(?A,?L ) [ISO]
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument A will be unified with a
number and L with the list of the ASCII codes for the characters of the external
representation of A.
number_atom(?I,?L )
The predicate holds when at least one of the arguments is ground (otherwise,
an error message will be displayed). The argument I must be unifiable with a
number, and the argument L must be unifiable with an atom representing the
number.
char_code(?A,?I ) [ISO]
The built-in succeeds with A bound to character represented as an atom, and
I bound to the character code represented as an integer. At least, one of either
A or I must be bound before the call.
sub_atom(+A,?Bef, ?Size, ?After, ?At_out ) [ISO]
True when A and At out are atoms such that the name of At out has size Size
and is a substring of the name of A, such that Bef is the number of characters
before and After the number of characters afterwards.
Note that A must always be known, but At out can be unbound when calling
this built-in. If all the arguments for sub_atom/5 but A are unbound, the
built-in will backtrack through all possible substrings of A.
numbervars(T,+N1,-Nn )
Instantiates each variable in term T to a term of the form: ’$VAR’(I ), with I
increasing from N1 to Nn.
ground(T )
Succeeds if there are no free variables in the term T.
arg(+N,+T,A ) [ISO]
Succeeds if the argument N of the term T unifies with A. The arguments are
numbered from 1 to the arity of the term.
The current version will generate an error if T or N are unbound, if T is not a
compound term, of if N is not a positive integer. Note that previous versions
of YAP would fail silently under these errors.
functor(T,F,N )
The top functor of term T is named F and has arity N.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 35

When T is not instantiated, F and N must be. If N is 0, F must be an atomic

symbol, which will be unified with T. If N is not 0, then F must be an atom
and T becomes instantiated to the most general term having functor F and
arity N. If T is instantiated to a term then F and N are respectively unified
with its top functor name and arity.
In the current version of YAP the arity N must be an integer. Previous versions
allowed evaluable expressions, as long as the expression would evaluate to an
integer. This feature is not available in the ISO Prolog standard.
T =.. L [ISO]
The list L is built with the functor and arguments of the term T. If T is
instantiated to a variable, then L must be instantiated either to a list whose
head is an atom, or to a list consisting of just a number.
X = Y [ISO]
Tries to unify terms X and Y.
X \= Y [ISO]
Succeeds if terms X and Y are not unifiable.
unify_with_occurs_check(?T1,?T2) [ISO]
Obtain the most general unifier of terms T1 and T2, if there is one.
This predicate implements the full unification algorithm. An example:n
unify_with_occurs_check(a(X,b,Z),a(X,A,f(B)).
will succeed with the bindings A = b and Z = f(B). On the other hand:
unify_with_occurs_check(a(X,b,Z),a(X,A,f(Z)).
would fail, because Z is not unifiable with f(Z). Note that (=)/2 would succeed
for the previous examples, giving the following bindings A = b and Z = f(Z).
copy_term(?TI,-TF ) [ISO]
Term TF is a variant of the original term TI, such that for each variable V in
the term TI there is a new variable V’ in term TF.

6.4 Comparing Terms

The following predicates are used to compare and order terms, using the standard ordering:
• variables come before numbers, numbers come before atoms which in turn come before
compound terms, i.e.: variables @< numbers @< atoms @< compound terms.
• variables are roughly ordered by "age" (the "oldest" variable is put first);
• floating point numbers are sorted in increasing order;
• Integers are sorted in increasing order;
• atoms are sorted in lexicographic order;
• compound terms are ordered first by name, then by arity of the main functor, and
finally by their arguments in left-to-right order.
compare(C,X,Y )
As a result of comparing X and Y, C may take one of the following values:
• = if X and Y are identical;
36 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• < if X precedes Y in the defined order;

• > if Y precedes X in the defined order;

X == Y [ISO]
Succeeds if terms X and Y are strictly identical. The difference between this
predicate and =/2 is that, if one of the arguments is a free variable, it only
succeeds when they have already been unified.
?- X == Y.
fails, but,
?- X = Y, X == Y.
succeeds.
?- X == 2.
fails, but,
?- X = 2, X == 2.
succeeds.

X \== Y [ISO]
Terms X and Y are not strictly identical.

X @< Y [ISO]
Term X precedes term Y in the standard order.

X @=< Y [ISO]
Term X does not follow term Y in the standard order.

X @> Y [ISO]
Term X follows term Y in the standard order.

X @>= Y [ISO]
Term X does not precede term Y in the standard order.

sort(+L,-S )
Unifies S with the list obtained by sorting L and merging identical (in the sense
of ==) elements.

keysort(+L,S )
Assuming L is a list of the form Key -Value , keysort(+L,S ) unifies S with the
list obtained from L, by sorting its elements according to the value of Key.
?- keysort([3-a,1-b,2-c,1-a,1-b],S).
would return:
S = [1-b,1-a,1-b,2-c,3-a]

length(?L,?S )
Unify the well-defined list L with its length. The procedure can be used to find
the length of a pre-defined list, or to build a list of length S.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 37

6.5 Arithmetic
Arithmetic expressions in YAP may use the following operators or evaluable predicates:
+X The value of X itself.
-X [ISO] Symmetric value.
X +Y [ISO]
Sum.
X-Y [ISO]
Difference.
X *Y [ISO]
Product.
X /Y [ISO]
Quotient.
X //Y [ISO]
Integer quotient.
X mod Y [ISO]
Integer remainder.
X rem Y Integer remainder, the same as mod.
exp(X ) [ISO]
Natural exponential.
log(X ) [ISO]
Natural logarithm.
log10(X ) Decimal logarithm.
sqrt(X ) [ISO]
Square root.
sin(X ) [ISO]
Sine.
cos(X ) [ISO]
Cosine.
tan(X ) Tangent.
asin(X ) Arc sine.
acos(X ) Arc cosine.
atan(X ) [ISO]
Arc tangent.
atan2(X ) Four-quadrant arc tangent.
sinh(X ) Hyperbolic sine.
cosh(X ) Hyperbolic cosine.
38 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

tanh(X ) Hyperbolic tangent.

asinh(X ) Hyperbolic arc sine.
acosh(X ) Hyperbolic arc cosine.
atanh(X ) Hyperbolic arc tangent.
integer(X ) [ISO]
If X evaluates to a float, the integer between the value of X and 0 closest to
the value of X, else if X evaluates to an integer, the value of X.
float(X ) [ISO]
If X evaluates to an integer, the corresponding float, else the float itself.
float_fractional_part(X ) [ISO]
The fractional part of the floating point number X, or 0.0 if X is an integer.
In the iso language mode, X must be an integer.
float_integer_part(X ) [ISO]
The float giving the integer part of the floating point number X, or X if X is
an integer. In the iso language mode, X must be an integer.
abs(X ) [ISO]
The absolute value of X.
ceiling(X ) [ISO]
The float that is the smallest integral value not smaller than X.
In iso language mode the argument must be a floating point-number and the
result is an integer.
floor(X ) [ISO]
The float that is the greatest integral value not greater than X.
In iso language mode the argument must be a floating point-number and the
result is an integer.
round(X ) [ISO]
The nearest integral value to X. If X is equidistant to two integers, it will be
rounded to the closest even integral value.
In iso language mode the argument must be a floating point-number, the result
is an integer and it the float is equidistant it is rounded up, that is, to the least
integer greater than X.
sign(X ) [ISO]
Return 1 if the X evaluates to a positive integer, 0 it if evaluates to 0, and -1
if it evaluates to a negative integer. If X evaluates to a floating-point number
return 1.0 for a positive X, 0.0 for 0.0, and -1.0 otherwise.
truncate(X )
The float that is the integral value between X and 0 closest to X.
max(X,Y ) The greater value of X and Y.
min(X,Y ) The lesser value of X and Y.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 39

X ^Y X raised to the power of Y, (from the C-Prolog syntax).

exp(X,Y ) X raised to the power of Y, (from the Quintus Prolog syntax).
X ** Y [ISO]
X raised to the power of Y (from ISO).
X /\ Y [ISO]
Integer bitwise conjunction.
X \/ Y [ISO]
Integer bitwise disjunction.
X # Y [ISO]
Integer bitwise exclusive disjunction.
X << Y Integer bitwise left logical shift of X by Y places.
X >> Y [ISO]
Integer bitwise right logical shift of X by Y places.
\ X [ISO] Integer bitwise negation.
gcd(X,Y ) The greatest common divisor of the two integers X and Y.
msb(X ) The most significant bit of the integer X.
[X ] Evaluates to X for expression X. Useful because character strings in Prolog are
lists of character codes.
X is Y*10+C-"0"
is the same as
X is Y*10+C-[48].
which would be evaluated as:
X is Y*10+C-48.
Besides numbers and the arithmetic operators described above, certain atoms have a
special meaning when present in arithmetic expressions:
pi The value of pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
e The base of the natural logarithms.
inf Infinity according to the IEEE Floating-Point standard. Note that evaluating
this term will generate a domain error in the iso language mode.
nan Not-a-number according to the IEEE Floating-Point standard. Note that eval-
uating this term will generate a domain error in the iso language mode.
cputime CPU time in seconds, since YAP was invoked.
heapused Heap space used, in bytes.
local Local stack in use, in bytes.
global Global stack in use, in bytes.
random A "random" floating point number between 0 and 1.
40 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

The primitive YAP predicates involving arithmetic expressions are:

X is +Y [2]
This predicate succeeds iff the result of evaluating the expression Y unifies
with X. This is the predicate normally used to perform evaluation of arithmetic
expressions:
X is 2+3*4
succeeds with X = 14.
+X < +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is less than the value of expression Y.
+X =< +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is less than or equal to the value of expression
Y.
+X > +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is greater than the value of expression Y.
+X >= +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is greater than or equal to the value of expression
Y.
+X =:= +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is equal to the value of expression Y.
+X =\= +Y [ISO]
The value of the expression X is different from the value of expression Y.
srandom(+X )
Use the argument X as a new seed for YAP’s random number generator. The
argument should be an integer, but floats are acceptable.
Notes:
• In contrast to previous versions of Yap, Yap4 does not convert automatically between
integers and floats.
• arguments to trigonometric functions are expressed in radians.
• if a (non-instantiated) variable occurs in an arithmetic expression YAP will generate
an exception. If no error handler is available, execution will be thrown back to the
top-level.

6.6 I/O Predicates

Some of the I/O predicates described below will in certain conditions provide error messages
and abort only if the file errors flag is set. If this flag is cleared the same predicates will
just fail. Details on setting and clearing this flag are given under 7.7.

6.6.1 Handling Streams and Files

open(+F,+M,-S ) [ISO]
Opens the file with name F in mode M (’read’, ’write’ or ’append’), returning
S unified with the stream name.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 41

At most, there are 17 streams opened at the same time. Each stream is either
an input or an output stream but not both. There are always 3 open streams:
user_input for reading, user_output for writing and user_error for writ-
ing. If there is no ambiguity, the atoms user_input and user_output may be
referred to as user.
The file_errors flag controls whether errors are reported when in mode ’read’
or ’append’ the file F does not exist or is not readable, and whether in mode
’write’ or ’append’ the file is not writable.

open(+F,+M,-S,+Opts ) [ISO]
Opens the file with name F in mode M (’read’, ’write’ or ’append’), returning
S unified with the stream name, and following these options:

type(+T ) Specify whether the stream is a text stream (default), or a binary

stream.

reposition(+Bool )
Specify whether it is possible to reposition the stream (true), or
not (false). By default, YAP enables repositioning for all files,
except terminal files and sockets.

eof_action(+Action )
Specify the action to take if attempting to input characters from
a stream where we have previously found an end-of-file. The
possible actions are error, that raises an error, reset, that tries
to reset the stream and is used for tty type files, and eof_code,
which generates a new end-of-file (default for non-tty files).

alias(+Name )
Specify an alias to the stream. The alias Name must be an atom.
The alias can be used instead of the stream descriptor for every
operation concerning the stream.
The operation will fail and give an error if the alias name is already
in use. YAP allows several aliases for the same file, but only one is
returned by stream_property/2

close(+S ) [ISO]
Closes the stream S. If S does not stand for a stream currently opened an error is
reported. The streams user_input, user_output, and user_error can never
be closed.
By default, give a file name, close/1 will also try to close a corresponding open
stream. This feature is not available in ISO or SICStus languages mode and is
deprecated.

close(+S,+O ) [ISO]
Closes the stream S, following options O.
The only valid options are force(true) and force(false). YAP currently
ignores these options.
42 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

absolute_file_name(+Name,-FullPath )
Give the path a full path FullPath Yap would use to consult a file named Name.
Unify FullPath with user if the file name is user.
current_stream(F,M,S )
Defines the relation: The stream S is opened on the file F in mode M. It might
be used to obtain all open streams (by backtracking) or to access the stream
for a file F in mode M, or to find properties for a stream S.
flush_output [ISO]
Send all data in the output buffer to current output stream.
flush_output(+S ) [ISO]
Send all data in the output buffer to stream S.
set_input(+S )
Set stream S as the current input stream. Predicates like read/1 and get/1
will start using stream S.
set_output(+S )
Set stream S as the current output stream. Predicates like write/1 and put/1
will start using stream S.
stream_select(+STREAMS,+TIMEOUT,-READSTREAMS )
Given a list of open STREAMS openeded in read mode and a TIMEOUT return
a list of streams who are now available for reading.
If the TIMEOUT is instantiated to off, stream_select/3 will wait indefinitely
for a stream to become open. Otherwise the timeout must be of the form
SECS:USECS where SECS is an integer gives the number of seconds to wait for a
timeout and USECS adds the number of micro-seconds.
This built-in is only defined if the system call select is available in the system.
current_input(-S ) [ISO]
Unify S with the current input stream.
current_output(-S ) [ISO]
Unify S with the current output stream.
at_end_of_stream [ISO]
Succeed if the current stream has stream position end-of-stream or past-end-
of-stream.
at_end_of_stream(+S ) [ISO]
Succeed if the stream S has stream position end-of-stream or past-end-of-
stream. Note that S must be a readable stream.
set_stream_position(+S, +POS ) [ISO]
Given a stream position POS for a stream S, set the current stream position
for S to be POS.
stream_property(?Stream,?Prop ) [ISO]
Obtain the properties for the open streams. If the first argument is unbound,
the procedure will backtrack through all open streams. Otherwise, the first
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 43

argument must be a stream term (you may use current_stream to obtain a

current stream given a file name).
The following properties are recognized:
file_name(P )
An atom giving the file name for the current stream. The file names
are user_input, user_output, and user_error for the standard
streams.
mode(P ) The mode used to open the file. It may be one of append, read, or
write.
input The stream is readable.
output The stream is writable.
alias(A ) ISO-Prolog primitive for stream aliases. Yap returns one of the
existing aliases for the stream.
position(P )
A term describing the position in the stream.
end_of_stream(E )
Whether the stream is at the end of stream, or it has found the
end of stream and is past, or whether it has not yet reached the
end of stream.
eof_action(A )
The action to take when trying to read after reaching the end of
stream. The action may be one of error, generate an error, eof_
code, return character code -1, or reset the stream.
reposition(B )
Whether the stream can be repositioned or not, that is, whether it
is seekable.
type(T ) Whether the stream is a text stream or a binary stream.

6.6.2 Handling Streams and Files

tell(+S ) If S is a currently opened stream for output, it becomes the current output
stream. If S is an atom it is taken to be a filename. If there is no output stream
currently associated with it, then it is opened for output, and the new output
stream created becomes the current output stream. If it is not possible to open
the file, an error occurs. If there is a single opened output stream currently
associated with the file, then it becomes the current output stream; if there are
more than one in that condition, one of them is chosen.
Whenever S is a stream not currently opened for output, an error may be
reported, depending on the state of the file errors flag. The predicate just fails,
if S is neither a stream nor an atom.
telling(-S )
The current output stream is unified with S.
44 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

told Closes the current output stream, and the user’s terminal becomes again the
current output stream. It is important to remember to close streams after
having finished using them, as the maximum number of simultaneously opened
streams is 17.
see(+S ) If S is a currently opened input stream then it is assumed to be the current input
stream. If S is an atom it is taken as a filename. If there is no input stream
currently associated with it, then it is opened for input, and the new input
stream thus created becomes the current input stream. If it is not possible to
open the file, an error occurs. If there is a single opened input stream currently
associated with the file, it becomes the current input stream; if there are more
than one in that condition, then one of them is chosen.
When S is a stream not currently opened for input, an error may be reported,
depending on the state of the file_errors flag. If S is neither a stream nor
an atom the predicates just fails.
seeing(-S )
The current input stream is unified with S.
seen Closes the current input stream (see 6.7.).

6.6.3 Handling Input/Output of Terms

read(-T ) [ISO]
Reads the next term from the current input stream, and unifies it with T. The
term must be followed by a dot (’.’) and any blank-character as previously
defined. The syntax of the term must match the current declarations for op-
erators (see op). If the end-of-stream is reached, T is unified with the atom
end_of_file. Further reads from of the same stream may cause an error failure
(see open/3).
read_term(-T,+Options ) [ISO]
Reads term T from the current input stream with execution controlled by the
following options:
singletons(-Names )
Unify Names with a list of the form Name=Var, where Name is the
name of a non-anonymous singleton variable in the original term,
and Var is the variable’s representation in YAP.
syntax_errors(+Val )
Control action to be taken after syntax errors. See yap_flag/2 for
detailed information.
variable_names(-Names )
Unify Names with a list of the form Name=Var, where Name is the
name of a non-anonymous variable in the original term, and Var is
the variable’s representation in YAP.
variables(-Names )
Unify Names with a list of the variables in term T.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 45

char_conversion(+IN,+OUT ) [ISO]
While reading terms convert unquoted occurrences of the character IN to the
character OUT. Both IN and OUT must be bound to single characters atoms.
Character conversion only works if the flag char_conversion is on. This is
default in the iso and sicstus language modes. As an example, character
conversion can be used for instance to convert characters from the ISO-LATIN-
1 character set to ASCII.
If IN is the same character as OUT, char_conversion/2 will remove this con-
version from the table.
current_char_conversion(?IN,?OUT ) [ISO]
If IN is unbound give all current character translations. Otherwise, give the
translation for IN, if one exists.
write(T ) [ISO]
The term T is written to the current output stream according to the operator
declarations in force.
display(+T )
Displays term T on the current output stream. All Prolog terms are written in
standard parenthesized prefix notation.
write_canonical(+T ) [ISO]
Displays term T on the current output stream. Atoms are quoted when neces-
sary, and operators are ignored, that is, the term is written in standard paren-
thesized prefix notation.
write_term(+T, +Opts ) [ISO]
Displays term T on the current output stream, according to the following op-
tions:
quoted(+Bool )
If true, quote atoms if this would be necessary for the atom to
be recognized as an atom by YAP’s parser. The default value is
false.
ignore_ops(+Bool )
If true, ignore operator declarations when writing the term. The
default value is false.
numbervars(+Bool )
If true, output terms of the form ’$VAR’(N), where N is an integer,
as a sequence of capital letters. The default value is false.
portrayed(+Bool )
If true, use portray/1 to portray bound terms. The default value
is false.
max_depth(+Depth )
If Depth is a positive integer, use Depth as the maximum depth to
portray a term. The default is 0, that is, unlimited depth.
46 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

writeq(T ) [ISO]
Writes the term T, quoting names to make the result acceptable to the predicate
’read’ whenever necessary.
print(T ) Prints the term T to the current output stream using write/1 unless T is
bound and a call to the user-defined predicate portray/1 succeeds. To do
pretty printing of terms the user should define suitable clauses for portray/1
and use print/1.
format(+T,+L )
Print formatted output to the current output stream. The arguments in list L
are output according to the string or atom T.
A control sequence is introduced by a w. The following control sequences are
available in YAP:
’~~’ Print a single tilde.
’~a’ The next argument must be an atom, that will be printed as if by
write.
’~Nc’ The next argument must be an integer, that will be printed as a
character code. The number N is the number of times to print the
character (default 1).
’~Ne’
’~NE’
’~Nf’
’~Ng’
’~NG’ The next argument must be a floating point number. The float F,
the number N and the control code c will be passed to printf as:
printf("%s.Nc", F)
As an example:
?- format("~8e, ~8E, ~8f, ~8g, ~8G~w",
[3.14,3.14,3.14,3.14,3.14,3.14]).
3.140000e+00, 3.140000E+00, 3.140000, 3.14, 3.143.14
’~Nd’ The next argument must be an integer, and N is the number of
digits after the decimal point. If N is 0 no decimal points will be
printed. The default is N = 0.
?- format("~2d, ~d",[15000, 15000]).
150.00, 15000
’~ND’ Identical to ’~Nd’, except that commas are used to separate groups
of three digits.
?- format("~2D, ~D",[150000, 150000]).
1,500.00, 150,000
’~i’ Ignore the next argument in the list of arguments:
?- format(’The ~i met the boregrove’,[mimsy]).
The met the boregrove
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 47

’~k’ Print the next argument with write_canonical:

?- format("Good night ~k",a+[1,2]).
Good night +(a,[1,2])
’~Nn’ Print N newlines (where N defaults to 1).
’~NN’ Print N newlines if at the beginning of the line (where N defaults
to 1).
’~Nr’ The next argument must be an integer, and N is interpreted as a
radix, such that 2 <= N <= 36 (the default is 8).
?- format("~2r, 0x~16r, ~r",
[150000, 150000, 150000]).
100100100111110000, 0x249f0, 444760
Note that the letters a-z denote digits larger than 9.
’~NR’ Similar to ’~NR’. The next argument must be an integer, and N is
interpreted as a radix, such that 2 <= N <= 36 (the default is 8).
?- format("~2r, 0x~16r, ~r",
[150000, 150000, 150000]).
100100100111110000, 0x249F0, 444760
The only difference is that letters A-Z denote digits larger than 9.
’~p’ Print the next argument with print/1:
?- format("Good night ~p",a+[1,2]).
Good night a+[1,2]
’~q’ Print the next argument with writeq/1:
?- format("Good night ~q",’Hello’+[1,2]).
Good night ’Hello’+[1,2]
’~Ns’ The next argument must be a list of character codes. The system
then outputs their representation as a string, where N is the maxi-
mum number of characters for the string (N defaults to the length
of the string).
?- format("The ~s are ~4s",["woods","lovely"]).
The woods are love
’~w’ Print the next argument with write/1:
?- format("Good night ~w",’Hello’+[1,2]).
Good night Hello+[1,2]
The number of arguments, N, may be given as an integer, or it may be given
as an extra argument. The next example shows a small procedure to write a
variable number of a characters:
write_many_as(N) :-
format("~*c",[N,0’a]).
The format/2 built-in also allows for formatted output. One can specify column
boundaries and fill the intermediate space by a padding character:
48 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

’~N|’ Set a column boundary at position N, where N defaults to the

current position.
’~N+’ Set a column boundary at N characters past the current position,
where N defaults to 8.
’~Nt’ Set padding for a column, where N is the fill code (default is hSPCi).
The next example shows how to align columns and padding. We first show
left-alignment:

?- format("~n*Hello~16+*~n",[]).
*Hello *

Note that we reserve 16 characters for the column.

The following example shows how to do right-alignment:

?- format("*~tHello~16+*~n",[]).
* Hello*

The ~t escape sequence forces filling before Hello.

We next show how to do centering:

?- format("*~tHello~t~16+*~n",[]).
* Hello *

The two ~t escape sequence force filling both before and after Hello. Space is
then evenly divided between the right and the left sides.
format(+S,+T,+L )
Print formatted output to stream S.

6.6.4 Handling Input/Output of Characters

put(+N ) Outputs to the current output stream the character whose ASCII code is N.
The character N must be a legal ASCII character code, an expression yielding
such a code, or a list in which case only the first element is used.
put_byte(+N ) [ISO]
Outputs to the current output stream the character whose code is N. The
current output stream must be a binary stream.
put_char(+N ) [ISO]
Outputs to the current output stream the character who is used to build the
representation of atom A. The current output stream must be a text stream.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 49

put_code(+N ) [ISO]
Outputs to the current output stream the character whose ASCII code is N.
The current output stream must be a text stream. The character N must be
a legal ASCII character code, an expression yielding such a code, or a list in
which case only the first element is used.
get(-C ) The next non-blank character from the current input stream is unified with C.
Blank characters are the ones whose ASCII codes are not greater than 32. If
there are no more non-blank characters in the stream, C is unified with -1. If
end_of_stream has already been reached in the previous reading, this call will
give an error message.
get0(-C ) The next character from the current input stream is consumed, and then unified
with C. There are no restrictions on the possible values of the ASCII code for
the character, but the character will be internally converted by YAP.
get_byte(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is a character code, and the current stream is a binary
stream, read the next byte from the current stream and unify its code with C.
get_char(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is an atom representation of a character, and the current
stream is a text stream, read the next character from the current stream and
unify its atom representation with C.
get_code(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is the code for a character, and the current stream is a text
stream, read the next character from the current stream and unify its code with
C.
peek_byte(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is a character code, and the current stream is a binary
stream, read the next byte from the current stream and unify its code with C,
while leaving the current stream position unaltered.
peek_char(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is an atom representation of a character, and the current
stream is a text stream, read the next character from the current stream and
unify its atom representation with C, while leaving the current stream position
unaltered.
peek_code(-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is the code for a character, and the current stream is a text
stream, read the next character from the current stream and unify its code with
C, while leaving the current stream position unaltered.
skip(+N ) Skips input characters until the next occurrence of the character with ASCII
code N. The argument to this predicate can take the same forms as those for
put (see 6.11).
tab(+N ) Outputs N spaces to the current output stream.
nl [ISO] Outputs a new line to the current output stream.
50 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

6.6.5 Input/Output Predicates applied to Streams

read(+S,-T ) [ISO]
Reads term T from the stream S instead of from the current input stream.
read_term(+S,-T,+Options ) [ISO]
Reads term T from stream S with execution controlled by the same options as
read_term/2.
write(+S,T ) [ISO]
Writes term T to stream S instead of to the current output stream.
write_canonical(+S,+T ) [ISO]
Displays term T on the stream S. Atoms are quoted when necessary, and oper-
ators are ignored.
write_term(+S, +T, +Opts ) [ISO]
Displays term T on the current output stream, according to the same options
used by write_term/3.
writeq(+S,T ) [ISO]
As writeq/1, but the output is sent to the stream S.
display(+S,T )
Like display/1, but using stream S to display the term.
print(+S,T )
Prints term T to the stream S instead of to the current output stream.
put(+S,+N )
As put(N), but to stream S.
put_byte(+S,+N ) [ISO]
As put_byte(N), but to binary stream S.
put_char(+S,+A ) [ISO]
As put_char(A), but to text stream S.
put_code(+S,+N ) [ISO]
As put_code(N), but to text stream S.
get(+S,-C )
The same as get(C), but from stream S.
get0(+S,-C )
The same as get0(C), but from stream S.
get_byte(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is a character code, and the stream S is a binary stream,
read the next byte from that stream and unify its code with C.
get_char(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is an atom representation of a character, and the stream
S is a text stream, read the next character from that stream and unify its
representation as an atom with C.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 51

get_code(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is a character code, and the stream S is a text stream, read
the next character from that stream and unify its code with C.
peek_byte(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is a character code, and S is a binary stream, read the
next byte from the current stream and unify its code with C, while leaving the
current stream position unaltered.
peek_char(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is an atom representation of a character, and the stream
S is a text stream, read the next character from that stream and unify its
representation as an atom with C, while leaving the current stream position
unaltered.
peek_code(+S,-C ) [ISO]
If C is unbound, or is an atom representation of a character, and the stream
S is a text stream, read the next character from that stream and unify its
representation as an atom with C, while leaving the current stream position
unaltered.
skip(+S,-C )
Like skip/1, but using stream S instead of the current input stream.
tab(+S,+N )
The same as tab/1, but using stream S.
nl(+S ) Outputs a new line to stream S.

6.6.6 Compatible C-Prolog predicates for Terminal I/O

ttyput(+N )
As put(N) but always to user_output.
ttyget(-C )
The same as get(C), but from stream user_input.
ttyget0(-C )
The same as get0(C), but from stream user_input.
ttyskip(-C )
Like skip/1, but always using stream user_input. stream.
ttytab(+N )
The same as tab/1, but using stream user_output.
ttynl Outputs a new line to stream user_output.

6.6.7 Controlling Input/Output

exists(+F )
Checks if file F exists in the current directory.
nofileerrors
Switches off the file errors flag, so that the predicates see/1, tell/1, open/3
and close/1 just fail, instead of producing an error message and aborting
whenever the specified file cannot be opened or closed.
52 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

fileerrors
Switches on the file errors flag so that in certain error conditions I/O predicates
will produce an appropriated message and abort.

write_depth(T,L,A )
Unifies T with the value of the maximum depth of a term to be written, L with
the maximum length of a list to write, and A with the maximum number of
arguments of a compound term to write. The setting will be used by write/1
or write/2. The default value for all arguments is 0, meaning unlimited depth
and length.
?- write_depth(3,5,5).
yes
?- write(a(b(c(d(e(f(g))))))).
a(b(c(....)))
yes
?- write([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]).
[1,2,3,4,5,...]
yes
?- write(a(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)).
a(1,2,3,4,5,...)
yes
write_depth(T,L )
Same as write_depth(T,L,_). Unifies T with the value of the maximum depth
of a term to be written, and L with the maximum length of a list to write. The
setting will be used by write/1 or write/2. The default value for all arguments
is 0, meaning unlimited depth and length.
?- write_depth(3,5,5).
yes
?- write(a(b(c(d(e(f(g))))))).
a(b(c(....)))
yes
?- write([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]).
[1,2,3,4,5,...]
yes
always_prompt_user
Force the system to prompt the user even if the user_input stream is not a
terminal. This command is useful if you want to obtain interactive control from
a pipe or a socket.

6.6.8 Using Sockets From Yap

YAP includes a SICStus Prolog compatible socket interface. This is a low level interface
that provides direct access to the major socket system calls. These calls can be used both to
open a new connection in the network or connect to a networked server. Socket connections
are described as read/write streams, and standard I/O built-ins can be used to write on or
read from sockets. The following calls are available:
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 53

socket(+DOMAIN,+TYPE,+PROTOCOL,-SOCKET )
Corresponds to the BSD system call socket. Create a socket for domain DO-
MAIN of type TYPE and protocol PROTOCOL. Both DOMAIN and TYPE
should be atoms, whereas PROTOCOL must be an integer. The new socket
object is accessible through a descriptor bound to the variable SOCKET.
The current implementation of YAP only accepts two socket domains: ’AF_
INET’ and ’AF_UNIX’. Socket types depend on the underlying operating sys-
tem, but at least the following types are supported: ’SOCK_STREAM’ and ’SOCK_
DGRAM’.
socket(+DOMAIN,-SOCKET )
Call socket/4 with TYPE bound to ’SOCK_STREAM’ and PROTOCOL bound
to 0.
socket_close(+SOCKET )
Close socket SOCKET. Note that sockets used in socket_connect (that is,
client sockets) should not be closed with socket_close, as they will be au-
tomatically closed when the corresponding stream is closed with close/1 or
close/2.
socket_bind(+SOCKET, ?PORT )
Interface to system call bind, as used for servers: bind socket to a port. Port
information depends on the domain:
’AF_UNIX’(+FILENAME )
’AF_FILE’(+FILENAME )
use file name FILENAME for UNIX or local sockets.
’AF_INET’(?HOST,?PORT)
If HOST is bound to an atom, bind to host HOST, otherwise if
unbound bind to local host (HOST remains unbound). If port
PORT is bound to an integer, try to bind to the corresponding
port. If variable PORT is unbound allow operating systems to
choose a port number, which is unified with PORT.
socket_connect(+SOCKET, +PORT, -STREAM )
Interface to system call connect, used for clients: connect socket SOCKET to
PORT. The connection results in the read/write stream STREAM.
Port information depends on the domain:
’AF_UNIX’(+FILENAME )
’AF_FILE’(+FILENAME )
connect to socket at file FILENAME.
’AF_INET’(+HOST,+PORT )
Connect to socket at host HOST and port PORT.
socket_listen(+SOCKET, +LENGTH )
Interface to system call listen, used for servers to indicate willingness to wait
for connections at socket SOCKET. The integer LENGTH gives the queue limit
for incoming connections, and should be limited to 5 for portable applications.
The socket must be of type SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_SEQPACKET.
54 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

socket_accept(+SOCKET, -STREAM )
socket_accept(+SOCKET, -CLIENT, -STREAM )
Interface to system call accept, used for servers to wait for connections at socket
SOCKET. The stream descriptor STREAM represents the resulting connection.
If the socket belongs to the domain ’AF_INET’, CLIENT unifies with an atom
containing the IP address for the client in numbers and dots notation.
socket_accept(+SOCKET, -STREAM )
Accept a connection but do not return client information.
socket_buffering(+SOCKET, -MODE, -OLD, +NEW )
Set buffering for SOCKET in read or write MODE. OLD is unified with the
previous status, and NEW receives the new status which may be one of unbuf
or fullbuf.
socket_select(+SOCKETS, -NEWSTREAMS, +TIMEOUT, +STREAMS, -READSTREAMS )
Interface to system call select, used for servers to wait for connection requests
or for data at sockets. The variable SOCKETS is a list of form KEY-SOCKET,
where KEY is an user-defined identifier and SOCKET is a socket descrip-
tor. The variable TIMEOUT is either off, indicating execution will wait until
something is available, or of the form SEC-USEC, where SEC and USEC give
the seconds and microseconds before socket_select/5 returns. The variable
SOCKETS is a list of form KEY-STREAM, where KEY is an user-defined
identifier and STREAM is a stream descriptor
Execution of socket_select/5 unifies READSTREAMS from STREAMS with
readable data, and NEWSTREAMS with a list of the form KEY-STREAM,
where KEY was the key for a socket with pending data, and STREAM the
stream descriptor resulting from accepting the connection.
current_host(?HOSTNAME )
Unify HOSTNAME with an atom representing the fully qualified hostname for
the current host. Also succeeds if HOSTNAME is bound to the unqualified
hostname.
hostname_address(?HOSTNAME,?IP_ADDRESS )
HOSTNAME is an host name and IP ADDRESS its IP address in number and
dots notation.

6.7 Using the Clausal Data Base

Predicates in YAP may be dynamic or static. By default, when consulting or reconsulting,
predicates are assumed to be static: execution is faster and the code will probably use less
space. Static predicates impose some restrictions: in general there can be no addition or
removal of clauses for a procedure if it is being used in the current execution.
Dynamic predicates allow programmers to change the Clausal Data Base with the same
flexibility as in C-Prolog. With dynamic predicates it is always possible to add or remove
clauses during execution and the semantics will be the same as for C-Prolog. But the
programmer should be aware of the fact that asserting or retracting are still expensive
operations, and therefore he should try to avoid them whenever possible.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 55

dynamic +P
Declares predicate P or list of predicates [P1,...,Pn] as a dynamic predicate. P
must be written in form: name/arity.
:- dynamic god/1.
a more convenient form can be used:
:- dynamic son/3, father/2, mother/2.
or, equivalently,
:- dynamic [son/3, father/2, mother/2].
Note:
a predicate is assumed to be dynamic when asserted before being defined.
dynamic_predicate(+P,+Semantics )
Declares predicate P or list of predicates [P1,...,Pn] as a dynamic predicate
following either logical or immediate semantics.

6.7.1 Modification of the Data Base

These predicates can be used either for static or for dynamic predicates:
assert(+C )
Adds clause C to the program. If the predicate is undefined, declare it as
dynamic.
Most Prolog systems only allow asserting clauses for dynamic predicates. This
is also as specified in the ISO standard. YAP allows asserting clauses for static
predicates, as long as the predicate is not in use and the language flag is
cprolog. Note that this feature is deprecated, if you want to assert clauses
for static procedures you should use assert_static/1.
asserta(+C ) [ISO]
Adds clause C to the beginning of the program. If the predicate is undefined,
declare it as dynamic.
assertz(+C ) [ISO]
Adds clause C to the end of the program. If the predicate is undefined, declare
it as dynamic.
Most Prolog systems only allow asserting clauses for dynamic predicates. This
is also as specified in the ISO standard. YAP allows asserting clauses for static
predicates. The current version of YAP supports this feature, but this feature
is deprecated and support may go away in future versions.
abolish(+PredSpec ) [ISO]
Deletes the predicate given by PredSpec from the database. If PredSpec is an
unbound variable, delete all predicates for the current module. The specification
must include the name and arity, and it may include module information. Under
iso language mode this built-in will only abolish dynamic procedures. Under
other modes it will abolish any procedures.
abolish(+P,+N )
Deletes the predicate with name P and arity N. It will remove both static and
dynamic predicates.
56 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

assert_static(:C )
Adds clause C to a static procedure. Asserting a static clause for a predicate
while choice-points for the predicate are available has undefined results.
asserta_static(:C )
Adds clause C to the beginning of a static procedure.
assertz_static(:C )
Adds clause C to the end of a static procedure. Asserting a static clause for
a predicate while choice-points for the predicate are available has undefined
results.
The following predicates can be used for dynamic predicates and for static predicates, if
source mode was on when they were compiled:
clause(+H,B ) [ISO]
A clause whose head matches H is searched for in the program. Its head and
body are respectively unified with H and B. If the clause is a unit clause, B is
unified with true.
This predicate is applicable to static procedures compiled with source active,
and to all dynamic procedures.
clause(+H,B,-R )
The same as clause/2, plus R is unified with the reference to the clause in the
database. You can use instance/2 to access the reference’s value. Note that
you may not use erase/1 on the reference on static procedures.
nth_clause(+H,I,-R )
Find the I th clause in the predicate defining H, and give a reference to the
clause. Alternatively, if the reference R is given the head H is unified with a
description of the predicate and I is bound to its position.
The following predicates can only be used for dynamic predicates:
retract(+C ) [ISO]
Erases the first clause in the program that matches C. This predicate may
also be used for the static predicates that have been compiled when the source
mode was on. For more information on source/0 (see Section 4.2 [Setting the
Compiler], page 19).
retractall(+G )
Retract all the clauses whose head matches the goal G. Goal G must be a call
to a dynamic predicate.

6.7.2 Looking at the Data Base

listing Lists in the current output stream all the clauses for which source code is
available (these include all clauses for dynamic predicates and clauses for static
predicates compiled when source mode was on).
listing(+P )
Lists predicate P if its source code is available.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 57

portray_clause(+C )
Write clause C as if written by listing/0.
portray_clause(+S,+C )
Write clause C on stream S as if written by listing/0.
current_atom(A )
Checks whether A is a currently defined atom. It is used to find all currently
defined atoms by backtracking.
current_predicate(F ) [ISO]
F is the predicate indicator for a currently defined user or library predicate. F
is of the form Na/Ar, where the atom Na is the name of the predicate, and Ar
its arity.
current_predicate(A,P )
Defines the relation: P is a currently defined predicate whose name is the atom
A.
system_predicate(A,P )
Defines the relation: P is a built-in predicate whose name is the atom A.
predicate_property(P,Prop )
For the predicates obeying the specification P unify Prop with a property of P.
These properties may be:
built_in true for built-in predicates,
dynamic true if the predicate is dynamic
static true if the predicate is static
meta_predicate(M )
true if the predicate has a meta predicate declaration M.
multifile
true if the predicate was declared to be multifile
imported_from(Mod )
true if the predicate was imported from module Mod.
exported true if the predicate is exported in the current module.
public true if the predicate is public; note that all dynamic predicates are
public.
tabled true if the predicate is tabled; note that only static predicates can
be tabled in YAP.
source true if source for the predicate is available.
number_of_clauses(ClauseCount )
Number of clauses in the predicate definition. Always one if exter-
nal or built-in.
58 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

6.7.3 Using Data Base References

Data Base references are a fast way of accessing terms. The predicates erase/1 and
instance/1 also apply to these references and may sometimes be used instead of retract/1
and clause/2.
assert(+C,-R )
The same as assert(C) (see Section 6.7.1 [Modifying the Database], page 55)
but unifies R with the database reference that identifies the new clause, in a
one-to-one way. Note that asserta/2 only works for dynamic predicates. If
the predicate is undefined, it will automatically be declared dynamic.
asserta(+C,-R )
The same as asserta(C) but unifying R with the database reference that iden-
tifies the new clause, in a one-to-one way. Note that asserta/2 only works
for dynamic predicates. If the predicate is undefined, it will automatically be
declared dynamic.
assertz(+C,-R )
The same as assertz(C) but unifying R with the database reference that iden-
tifies the new clause, in a one-to-one way. Note that asserta/2 only works
for dynamic predicates. If the predicate is undefined, it will automatically be
declared dynamic.
retract(+C,-R )
Erases from the program the clause C whose database reference is R. The
predicate must be dynamic.

6.8 Internal Data Base

Some programs need global information for, e.g. counting or collecting data obtained by
backtracking. As a rule, to keep this information, the internal data base should be used
instead of asserting and retracting clauses (as most novice programmers do), . In YAP (as
in some other Prolog systems) the internal data base (i.d.b. for short) is faster, needs less
space and provides a better insulation of program and data than using asserted/retracted
clauses. The i.d.b. is implemented as a set of terms, accessed by keys that unlikely what
happens in (non-Prolog) data bases are not part of the term. Under each key a list of terms
is kept. References are provided so that terms can be identified: each term in the i.d.b. has
a unique reference (references are also available for clauses of dynamic predicates).
recorda(+K,T,-R )
Makes term T the first record under key K and unifies R with its reference.
recordz(+K,T,-R )
Makes term T the last record under key K and unifies R with its reference.
recorda_at(+R0,T,-R )
Makes term T the record preceding record with reference R0, and unifies R
with its reference.
recordz_at(+R0,T,-R )
Makes term T the record following record with reference R0, and unifies R with
its reference.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 59

recordaifnot(+K,T,-R )
If a term equal to T up to variable renaming is stored under key K fail. Other-
wise, make term T the first record under key K and unify R with its reference.
recordzifnot(+K,T,-R )
If a term equal to T up to variable renaming is stored under key K fail. Other-
wise, make term T the first record under key K and unify R with its reference.
recorded(+K,T,R )
Searches in the internal database under the key K, a term that unifies with T
and whose reference matches R. This built-in may be used in one of two ways:
• K may be given, in this case the built-in will return all elements of the
internal data-base that match the key.
• R may be given, if so returning the key and element that match the refer-
ence.
nth_instance(?K,?Index,T,?R )
Fetches the Indexnth entry in the internal database under the key K. Entries
are numbered from one. If the key K are the Index are bound, a reference is
unified with R. Otherwise, the reference R must be given, and the term the
system will find the matching key and index.
erase(+R )
The term referred to by R is erased from the internal database. If reference R
does not exist in the database, erase just fails.
erased(+R )
Succeeds if the object whose database reference is R has been erased.
instance(+R,-T )
If R refers to a clause or a recorded term, T is unified with its most general
instance. If R refers to an unit clause C, then T is unified with C :- true.
When R is not a reference to an existing clause or to a recorded term, this goal
fails.
eraseall(+K )
All terms belonging to the key K are erased from the internal database. The
predicate always succeeds.
current_key(?A,?K )
Defines the relation: K is a currently defined database key whose name is the
atom A. It can be used to generate all the keys for the internal data-base.
key_statistics(+K,-Entries,-Size,-IndexSize )
Returns several statistics for a key K. Currently, it says how many entries we
have for that key, Entries, what is the total size spent on entries, Size, and what
is the amount of space spent in indices.
key_statistics(+K,-Entries,-TotalSize )
Returns several statistics for a key K. Currently, it says how many entries we
have for that key, Entries, what is the total size spent on this key.
60 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

get_value(+A,-V )
In YAP, atoms can be associated with constants. If one such association exists
for atom A, unify the second argument with the constant. Otherwise, unify V
with [].
This predicate is YAP specific.
set_value(+A,+C )
Associate atom A with constant C.
The set_value and get_value built-ins give a fast alternative to the internal
data-base. This is a simple form of implementing a global counter.
read_and_increment_counter(Value) :-
get_value(counter, Value),
Value1 is Value+1,
set_value(counter, Value1).
This predicate is YAP specific.
recordzifnot(+K,T,-R )
If a variant of T is stored under key K fail. Otherwise, make term T the last
record under key K and unify R with its reference.
This predicate is YAP specific.
recordaifnot(+K,T,-R )
If a variant of T is stored under key K fail. Otherwise, make term T the first
record under key K and unify R with its reference.
This predicate is YAP specific.
There is a strong analogy between the i.d.b. and the way dynamic predicates are stored.
In fact, the main i.d.b. predicates might be implemented using dynamic predicates:
recorda(X,T,R) :- asserta(idb(X,T),R).
recordz(X,T,R) :- assertz(idb(X,T),R).
recorded(X,T,R) :- clause(idb(X,T),R).
We can take advantage of this, the other way around, as it is quite easy to write a simple
Prolog interpreter, using the i.d.b.:
asserta(G) :- recorda(interpreter,G,_).
assertz(G) :- recordz(interpreter,G,_).
retract(G) :- recorded(interpreter,G,R), !, erase(R).
call(V) :- var(V), !, fail.
call((H :- B)) :- !, recorded(interpreter,(H :- B),_), call(B).
call(G) :- recorded(interpreter,G,_).
In YAP, much attention has been given to the implementation of the i.d.b., especially to the
problem of accelerating the access to terms kept in a large list under the same key. Besides
using the key, YAP uses an internal lookup function, transparent to the user, to find only
the terms that might unify. For instance, in a data base containing the terms
b
b(a)
c(d)
e(g)
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 61

b(X)
e(h)
stored under the key k/1, when executing the query
:- recorded(k(_),c(_),R).
recorded would proceed directly to the third term, spending almost the time as if a(X) or
b(X) was being searched. The lookup function uses the functor of the term, and its first
three arguments (when they exist). So, recorded(k(_),e(h),_) would go directly to the
last term, while recorded(k(_),e(_),_) would find first the fourth term, and then, after
backtracking, the last one.
This mechanism may be useful to implement a sort of hierarchy, where the functors of
the terms (and eventually the first arguments) work as secondary keys.
In the YAP’s i.d.b. an optimized representation is used for terms without free variables.
This results in a faster retrieval of terms and better space usage. Whenever possible, avoid
variables in terms in terms stored in the i.d.b.

6.9 The Blackboard

YAP implements a blackboard in the style of the SICStus Prolog blackboard. The black-
board uses the same underlying mechanism as the internal data-base but has several im-
portant differences:
• It is module aware, in contrast to the internal data-base.
• Keys can only be atoms or integers, and not compound terms.
• A single term can be stored per key.
• An atomic update operation is provided; this is useful for parallelism.
bb_put(+Key,?Term )
Store term table Term in the blackboard under key Key. If a previous term
was stored under key Key it is simply forgotten.
bb_get(+Key,?Term )
Unify Term with a term stored in the blackboard under key Key, or fail silently
if no such term exists.
bb_delete(+Key,?Term )
Delete any term stored in the blackboard under key Key and unify it with
Term. Fail silently if no such term exists.
bb_update(+Key,?Term,?New )
Atomically unify a term stored in the blackboard under key Key with Term,
and if the unification succeeds replace it by New. Fail silently if no such term
exists or if unification fails.

6.10 Collecting Solutions to a Goal

When there are several solutions to a goal, if the user wants to collect all the solutions he
may be led to use the data base, because backtracking will forget previous solutions.
YAP allows the programmer to choose from several system predicates instead of writing
his own routines. findall/3 gives you the fastest, but crudest solution. The other built-in
predicates post-process the result of the query in several different ways:
62 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

findall(T,+G,-L ) [ISO]
Unifies L with a list that contains all the instantiations of the term T satisfying
the goal G.
With the following program:
a(2,1).
a(1,1).
a(2,2).
the answer to the query
findall(X,a(X,Y),L).
would be:
X = _32
Y = _33
L = [2,1,2];
no
findall(T,+G,+L,-L0 )
Similar to findall/3, but appends all answers to list L0.
all(T,+G,-L )
Similar to findall(T,G,L ) but eliminating repeated elements. Thus, assuming
the same clauses as in the above example, the reply to the query
all(X,a(X,Y),L).
would be:
X = _32
Y = _33
L = [2,1];
no
bagof(T,+G,-L ) [ISO]
For each set of possible instances of the free variables occurring in G but not
in T, generates the list L of the instances of T satisfying G. Again, assuming
the same clauses as in the examples above, the reply to the query
bagof(X,a(X,Y),L).

would be:
X = _32
Y = 1
L = [2,1];
X = _32
Y = 2
L = [2];
no
setof(X,+P,-B ) [ISO]
Similar to bagof(T,G,L ) but sorting list L and keeping only one copy of each
element. Again, assuming the same clauses as in the examples above, the reply
to the query
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 63

setof(X,a(X,Y),L).
would be:
X = _32
Y = 1
L = [1,2];
X = _32
Y = 2
L = [2];
no

6.11 Grammar Rules

Grammar rules in Prolog are both a convenient way to express definite clause grammars
and an extension of the well known context-free grammars.
A grammar rule is of the form:
head --> body
where both head and body are sequences of one or more items linked by the standard
conjunction operator ’,’.
Items can be:
• a non-terminal symbol may be either a complex term or an atom.
• a terminal symbol may be any Prolog symbol. Terminals are written as Prolog lists.
• an empty body is written as the empty list ’[ ]’.
• extra conditions may be inserted as Prolog procedure calls, by being written inside
curly brackets ’{’ and ’}’.
• the left side of a rule consists of a nonterminal and an optional list of terminals.
• alternatives may be stated in the right-hand side of the rule by using the disjunction
operator ’;’.
• the cut and conditional symbol (’->’) may be inserted in the right hand side of a
grammar rule
Grammar related built-in predicates:
expand_term(T,-X )
This predicate is used by YAP for preprocessing each top level term read when
consulting a file and before asserting or executing it. It rewrites a term T to
a term X according to the following rules: first try to use the user defined
predicate term_expansion/2. If this call fails then the translating process for
DCG rules is applied, together with the arithmetic optimizer whenever the
compilation of arithmetic expressions is in progress.
user:goal_expansion(+G,+M,-NG )
Yap now supports goal_expansion/3. This is an user-defined procedure that
is called after term expansion when compiling or asserting goals for each sub-
goal in a clause. The first argument is bound to the goal and the second to the
module under which the goal G will execute. If goal_expansion/3 succeeds
the new sub-goal NG will replace G and will be processed in the same way. If
goal_expansion/3 fails the system will use the default rules.
64 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

phrase(+P,L,R )
This predicate succeeds when the difference list L -R is a phrase of type P.
phrase(+P,L )
This predicate succeeds when L is a phrase of type P. The same as
phrase(P,L,[]).
Both this predicate and the previous are used as a convenient way to start
execution of grammar rules.
’C’(S1,T,S2 )
This predicate is used by the grammar rules compiler and is defined as
’C’([H|T],H,T).

6.12 Access to Operating System Functionality

The following built-in predicates allow access to underlying Operating System functionality:
cd(+D ) Changes the current directory (on UNIX environments).
environ(+E,-S )
Given an environment variable E this predicate unifies the second argument S
with its value.
getcwd(-D )
Unify the current directory, represented as an atom, with the argument D.
putenv(+E,+S )
Set environment variable E to the value S. If the environment variable E does
not exist, create a new one. Both the environment variable and the value must
be atoms.
rename(+F,+G )
Renames file F to G.
sh Creates a new shell interaction.
system(+S )
Passes command S to the Bourne shell (on UNIX environments) or the current
command interpreter in WIN32 environments.
unix(+S ) Access to Unix-like functionality:
argv/1 Return a list of arguments to the program. These are the arguments
that follow a --, as in the usual Unix convention.
cd/0 Change to home directory.
cd/1 Change to given directory. Acceptable directory names are strings
or atoms.
environ/2
If the first argument is an atom, unify the second argument with
the value of the corresponding environment variable.
getcwd/1 Unify the first argument with an atom representing the current
directory.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 65

putenv/2 Set environment variable E to the value S. If the environment vari-

able E does not exist, create a new one. Both the environment
variable and the value must be atoms.
shell/1 Execute command under current shell. Acceptable commands are
strings or atoms.
system/1 Execute command with /bin/sh. Acceptable commands are strings
or atoms.
shell/0 Execute a new shell.
alarm(+Seconds,+Callable,+OldAlarm )
Arranges for YAP to be interrupted in Seconds seconds. When interrupted,
YAP will execute Callable and then return to the previous execution. If Seconds
is 0, no new alarm is scheduled. In any event, any previously set alarm is
canceled.
The variable OldAlarm unifies with the number of seconds remaining until any
previously scheduled alarm was due to be delivered, or with 0 if there was no
previously scheduled alarm.
Note that execution of Callable will wait if YAP is executing built-in predicates,
such as Input/Output operations.
The next example shows how alarm/3 can be used to implement a simple clock:
loop :- loop.

ticker :- write(’.’), flush_output,

get_value(tick, yes),
alarm(1,ticker,_).

:- set_value(tick, yes), alarm(1,ticker,_), loop.

The clock, ticker, writes a dot and then checks the flag tick to see whether it
can continue ticking. If so, it calls itself again. Note that there is no guarantee
that the each dot corresponds a second: for instance, if the YAP is waiting for
user input, ticker will wait until the user types the entry in.
The next example shows how alarm/3 can be used to guarantee that a certain
procedure does not take longer than a certain amount of time:
loop :- loop.

:- catch((alarm(10, throw(ball), _),loop),

ball,
format(’Quota exhausted.~n’,[])).
In this case after 10 seconds our loop is interrupted, ball is thrown, and the
handler writes Quota exhausted. Execution then continues from the handler.
Note that in this case loop/0 always executes until the alarm is sent. Often, the
code you are executing succeeds or fails before the alarm is actually delivered. In
this case, you probably want to disable the alarm when you leave the procedure.
The next procedure does exactly so:
66 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

once_with_alarm(Time,Goal,DoOnAlarm) :-
catch(execute_once_with_alarm(Time, Goal), alarm, DoOnAlarm).

execute_once_with_alarm(Time, Goal) :-
alarm(Time, alarm, _),
( call(Goal) -> alarm(0, alarm, _) ; alarm(0, alarm, _), fail).
The procedure has three arguments: the Time before the alarm is sent; the
Goal to execute; and the goal DoOnAlarm to execute if the alarm is sent. It
uses catch/3 to handle the case the alarm is sent. Then it starts the alarm,
calls the goal Goal, and disables the alarm on success or failure.
on_signal(+Signal,?OldAction,+Callable )
Set the interrupt handler for soft interrupt Signal to be Callable. OldAction is
unified with the previous handler.
Only a subset of the software interrupts (signals) can have their handlers ma-
nipulated through on_signal/3. Their POSIX names, YAP names and default
behavior is given below. The "YAP name" of the signal is the atom that is
associated with each signal, and should be used as the first argument to on_
signal/3. It is chosen so that it matches the signal’s POSIX name.
on_signal/3 succeeds, unless when called with an invalid signal name or one
that is not supported on this platform. No checks are made on the handler
provided by the user.
sig_up (Hangup)
SIGHUP in Unix/Linux; Reconsult the initialization files ~/.yaprc,
~/.prologrc and ~/prolog.ini.
sig_usr1 and sig_usr2 (User signals)
SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2 in Unix/Linux; Print a message and halt.
A special case is made, where if Callable is bound to default, then the default
handler is restored for that signal.
A call in the form on_signal(S,H,H ) can be used to retrieve a signal’s current
handler without changing it.
It must be noted that although a signal can be received at all times, the handler
is not executed while Yap is waiting for a query at the prompt. The signal will
be, however, registered and dealt with as soon as the user makes a query.
Please also note, that neither POSIX Operating Systems nor Yap guarantee
that the order of delivery and handling is going to correspond with the order
of dispatch.

6.13 Term Modification

It is sometimes useful to change the value of instantiated variables. Although, this is against
the spirit of logic programming, it is sometimes useful. As in other Prolog systems, YAP
has several primitives that allow updating Prolog terms. Note that these primitives are also
backtrackable.
The setarg/3 primitive allows updating any argument of a Prolog compound terms.
The mutable family of predicates provides mutable variables. They should be used instead
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 67

of setarg/3, as they allow the encapsulation of accesses to updatable variables. Their

implementation can also be more efficient for long deterministic computations.
setarg(+I,+S,?T )
Set the value of the I th argument of term S to term T.
create_mutable(+D,-M )
Create new mutable variable M with initial value D.
get_mutable(?D,+M )
Unify the current value of mutable term M with term D.
is_mutable(?D )
Holds if D is a mutable term.
get_mutable(?D,+M )
Unify the current value of mutable term M with term D.
update_mutable(+D,+M )
Set the current value of mutable term M to term D.

6.14 Profiling Prolog Programs

Predicates compiled with YAP’s flag profiling set to on, keep information on the number
of times the predicate was called. This information can be used to detect what are the most
commonly called predicates in the program.
The YAP profiling sub-system is currently under-development. Functionality for this
sub-system will increase with newer implementation.
Notes:
• Profiling works for both static and dynamic predicates.
• Currently only information on entries and retries to a predicate are maintained. This
may change in the future.
• As an example, the following user-level program gives a list of the most often called
procedures in a program. The procedure list_profile shows all procedures, irrespec-
tive of module, and the procedure list_profile/1 shows the procedures being used
in a specific module.
list_profile :-
% get number of calls for each profiled procedure
setof(D-[M:P|D1],(current_module(M),profile_data(M:P,calls,D),profile_data(
% output so that the most often called
% predicates will come last:
write_profile_data(LP).

list_profile(Module) :-
% get number of calls for each profiled procedure
setof(D-[Module:P|D1],(profile_data(Module:P,calls,D),profile_data(Module:P
% output so that the most often called
% predicates will come last:
write_profile_data(LP).
68 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

write_profile_data([]).
write_profile_data([D-[M:P|R]|SLP]) :-
% swap the two calls if you want the most often
% called predicates first.
format(’~a:~w: ~32+~t~d~12+~t~d~12+~n’, [M,P,D,R]),
write_profile_data(SLP).
These are the current predicates to access and clear profiling data:
profile_data(?Na/Ar, ?Parameter, -Data )
Give current profile data on Parameter for a predicate described by the pred-
icate indicator Na/Ar. If any of Na/Ar or Parameter are unbound, backtrack
through all profiled predicates or stored parameters. Current parameters are:
calls Number of times a procedure was called.
retries Number of times a call to the procedure was backtracked to and
retried.
profile_reset
Reset all profiling information.

6.15 Counting Calls

Predicates compiled with YAP’s flag call_counting set to on update counters on the
numbers of calls and of retries. Counters are actually decreasing counters, so that they can
be used as timers. Three counters are available:
• calls: number of predicate calls since execution started or since system was reset;
• retries: number of retries for predicates called since execution started or since coun-
ters were reset;
• calls_and_retries: count both on predicate calls and retries.
These counters can be used to find out how many calls a certain goal takes to execute.
They can also be used as timers.
The code for the call counters piggybacks on the profiling code. Therefore, activating
the call counters also activates the profiling counters.
These are the predicates that access and manipulate the call counters:
call_count_data(-Calls, -Retries, -CallsAndRetries )
Give current call count data. The first argument gives the current value for the
Calls counter, next the Retries counter, and last the CallsAndRetries counter.
call_count_reset
Reset call count counters. All timers are also reset.
call_count(?CallsMax, ?RetriesMax, ?CallsAndRetriesMax )
Set call count counter as timers. YAP will generate an exception if one of the
instantiated call counters decreases to 0. YAP will ignore unbound arguments:
• CallsMax: throw the exception call_counter when the counter calls
reaches 0;
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 69

• RetriesMax: throw the exception retry_counter when the counter

retries reaches 0;
• CallsAndRetriesMax: throw the exception call_and_retry_counter
when the counter calls_and_retries reaches 0.
Next, we show a simple example of how to use call counters:
?- yap_flag(call_counting,on), [-user]. l :- l. end_of_file. yap_flag(call_counting,

yes

yes
?- catch((call_count(10000,_,_),l),call_counter,format("limit_exceeded.~n",[])).

limit_exceeded.

yes
Notice that we first compile the looping predicate l/0 with call_counting on. Next,
we catch/3 to handle an exception when l/0 performs more than 10000 reductions.

6.16 Arrays
The YAP system includes experimental support for arrays. The support is enabled with
the option YAP_ARRAYS.
There are two very distinct forms of arrays in YAP. The dynamic arrays are a differ-
ent way to access compound terms created during the execution. Like any other terms,
any bindings to these terms and eventually the terms themselves will be destroyed during
backtracking. Our goal in supporting dynamic arrays is twofold. First, they provide an al-
ternative to the standard arg/3 built-in. Second, because dynamic arrays may have name
that are globally visible, a dynamic array can be visible from any point in the program. In
more detail, the clause
g(X) :- array_element(a,2,X).
will succeed as long as the programmer has used the built-in array/2 to create an array
term with at least 3 elements in the current environment, and the array was associated with
the name a. The element X is a Prolog term, so one can bind it and any such bindings will
be undone when backtracking. Note that dynamic arrays do not have a type: each element
may be any Prolog term.
The static arrays are an extension of the database. They provide a compact way for
manipulating data-structures formed by characters, integers, or floats imperatively. They
can also be used to provide two-way communication between YAP and external programs
through shared memory.
In order to efficiently manage space elements in a static array must have a type. Cur-
rently, elements of static arrays in YAP should have one of the following predefined types:
• byte: an 8-bit signed character.
• unsigned_byte: an 8-bit unsigned character.
• int: Prolog integers. Size would be the natural size for the machine’s architecture.
70 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• float: Prolog floating point number. Size would be equivalent to a double in C.

• atom: a Prolog atom.
• dbref: an internal database reference.
• term: a generic Prolog term. Note that this will term will not be stored in the array
itself, but instead will be stored in the Prolog internal database.
Arrays may be named or anonymous. Most arrays will be named, that is associated with
an atom that will be used to find the array. Anonymous arrays do not have a name, and
they are only of interest if the TERM_EXTENSIONS compilation flag is enabled. In this case,
the unification and parser are extended to replace occurrences of Prolog terms of the form
X[I] by run-time calls to array_element/3, so that one can use array references instead
of extra calls to arg/3. As an example:
g(X,Y,Z,I,J) :- X[I] is Y[J]+Z[I].
should give the same results as:
G(X,Y,Z,I,J) :-
array_element(X,I,E1),
array_element(Y,J,E2),
array_element(Z,I,E3),
E1 is E2+E3.
Note that the only limitation on array size are the stack size for dynamic arrays; and,
the heap size for static (not memory mapped) arrays. Memory mapped arrays are limited
by available space in the file system and in the virtual memory space.
The following predicates manipulate arrays:
array(+Name, +Size )
Creates a new dynamic array. The Size must evaluate to an integer. The Name
may be either an atom (named array) or an unbound variable (anonymous
array).
Dynamic arrays work as standard compound terms, hence space for the array
is recovered automatically on backtracking.
static_array(+Name, +Size, +Type )
Create a new static array with name Name. Note that the Name must be an
atom (named array). The Size must evaluate to an integer. The Type must be
bound to one of types mentioned previously.
static_array_location(+Name, -Ptr )
Give the location for a static array with name Name.
static_array_properties(?Name, ?Size, ?Type )
Show the properties size and type of a static array with name Name. Can also
be used to enumerate all current static arrays.
This built-in will silently fail if the there is no static array with that name.
static_array_to_term(?Name, ?Term )
Convert a static array with name Name to a compound term of name Name.
This built-in will silently fail if the there is no static array with that name.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 71

mmapped_array(+Name, +Size, +Type, +File )

Similar to static_array/3, but the array is memory mapped to file File. This
means that the array is initialized from the file, and that any changes to the
array will also be stored in the file.
This built-in is only available in operating systems that support the system call
mmap. Moreover, mmapped arrays do not store generic terms (type term).
close_static_array(+Name )
Close an existing static array of name Name. The Name must be an atom
(named array). Space for the array will be recovered and further accesses to
the array will return an error.
resize_static_array(+Name, -OldSize, +NewSize )
Expand or reduce a static array, The Size must evaluate to an integer. The
Name must be an atom (named array). The Type must be bound to one of
int, dbref, float or atom.
Note that if the array is a mmapped array the size of the mmapped file will be
actually adjusted to correspond to the size of the array.
array_element(+Name, +Index, ?Element )
Unify Element with Name[Index]. It works for both static and dynamic arrays,
but it is read-only for static arrays, while it can be used to unify with an element
of a dynamic array.
update_array(+Name, +Index, ?Value )
Attribute value Value to Name[Index]. Type restrictions must be respected
for static arrays. This operation is available for dynamic arrays if MULTI_
ASSIGNMENT_VARIABLES is enabled (true by default). Backtracking undoes up-
date array/3 for dynamic arrays, but not for static arrays.
Note that update_array/3 actually uses setarg/3 to update elements of dy-
namic arrays, and setarg/3 spends an extra cell for every update. For intensive
operations we suggest it may be less expensive to unify each element of the array
with a mutable terms and to use the operations on mutable terms.
add_to_array_element(+Name, +Index, , +Number, ?NewValue )
Add Number Name[Index] and unify NewValue with the incremented value.
Observe that Name[Index] must be an number. If Name is a static array the
type of the array must be int or float. If the type of the array is int you
only may add integers, if it is float you may add integers or floats. If Name
corresponds to a dynamic array the array element must have been previously
bound to a number and Number can be any kind of number.
The add_to_array_element/3 built-in actually uses setarg/3 to update ele-
ments of dynamic arrays. For intensive operations we suggest it may be less
expensive to unify each element of the array with a mutable terms and to use
the operations on mutable terms.

6.17 Predicate Information

Built-ins that return information on the current predicates and modules:
72 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

current_module(M )
Succeeds if M are defined modules. A module is defined as soon as some
predicate defined in the module is loaded, as soon as a goal in the module is
called, or as soon as it becomes the current type-in module.

current_module(M,F )
Succeeds if M are current modules associated to the file F.

6.18 Miscellaneous
statistics/0
Send to the current user error stream general information on space used and
time spent by the system.
?- statistics.
memory (total) 4784124 bytes
program space 3055616 bytes: 1392224 in use, 1663392 free
2228132 max
stack space 1531904 bytes: 464 in use, 1531440 free
global stack: 96 in use, 616684 max
local stack: 368 in use, 546208 max
trail stack 196604 bytes: 8 in use, 196596 free

0.010 sec. for 5 code, 2 stack, and 1 trail space overflows

0.130 sec. for 3 garbage collections which collected 421000 bytes
0.000 sec. for 0 atom garbage collections which collected 0 bytes
0.880 sec. runtime
1.020 sec. cputime
25.055 sec. elapsed time

The example shows how much memory the system spends. Memory is divided
into Program Space, Stack Space and Trail. In the example we have 3MB
allocated for program spaces, with less than half being actually used. Yap also
shows the maximum amount of heap space having been used which was over
2MB.
The stack space is divided into two stacks which grow against each other. We
are in the top level so very little stack is being used. On the other hand, the
system did use a lot of global and local stack during the previous execution (we
refer the reader to a WAM tutorial in order to understand what are the global
and local stacks).
Yap also shows information on how many memory overflows and garbage col-
lections the system executed, and statistics on total execution time. Cputime
includes all running time, runtime excludes garbage collection and stack over-
flow time.

statistics(?Param,-Info )
Gives statistical information on the system parameter given by first argument:
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 73

cputime [Time since Boot,Time From Last Call to Cputime ]

This gives the total cputime in milliseconds spent executing Prolog
code, garbage collection and stack shifts time included.
garbage_collection
[Number of GCs,Total Global Recovered,Total Time Spent ]
Number of garbage collections, amount of space recovered
in kbytes, and total time spent doing garbage collection in
milliseconds. More detailed information is available using
yap_flag(gc_trace,verbose).
global_stack
[Global Stack Used,Execution Stack Free ]
Space in kbytes currently used in the global stack, and space avail-
able for expansion by the local and global stacks.
local_stack
[Local Stack Used,Execution Stack Free ]
Space in kbytes currently used in the local stack, and space available
for expansion by the local and global stacks.
heap [Heap Used,Heap Free ]
Total space in kbytes not recoverable in backtracking. It includes
the program code, internal data base, and, atom symbol table.
program [Program Space Used,Program Space Free ]
Equivalent to heap.
runtime [Time since Boot,Time From Last Call to Runtime ]
This gives the total cputime in milliseconds spent executing Prolog
code, not including garbage collections and stack shifts. Note that
until Yap4.1.2 the runtime statistics would return time spent on
garbage collection and stack shifting.
stack_shifts
[Number of Heap Shifts,Number of Stack Shifts,Number of
Trail Shifts ]
Number of times YAP had to expand the heap, the stacks,
or the trail. More detailed information is available using
yap_flag(gc_trace,verbose).
trail [Trail Used,Trail Free ]
Space in kbytes currently being used and still available for the trail.
walltime [Time since Boot,Time From Last Call to Runtime ]
This gives the clock time in milliseconds since starting Prolog.
yap_flag(?Param,?Value )
Set or read system properties for Param:
argv
Read-only flag. It unifies with a list of atoms that gives the argu-
ments to Yap after --.
74 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

bounded [ISO]

Read-only flag telling whether integers are bounded. The value

depends on whether YAP uses the GMP library or not.
profiling

If off (default) do not compile call counting information for pro-

cedures. If on compile predicates so that they calls and retries to
the predicate may be counted. Profiling data can be read through
the call_count_data/3 built-in.
char_conversion [ISO]

Writable flag telling whether a character conversion table is used

when reading terms. The default value for this flag is off except
in sicstus and iso language modes, where it is on.
character_escapes [ISO]

Writable flag telling whether a character escapes are enables, on,

or disabled, off. The default value for this flag is on.
debug [ISO]

If Value is unbound, tell whether debugging is on or off. If Value

is bound to on enable debugging, and if it is bound to off disable
debugging.
discontiguous_warnings

If Value is unbound, tell whether warnings for discontiguous predi-

cates are on or off. If Value is bound to on enable these warnings,
and if it is bound to off disable them. The default for YAP is off,
unless we are in sicstus or iso mode.
dollar_as_lower_case

If off (default) consider the character ’$’ a control character, if on

consider ’$’ a lower case character.
double_quotes [ISO]

If Value is unbound, tell whether a double quoted list of characters

token is converted to a list of atoms, chars, to a list of integers,
codes, or to a single atom, atom. If Value is bound, set to the
corresponding behavior. The default value is codes.
fast
If on allow fast machine code, if off (default) disable it. Only
available in experimental implementations.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 75

fileerrors

If on fileerrors is on, if off (default) fileerrors is disabled.

float_format

C-library printf() format specification used by write/1 and

friends to determine how floating point numbers are printed.
The default is %.15g. The specified value is passed to printf()
without further checking. For example, if you want less digits
printed, %g will print all floats using 6 digits instead of the default
15.
gc
If on allow garbage collection (default), if off disable it.
gc_margin

Set or show the minimum free stack before starting garbage collec-
tion. The default depends on total stack size.
gc_trace
If off (default) do not show information on garbage collection and
stack shifts, if on inform when a garbage collection or stack shift
happened, if verbose give detailed information on garbage collec-
tion and stack shifts. Last, if very_verbose give detailed informa-
tion on data-structures found during the garbage collection process,
namely, on choice-points.
host_type

Return configure system information, including the machine-id

for which Yap was compiled and Operating System information.
index
If on allow indexing (default), if off disable it.
informational_messages

If on allow printing of informational messages, such as the ones that

are printed when consulting. If off disable printing these messages.
It is on by default except if Yap is booted with the -L flag.
integer_rounding_function [ISO]

Read-only flag telling the rounding function used for integers. Takes
the value down for the current version of YAP.
language
Choose whether YAP is closer to C-Prolog, cprolog, iso-prolog,
iso or SICStus Prolog, sicstus. The current default is cprolog.
This flag affects update semantics, leashing mode, style checking,
76 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

handling calls to undefined procedures, how directives are inter-

preted, when to use dynamic, character escapes, and how files are
consulted.
max_arity [ISO]

Read-only flag telling the maximum arity of a functor. Takes the

value unbounded for the current version of YAP.
max_integer [ISO]

Read-only flag telling the maximum integer in the implementation.

Depends on machine and Operating System architecture, and on
whether YAP uses the GMP multi-precision library. If bounded is
false, requests for max_integer will fail.
max_tagged_integer

Read-only flag telling the maximum integer we can store as a single

word. Depends on machine and Operating System architecture. It
can be used to find the word size of the current machine.
min_integer [ISO]

Read-only flag telling the minimum integer in the implementation.

Depends on machine and Operating System architecture, and on
whether YAP uses the GMP multi-precision library. If bounded is
false, requests for min_integer will fail.
min_tagged_integer

Read-only flag telling the minimum integer we can store as a single

word. Depends on machine and Operating System architecture.
n_of_integer_keys_in_bb

Read or set the size of the hash table that is used for looking up
the blackboard when the key is an integer.
n_of_integer_keys_in_db

Read or set the size of the hash table that is used for looking up
the internal data-base when the key is an integer.
profiling

If off (default) do not compile profiling information for procedures.

If on compile predicates so that they will output profiling infor-
mation. Profiling data can be read through the profile_data/3
built-in.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 77

redefine_warnings

If Value is unbound, tell whether warnings for procedures defined

in several different files are on or off. If Value is bound to on
enable these warnings, and if it is bound to off disable them. The
default for YAP is off, unless we are in sicstus or iso mode.
single_var_warnings

If Value is unbound, tell whether warnings for singleton variables

are on or off. If Value is bound to on enable these warnings, and
if it is bound to off disable them. The default for YAP is off,
unless we are in sicstus or iso mode.
strict_iso

If Value is unbound, tell whether strict ISO compatibility mode is

on or off. If Value is bound to on set language mode to iso and
enable strict mode. If Value is bound to off disable strict mode,
and keep the current language mode. The default for YAP is off.
Under strict ISO prolog mode all calls to non-ISO built-ins generate
an error. Compilation of clauses that would call non-ISO built-ins
will also generate errors. Pre-processing for grammar rules is also
disabled. Module expansion is still performed.
Arguably, ISO Prolog does not provide all the functionality required
from a modern Prolog system. Moreover, because most Prolog im-
plementations do not fully implement the standard and because the
standard itself gives the implementor latitude in a few important
questions, such as the unification algorithm and maximum size for
numbers there is not guarantee that programs compliant with this
mode will work the same way in every Prolog and in every platform.
We thus believe this mode is mostly useful when investigating how
a program depends on a Prolog’s platform specific features.
stack_dump_on_error

If on show a stack dump when Yap finds an error. The default is

off.
syntax_errors

Control action to be taken after syntax errors while executing

read/1, read/2, or read_term/3:
dec10
Report the syntax error and retry reading the term.
fail
Report the syntax error and fail (default).
78 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

error
Report the syntax error and generate an error.
quiet
Just fail
system_options

This read only flag tells which options were used to compile Yap.
Currently it informs whether the system supports coroutining,
depth_limit, the low_level_tracer, or-parallelism,
rational_trees, tabling, threads, or the wam_profiler.
to_chars_mode

Define whether YAP should follow quintus-like semantics for the

atom_chars/1 or number_chars/1 built-in, or whether it should
follow the ISO standard (iso option).
+
toplevel_hook

+If bound, set the argument to a goal to be executed before entering

the top-level. If unbound show the current goal or true if none is
presented. Only the first solution is considered and the goal is not
backtracked into.
typein_module

If bound, set the current working or type-in module to the argu-

ment, which must be an atom. If unbound, unify the argument
with the current working module.
unknown [ISO]

Corresponds to calling the unknown/2 built-in.

update_semantics

Define whether YAP should follow immediate update semantics,

as in C-Prolog (default), logical update semantics, as in Quintus
Prolog, SICStus Prolog, or in the ISO standard. There is also an
intermediate mode, logical_assert, where dynamic procedures
follow logical semantics but the internal data base still follows im-
mediate semantics.
user_error

If the second argument is bound to a stream, set user_error to

this stream. If the second argument is unbound, unify the argument
with the current user_error stream.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 79

By default, the user_error stream is set to a stream corresponding

to the Unix stderr stream.
The next example shows how to use this flag:
?- open( ’/dev/null’, append, Error,
[alias(mauri_tripa)] ).

Error = ’$stream’(3) ? ;

no
?- set_prolog_flag(user_error, mauri_tripa).

close(mauri_tripa).

yes
?-
We execute three commands. First, we open a stream in write
mode and give it an alias, in this case mauri_tripa. Next, we set
user_error to the stream via the alias. Note that after we did
so prompts from the system were redirected to the stream mauri_
tripa. Last, we close the stream. At this point, YAP automatically
redirects the user_error alias to the original stderr.
user_input

If the second argument is bound to a stream, set user_input to

this stream. If the second argument is unbound, unify the argument
with the current user_input stream.
By default, the user_input stream is set to a stream corresponding
to the Unix stdin stream.
user_output

If the second argument is bound to a stream, set user_output to

this stream. If the second argument is unbound, unify the argument
with the current user_output stream.
By default, the user_output stream is set to a stream correspond-
ing to the Unix stdout stream.
version
Read-only flag that giving the current version of Yap.
write_strings

Writable flag telling whether the system should write lists of inte-
gers that are writable character codes using the list notation. It is
on if enables or off if disabled. The default value for this flag is
off.
80 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

current_prolog_flag(?Flag,-Value ) [ISO]
Obtain the value for a YAP Prolog flag. Equivalent to calling yap_flag/2 with
the second argument unbound, and unifying the returned second argument with
Value.
prolog_flag(?Flag,-OldValue,+NewValue )
Obtain the value for a YAP Prolog flag and then set it to a new value. Equiv-
alent to first calling current_prolog_flag/2 with the second argument Old-
Value unbound and then calling set_prolog_flag/2 with the third argument
NewValue.
set_prolog_flag(+Flag,+Value ) [ISO]
Set the value for YAP Prolog flag Flag. Equivalent to calling yap_flag/2 with
both arguments bound.
op(+P,+T,+A ) [ISO]
Defines the operator A or the list of operators A with type T (which must be
one of xfx, xfy,yfx, xf, yf, fx or fy) and precedence P (see appendix iv for a
list of predefined operators).
Note that if there is a preexisting operator with the same name and type, this
operator will be discarded. Also, ’,’ may not be defined as an operator, and
it is not allowed to have the same for an infix and a postfix operator.
current_op(P,T,F ) [ISO]
Defines the relation: P is a currently defined operator of type T and precedence
P.
prompt(-A,+B )
Changes YAP input prompt from A to B.
initialization
Execute the goals defined by initialization/1. Only the first answer is consid-
ered.
prolog_initialization(G )
Add a goal to be executed on system initialization. This is compatible with
SICStus Prolog’s initialization/1.
version Write YAP’s boot message.
version(-Message )
Add a message to be written when yap boots or after aborting. It is not possible
to remove messages.
prolog_load_context(?Key, ?Value )
Obtain information on what is going on in the compilation process. The fol-
lowing keys are available:
directory

Full name for the directory where YAP is currently consulting the
file.
Chapter 6: Built-In Predicates 81

file
Full name for the file currently being consulted. Notice that in-
cluded filed are ignored.
module
Current source module.
source
Full name for the file currently being read in, which may be con-
sulted, reconsulted, or included.
stream
Stream currently being read in.
term_position

Stream position at the stream currently being read in.

82 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 83

7 Library Predicates
Library files reside in the library directory path (set by the LIBDIR variable in the Makefile
for YAP). Currently, most files in the library are from the Edinburgh Prolog library.

7.1 Apply Macros

This library provides a set of utilities for applying a predicate to all elements of a list or to
all sub-terms of a term. They allow to easily perform the most common do-loop constructs
in Prolog. To avoid performance degradation due to apply/2, each call creates an equivalent
Prolog program, without meta-calls, which is executed by the Prolog engine instead. Note
that if the equivalent Prolog program already exists, it will be simply used. The library is
based on code by Joachim Schimpf.
The following routines are available once included with the use_module(library(apply_
macros)) command.
maplist(+Pred, ?ListIn, ?ListOut )
Creates ListOut by applying the predicate Pred to all elements of ListIn.
checklist(+Pred, +List )
Succeeds if the predicate Pred succeeds on all elements of List.
selectlist(+Pred, +ListIn, ?ListOut )
Creates ListOut of all list elements of ListIn that pass a given test
convlist(+Pred, +ListIn, ?ListOut )
A combination of maplist and selectlist: creates ListOut by applying the
predicate Pred to all list elements on which Pred succeeds
sumlist(+Pred, +List, ?AccIn, ?AccOut )
Calls Pred on all elements of List and collects a result in Accumulator.
mapargs(+Pred, ?TermIn, ?TermOut )
Creates TermOut by applying the predicate Pred to all arguments of TermIn
sumargs(+Pred, +Term, ?AccIn, ?AccOut )
Calls the predicate Pred on all arguments of Term and collects a result in
Accumulator
mapnodes(+Pred, +TermIn, ?TermOut )
Creates TermOut by applying the predicate Pred to all sub-terms of TermIn
(depth-first and left-to-right order)
checknodes(+Pred, +Term )
Succeeds if the predicate Pred succeeds on all sub-terms of Term (depth-first
and left-to-right order)
sumnodes(+Pred, +Term, ?AccIn, ?AccOut )
Calls the predicate Pred on all sub-terms of Term and collect a result in Accu-
mulator (depth-first and left-to-right order)
Examples:
84 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

%given
plus(X,Y,Z) :- Z is X + Y.
plus_if_pos(X,Y,Z) :- Y > 0, Z is X + Y.
vars(X, Y, [X|Y]) :- var(X), !.
vars(_, Y, Y).
trans(TermIn, TermOut) :-
(compound(TermIn) ; atom(TermIn)),
TermIn =.. [p|Args],
TermOut =..[q|Args],
!.
trans(X,X).

%success

maplist(plus(1), [1,2,3,4], [2,3,4,5]).

checklist(var, [X,Y,Z]).
selectlist(<(0), [-1,0,1], [1]).
convlist(plus_if_pos(1), [-1,0,1], [2]).
sumlist(plus, [1,2,3,4], 1, 11).
mapargs(number_atom,s(1,2,3), s(’1’,’2’,’3’)).
sumargs(vars, s(1,X,2,Y), [], [Y,X]).
mapnodes(trans, p(a,p(b,a),c), q(a,q(b,a),c)).
checknodes(\==(T), p(X,p(Y,X),Z)).
sumnodes(vars, [c(X), p(X,Y), q(Y)], [], [Y,Y,X,X]).
% another one
maplist(mapargs(number_atom),[c(1),s(1,2,3)],[c(’1’),s(’1’,’2’,’3’)]).

7.2 Association Lists

The following association list manipulation predicates are available once included with the
use_module(library(assoc)) command. The original library used Richard O’Keefe’s im-
plementation, on top of unbalanced binary trees. The current code utilises code from the
red-black trees library and emulates the SICStus Prolog interface.
assoc_to_list(+Assoc,?List )
Given an association list Assoc unify List with a list of the form Key-Val, where
the elements Key are in ascending order.
del_assoc(+Key, +Assoc, ?Val, ?NewAssoc )
Succeeds if NewAssoc is an association list, obtained by removing the element
with Key and Val from the list Assoc.
del_max_assoc(+Assoc, ?Key, ?Val, ?NewAssoc )
Succeeds if NewAssoc is an association list, obtained by removing the largest
element of the list, with Key and Val from the list Assoc.
del_min_assoc(+Assoc, ?Key, ?Val, ?NewAssoc )
Succeeds if NewAssoc is an association list, obtained by removing the smallest
element of the list, with Key and Val from the list Assoc.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 85

empty_assoc(+Assoc )
Succeeds if association list Assoc is empty.
gen_assoc(+Assoc,?Key,?Value )
Given the association list Assoc, unify Key and Value with two associated
elements. It can be used to enumerate all elements in the association list.
get_assoc(+Key,+Assoc,?Value )
If Key is one of the elements in the association list Assoc, return the associated
value.
get_assoc(+Key,+Assoc,?Value,+NAssoc,?NValue )
If Key is one of the elements in the association list Assoc, return the associated
value Value and a new association list NAssoc where Key is associated with
NValue.
get_prev_assoc(+Key,+Assoc,?Next,?Value )
If Key is one of the elements in the association list Assoc, return the previous
key, Next, and its value, Value.
get_next_assoc(+Key,+Assoc,?Next,?Value )
If Key is one of the elements in the association list Assoc, return the next key,
Next, and its value, Value.
is_assoc(+Assoc )
Succeeds if Assoc is an association list, that is, if it is a red-black tree.
list_to_assoc(+List,?Assoc )
Given a list List such that each element of List is of the form Key-Val, and all
the Keys are unique, Assoc is the corresponding association list.
map_assoc(+Pred,+Assoc )
Succeeds if the unary predicate name Pred(Val) holds for every element in the
association list.
map_assoc(+Pred,+Assoc,?New )
Given the binary predicate name Pred and the association list Assoc, New in
an association list with keys in Assoc, and such that if Key-Val is in Assoc, and
Key-Ans is in New, then Pred(Val,Ans) holds.
max_assoc(+Assoc,-Key,?Value )
Given the association list Assoc, Key in the largest key in the list, and Value
the associated value.
min_assoc(+Assoc,-Key,?Value )
Given the association list Assoc, Key in the smallest key in the list, and Value
the associated value.
ord_list_to_assoc(+List,?Assoc )
Given an ordered list List such that each element of List is of the form Key-Val,
and all the Keys are unique, Assoc is the corresponding association list.
put_assoc(+Key,+Assoc,+Val,+New )
The association list New includes and element of association key with Val, and
all elements of Assoc that did not have key Key.
86 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

7.3 AVL Trees

AVL trees are balanced search binary trees. They are named after their inventors, Adelson-
Velskii and Landis, and they were the first dynamically balanced trees to be proposed. The
YAP AVL tree manipulation predicates library uses code originally written by Martin van
Emdem and published in the Logic Programming Newsletter, Autumn 1981. A bug in this
code was fixed by Philip Vasey, in the Logic Programming Newsletter, Summer 1982. The
library currently only includes routines to insert and lookup elements in the tree. Please
try red-black trees if you need deletion.
avl_insert(+Key,?Value,+T0,+TF )
Add an element with key Key and Value to the AVL tree T0 creating a new
AVL tree TF. Duplicated elements are allowed.
avl_lookup(+Key,-Value,+T )
Lookup an element with key Key in the AVL tree T, returning the value Value.

7.4 Heaps
A heap is a labelled binary tree where the key of each node is less than or equal to the keys
of its sons. The point of a heap is that we can keep on adding new elements to the heap
and we can keep on taking out the minimum element. If there are N elements total, the
total time is O(NlgN). If you know all the elements in advance, you are better off doing a
merge-sort, but this file is for when you want to do say a best-first search, and have no idea
when you start how many elements there will be, let alone what they are.
The following heap manipulation routines are available once included with the use_
module(library(heaps)) command.
add_to_heap(+Heap,+key,+Datum,-NewHeap )
Inserts the new Key-Datum pair into the heap. The insertion is not stable,
that is, if you insert several pairs with the same Key it is not defined which of
them will come out first, and it is possible for any of them to come out first
depending on the history of the heap.
empty_heap(?Heap )
Succeeds if Heap is an empty heap.
get_from_heap(+Heap,-key,-Datum,-Heap )
Returns the Key-Datum pair in OldHeap with the smallest Key, and also a
Heap which is the OldHeap with that pair deleted.
heap_size(+Heap, -Size )
Reports the number of elements currently in the heap.
heap_to_list(+Heap, -List )
Returns the current set of Key-Datum pairs in the Heap as a List, sorted into
ascending order of Keys.
list_to_heap(+List, -Heap )
Takes a list of Key-Datum pairs (such as keysort could be used to sort) and
forms them into a heap.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 87

min_of_heap(+Heap, -Key, -Datum )

Returns the Key-Datum pair at the top of the heap (which is of course the pair
with the smallest Key), but does not remove it from the heap.
min_of_heap(+Heap, -Key1, -Datum1,
-Key2, -Datum2) Returns the smallest (Key1) and second smallest (Key2) pairs
in the heap, without deleting them.

7.5 List Manipulation

The following list manipulation routines are available once included with the
use_module(library(lists)) command.
append(?Prefix,?Suffix,?Combined )
True when all three arguments are lists, and the members of Combined are the
members of Prefix followed by the members of Suffix. It may be used to form
Combined from a given Prefix, Suffix or to take a given Combined apart.
delete(+List, ?Element, ?Residue )
True when List is a list, in which Element may or may not occur, and Residue
is a copy of List with all elements identical to Element deleted.
flatten(+List, ?FlattenedList )
Flatten a list of lists List into a single list FlattenedList.
?- flatten([[1],[2,3],[4,[5,6],7,8]],L).

L = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] ? ;

no
is_list(+List )
True when List is a proper list. That is, List is bound to the empty list (nil)
or a term with functor ’.’ and arity 2.
last(+List,?Last )
True when List is a list and Last is identical to its last element.
list_concat(+Lists,?List )
True when Lists is a list of lists and List is the concatenation of Lists.
member(?Element, ?Set )
True when Set is a list, and Element occurs in it. It may be used to test for an
element or to enumerate all the elements by backtracking.
memberchk(+Element, +Set )
As member/2, but may only be used to test whether a known Element occurs
in a known Set. In return for this limited use, it is more efficient when it is
applicable.
nth0(?N, ?List, ?Elem )
True when Elem is the Nth member of List, counting the first as element 0.
(That is, throw away the first N elements and unify Elem with the next.) It
can only be used to select a particular element given the list and index. For
that task it is more efficient than member/2
88 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

nth(?N, ?List, ?Elem )

The same as nth0/3, except that it counts from 1, that is nth(1, [H|_], H).
nth0(?N, ?List, ?Elem, ?Rest )
Unifies Elem with the Nth element of List, counting from 0, and Rest with
the other elements. It can be used to select the Nth element of List (yielding
Elem and Rest), or to insert Elem before the Nth (counting from 1) element of
Rest, when it yields List, e.g. nth0(2, List, c, [a,b,d,e]) unifies List with
[a,b,c,d,e]. nth/4 is the same except that it counts from 1. nth0/4 can be
used to insert Elem after the Nth element of Rest.
nth(?N, ?List, ?Elem, ?Rest )
Unifies Elem with the Nth element of List, counting from 1, and Rest with
the other elements. It can be used to select the Nth element of List (yielding
Elem and Rest), or to insert Elem before the Nth (counting from 1) element of
Rest, when it yields List, e.g. nth(1, List, c, [a,b,d,e]) unifies List with
[a,b,c,d,e]. nth/4 can be used to insert Elem after the Nth element of Rest.
permutation(+List,?Perm )
True when List and Perm are permutations of each other.
remove_duplicates(+List, ?Pruned )
Removes duplicated elements from List. Beware: if the List has non-ground
elements, the result may surprise you.
reverse(+List, ?Reversed )
True when List and Reversed are lists with the same elements but in opposite
orders.
same_length(?List1, ?List2 )
True when List1 and List2 are both lists and have the same number of elements.
No relation between the values of their elements is implied. Modes same_
length(-,+) and same_length(+,-) generate either list given the other; mode
same_length(-,-) generates two lists of the same length, in which case the
arguments will be bound to lists of length 0, 1, 2, ...
select(?Element, ?Set, ?Residue )
True when Set is a list, Element occurs in Set, and Residue is everything in Set
except Element (things stay in the same order).
sublist(?Sublist, ?List )
True when both append(_,Sublist,S) and append(S,_,List) hold.
suffix(?Suffix, ?List )
Holds when append(_,Suffix,List) holds.
sum_list(?Numbers, ?Total )
True when Numbers is a list of numbers, and Total is their sum.
sumlist(?Numbers, ?Total )
True when Numbers is a list of integers, and Total is their sum. The same as
sum_list/2, please do use sum_list/2 instead.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 89

max_list(?Numbers, ?Max )
True when Numbers is a list of numbers, and Max is the maximum.
min_list(?Numbers, ?Min )
True when Numbers is a list of numbers, and Min is the minimum.

7.6 Ordered Sets

The following ordered set manipulation routines are available once included with the use_
module(library(ordsets)) command. An ordered set is represented by a list having
unique and ordered elements. Output arguments are guaranteed to be ordered sets, if the
relevant inputs are. This is a slightly patched version of Richard O’Keefe’s original library.
list_to_ord_set(+List, ?Set )
Holds when Set is the ordered representation of the set represented by the
unordered representation List.
merge(+List1, +List2, -Merged )
Holds when Merged is the stable merge of the two given lists.
Notice that merge/3 will not remove duplicates, so merging ordered sets will
not necessarily result in an ordered set. Use ord_union/3 instead.
ord_add_element(+Set1, +Element, ?Set2 )
Inserting Element in Set1 returns Set2. It should give exactly the same result as
merge(Set1, [Element], Set2), but a bit faster, and certainly more clearly.
The same as ord_insert/3.
ord_del_element(+Set1, +Element, ?Set2 )
Removing Element from Set1 returns Set2.
ord_disjoint(+Set1, +Set2 )
Holds when the two ordered sets have no element in common.
ord_member(+Element, +Set )
Holds when Element is a member of Set.
ord_insert(+Set1, +Element, ?Set2 )
Inserting Element in Set1 returns Set2. It should give exactly the same result as
merge(Set1, [Element], Set2), but a bit faster, and certainly more clearly.
The same as ord_add_element/3.
ord_intersect(+Set1, +Set2 )
Holds when the two ordered sets have at least one element in common.
ord_intersection(+Set1, +Set2, ?Intersection )
Holds when Intersection is the ordered representation of Set1 and Set2.
ord_intersection(+Set1, +Set2, ?Intersection, ?Diff )
Holds when Intersection is the ordered representation of Set1 and Set2. Diff is
the difference between Set2 and Set1.
ord_seteq(+Set1, +Set2 )
Holds when the two arguments represent the same set.
90 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

ord_setproduct(+Set1, +Set2, -Set )

If Set1 and Set2 are ordered sets, Product will be an ordered set of x1-x2 pairs.
ord_subset(+Set1, +Set2 )
Holds when every element of the ordered set Set1 appears in the ordered set
Set2.
ord_subtract(+Set1, +Set2, ?Difference )
Holds when Difference contains all and only the elements of Set1 which are not
also in Set2.
ord_symdiff(+Set1, +Set2, ?Difference )
Holds when Difference is the symmetric difference of Set1 and Set2.
ord_union(+Sets, ?Union )
Holds when Union is the union of the lists Sets.
ord_union(+Set1, +Set2, ?Union )
Holds when Union is the union of Set1 and Set2.
ord_union(+Set1, +Set2, ?Union, ?Diff )
Holds when Union is the union of Set1 and Set2 and Diff is the difference.

7.7 Pseudo Random Number Integer Generator

The following routines produce random non-negative integers in the range 0 .. 2^(w-1)
-1, where w is the word size available for integers, e.g. 32 for Intel machines and 64 for
Alpha machines. Note that the numbers generated by this random number generator are
repeatable. This generator was originally written by Allen Van Gelder and is based on
Knuth Vol 2.
rannum(-I )
Produces a random non-negative integer I whose low bits are not all that ran-
dom, so it should be scaled to a smaller range in general. The integer I is in
the range 0 .. 2^(w-1) - 1. You can use:
rannum(X) :- yap_flag(max_integer,MI), rannum(R), X is R/MI.
to obtain a floating point number uniformly distributed between 0 and 1.
ranstart Initialize the random number generator using a built-in seed. The ranstart/0
built-in is always called by the system when loading the package.
ranstart(+Seed )
Initialize the random number generator with user-defined Seed. The same Seed
always produces the same sequence of numbers.
ranunif(+Range,-I )
ranunif/2 produces a uniformly distributed non-negative random integer I over
a caller-specified range R. If range is R, the result is in 0 .. R-1.

7.8 Queues
The following queue manipulation routines are available once included with the
use_module(library(queues)) command. Queues are implemented with difference lists.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 91

make_queue(+Queue )
Creates a new empty queue. It should only be used to create a new queue.
join_queue(+Element, +OldQueue, -NewQueue )
Adds the new element at the end of the queue.
list_join_queue(+List, +OldQueue, -NewQueue )
Ads the new elements at the end of the queue.
jump_queue(+Element, +OldQueue, -NewQueue )
Adds the new element at the front of the list.
list_jump_queue(+List, +OldQueue, +NewQueue )
Adds all the elements of List at the front of the queue.
head_queue(+Queue, ?Head )
Unifies Head with the first element of the queue.
serve_queue(+OldQueue, +Head, -NewQueue )
Removes the first element of the queue for service.
empty_queue(+Queue )
Tests whether the queue is empty.
length_queue(+Queue, -Length )
Counts the number of elements currently in the queue.
list_to_queue(+List, -Queue )
Creates a new queue with the same elements as List.
queue_to_list(+Queue, -List )
Creates a new list with the same elements as Queue.

7.9 Random Number Generator

The following random number operations are included with the use_
module(library(random)) command. Since Yap-4.3.19 Yap uses the O’Keefe
public-domain algorithm, based on the "Applied Statistics" algorithm AS183.
getrand(-Key )
Unify Key with a term of the form rand(X,Y,Z) describing the current state
of the random number generator.
random(-Number )
Unify Number with a floating-point number in the range [0...1).
random(+LOW, +HIGH, -NUMBER )
Unify Number with a number in the range [LOW...HIGH). If both LOW and
HIGH are integers then NUMBER will also be an integer, otherwise NUMBER
will be a floating-point number.
randseq(+LENGTH, +MAX, -Numbers )
Unify Numbers with a list of LENGTH unique random integers in the range
[1...MAX ).
92 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

randset(+LENGTH, +MAX, -Numbers )

Unify Numbers with an ordered list of LENGTH unique random integers in
the range [1...MAX ).
setrand(+Key )
Use a term of the form rand(X,Y,Z) to set a new state for the random number
generator. The integer X must be in the range [1...30269), the integer Y
must be in the range [1...30307), and the integer Z must be in the range
[1...30323).

7.10 Red-Black Trees

Red-Black trees are balanced search binary trees. They are named because nodes can
be classified as either red or black. The code we include is based on "Introduction to
Algorithms", second edition, by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein. The library includes
routines to insert, lookup and delete elements in the tree.
rb_new(?T )
Create a new tree.
rb_empty(?T )
Succeeds if tree T is empty.
is_rbtree(+T )
Check whether T is a valid red-black tree.
rb_insert(+T0,+Key,?Value,+TF )
Add an element with key Key and Value to the tree T0 creating a new red-black
tree TF. Duplicated elements are not allowed.
rb_lookup(+Key,-Value,+T )
Backtrack through all elements with key Key in the red-black tree T, returning
for each the value Value.
rb_lookupall(+Key,-Value,+T )
Lookup all elements with key Key in the red-black tree T, returning the value
Value.
rb_delete(+T,+Key,-TN )
Delete element with key Key from the tree T, returning a new tree TN.
rb_delete(+T,+Key,-Val,-TN )
Delete element with key Key from the tree T, returning the value Val associated
with the key and a new tree TN.
rb_del_min(+T,-Key,-Val,-TN )
Delete the least element from the tree T, returning the key Key, the value Val
associated with the key and a new tree TN.
rb_del_max(+T,-Key,-Val,-TN )
Delete the largest element from the tree T, returning the key Key, the value
Val associated with the key and a new tree TN.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 93

rb_update(+T,+Key,+NewVal,-TN )
Tree TN is tree T, but with value for Key associated with NewVal. Fails if it
cannot find Key in T.
rb_apply(+T,+Key,+G,-TN )
If the value associated with key Key is Val0 in T, and if call(G,Val0,ValF) holds,
then TN differs from T only in that Key is associated with value ValF in tree
TN. Fails if it cannot find Key in T, or if call(G,Val0,ValF) is not satisfiable.
rb_visit(+T,-Pairs )
Pairs is an infix visit of tree T, where each element of Pairs is of the form K-Val.
rb_size(+T,-Size )
Size is the number of elements in T.
rb_keys(+T,+Keys )
Keys is an infix visit with all keys in tree T. Keys will be sorted, but may be
duplicate.
rb_map(+T,+G,-TN )
For all nodes Key in the tree T, if the value associated with key Key is Val0 in
tree T, and if call(G,Val0,ValF) holds, then the value associated with Key in
TN is ValF. Fails if or if call(G,Val0,ValF) is not satisfiable for all Var0.
rb_partial_map(+T,+Keys,+G,-TN )
For all nodes Key in Keys, if the value associated with key Key is Val0 in tree
T, and if call(G,Val0,ValF) holds, then the value associated with Key in TN
is ValF. Fails if or if call(G,Val0,ValF) is not satisfiable for all Var0. Assumes
keys are not repeated.
rb_clone(+T,+NT,+Nodes )
“Clone” the red-back tree into a new tree with the same keys as the original
but with all values set to unbound values. Nodes is a list containing all new
nodes as pairs K-V.
rb_min(+T,-Key,-Value )
Key is the minimum key in T, and is associated with Val.
rb_max(+T,-Key,-Value )
Key is the maximal key in T, and is associated with Val.
rb_next(+T, +Key,-Next,-Value )
Next is the next element after Key in T, and is associated with Val.
rb_previous(+T, +Key,-Previous,-Value )
Previous is the previous element after Key in T, and is associated with Val.
list_to_rbtree(+L, -T )
T is the red-black tree corresponding to the mapping in list L.
ord_list_to_rbtree(+L, -T )
T is the red-black tree corresponding to the mapping in ordered list L.
94 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

7.11 Regular Expressions

This library includes routines to determine whether a regular expression matches part or all
of a string. The routines can also return which parts parts of the string matched the expres-
sion or subexpressions of it. This library relies on Henry Spencer’s C-package and is only
available in operating systems that support dynamic loading. The C-code has been obtained
from the sources of FreeBSD-4.0 and is protected by copyright from Henry Spencer and
from the Regents of the University of California (see the file library/regex/COPYRIGHT
for further details).
Much of the description of regular expressions below is copied verbatim from Henry
Spencer’s manual page.
A regular expression is zero or more branches, separated by “|”. It matches anything
that matches one of the branches.
A branch is zero or more pieces, concatenated. It matches a match for the first, followed
by a match for the second, etc.
A piece is an atom possibly followed by “*”, “+”, or “?”. An atom followed by “*”
matches a sequence of 0 or more matches of the atom. An atom followed by “+” matches a
sequence of 1 or more matches of the atom. An atom followed by “?” matches a match of
the atom, or the null string.
An atom is a regular expression in parentheses (matching a match for the regular ex-
pression), a range (see below), “.” (matching any single character), “^” (matching the null
string at the beginning of the input string), “$” (matching the null string at the end of the
input string), a “\” followed by a single character (matching that character), or a single
character with no other significance (matching that character).
A range is a sequence of characters enclosed in “[]”. It normally matches any single
character from the sequence. If the sequence begins with “^”, it matches any single character
not from the rest of the sequence. If two characters in the sequence are separated by “-”,
this is shorthand for the full list of ASCII characters between them (e.g. “[0-9]” matches
any decimal digit). To include a literal “]” in the sequence, make it the first character
(following a possible “^”). To include a literal “-”, make it the first or last character.
regexp(+RegExp,+String,+Opts )
Match regular expression RegExp to input string String according to options
Opts. The options may be:
• nocase: Causes upper-case characters in String to be treated as lower case
during the matching process.
regexp(+RegExp,+String,+Opts,SubMatchVars )
Match regular expression RegExp to input string String according to options
Opts. The variable SubMatchVars should be originally a list of unbound vari-
ables all will contain a sequence of matches, that is, the head of SubMatchVars
will contain the characters in String that matched the leftmost parenthesized
subexpression within RegExp, the next head of list will contain the characters
that matched the next parenthesized subexpression to the right in RegExp, and
so on.
The options may be:
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 95

• nocase: Causes upper-case characters in String to be treated as lower case

during the matching process.
• indices: Changes what is stored in SubMatchVars. Instead of storing the
matching characters from String, each variable will contain a term of the
form IO-IF giving the indices in String of the first and last characters in
the matching range of characters.
In general there may be more than one way to match a regular expression to
an input string. For example, consider the command
regexp("(a*)b*","aabaaabb", [], [X,Y])
Considering only the rules given so far, X and Y could end up with the values
"aabb" and "aa", "aaab" and "aaa", "ab" and "a", or any of several other
combinations. To resolve this potential ambiguity regexp chooses among al-
ternatives using the rule “first then longest”. In other words, it considers the
possible matches in order working from left to right across the input string and
the pattern, and it attempts to match longer pieces of the input string before
shorter ones. More specifically, the following rules apply in decreasing order of
priority:
1. If a regular expression could match two different parts of an input string
then it will match the one that begins earliest.
2. If a regular expression contains "|" operators then the leftmost matching
sub-expression is chosen.
3. In *, +, and ? constructs, longer matches are chosen in preference to shorter
ones.
4. In sequences of expression components the components are considered from
left to right.
In the example from above, "(a*)b*" matches "aab": the "(a*)" portion of the
pattern is matched first and it consumes the leading "aa"; then the "b*" portion
of the pattern consumes the next "b". Or, consider the following example:
regexp("(ab|a)(b*)c", "abc", [], [X,Y,Z])
After this command X will be "abc", Y will be "ab", and Z will be an empty
string. Rule 4 specifies that "(ab|a)" gets first shot at the input string and
Rule 2 specifies that the "ab" sub-expression is checked before the "a" sub-
expression. Thus the "b" has already been claimed before the "(b*)" compo-
nent is checked and (b*) must match an empty string.

7.12 Splay Trees

Splay trees are explained in the paper "Self-adjusting Binary Search Trees", by D.D. Sleator
and R.E. Tarjan, JACM, vol. 32, No.3, July 1985, p. 668. They are designed to support
fast insertions, deletions and removals in binary search trees without the complexity of
traditional balanced trees. The key idea is to allow the tree to become unbalanced. To
make up for this, whenever we find a node, we move it up to the top. We use code by Vijay
Saraswat originally posted to the Prolog mailing-list.
96 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

splay_access(-Return,+Key,?Val,+Tree,-NewTree )
If item Key is in tree Tree, return its Val and unify Return with true. Otherwise
unify Return with null. The variable NewTree unifies with the new tree.
splay_delete(+Key,?Val,+Tree,-NewTree )
Delete item Key from tree Tree, assuming that it is present already. The
variable Val unifies with a value for key Key, and the variable NewTree unifies
with the new tree. The predicate will fail if Key is not present.
splay_init(-NewTree )
Initialize a new splay tree.
splay_insert(+Key,?Val,+Tree,-NewTree )
Insert item Key in tree Tree, assuming that it is not there already. The variable
Val unifies with a value for key Key, and the variable NewTree unifies with the
new tree. In our implementation, Key is not inserted if it is already there:
rather it is unified with the item already in the tree.
splay_join(+LeftTree,+RighTree,-NewTree )
Combine trees LeftTree and RighTree into a single treeNewTree containing all
items from both trees. This operation assumes that all items in LeftTree are
less than all those in RighTree and destroys both LeftTree and RighTree.
splay_split(+Key,?Val,+Tree,-LeftTree,-RightTree )
Construct and return two trees LeftTree and RightTree, where LeftTree con-
tains all items in Tree less than Key, and RightTree contains all items in Tree
greater than Key. This operations destroys Tree.

7.13 Reading From and Writing To Strings

From Version 4.3.2 onwards YAP implements SICStus Prolog compatible String I/O. The
library allows users to read from and write to a memory buffer as if it was a file. The memory
buffer is built from or converted to a string of character codes by the routines in library.
Therefore, if one wants to read from a string the string must be fully instantiated before
the library built-in opens the string for reading. These commands are available through the
use_module(library(charsio)) command.
format_to_chars(+Form, +Args, -Result )
Execute the built-in procedure format/2 with form Form and arguments Args
outputting the result to the string of character codes Result.
format_to_chars(+Form, +Args, -Result0, -Result )
Execute the built-in procedure format/2 with form Form and arguments Args
outputting the result to the difference list of character codes Result-Result0.
write_to_chars(+Term, -Result )
Execute the built-in procedure write/1 with argument Term outputting the
result to the string of character codes Result.
write_to_chars(+Term, -Result0, -Result )
Execute the built-in procedure write/1 with argument Term outputting the
result to the difference list of character codes Result-Result0.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 97

atom_to_chars(+Atom, -Result )
Convert the atom Atom to the string of character codes Result.
atom_to_chars(+Atom, -Result0, -Result )
Convert the atom Atom to the difference list of character codes Result-Result0.
number_to_chars(+Number, -Result )
Convert the number Number to the string of character codes Result.
number_to_chars(+Number, -Result0, -Result )
Convert the atom Number to the difference list of character codes Result-
Result0.
read_from_chars(+Chars, -Term )
Parse the list of character codes Chars and return the result in the term Term.
The character codes to be read must terminate with a dot character such that
either (i) the dot character is followed by blank characters; or (ii) the dot
character is the last character in the string.
open_chars_stream(+Chars, -Stream )
Open the list of character codes Chars as a stream Stream.
with_output_to_chars(?Goal, -Chars )
Execute goal Goal such that its standard output will be sent to a memory
buffer. After successful execution the contents of the memory buffer will be
converted to the list of character codes Chars.
with_output_to_chars(?Goal, ?Chars0, -Chars )
Execute goal Goal such that its standard output will be sent to a memory
buffer. After successful execution the contents of the memory buffer will be
converted to the difference list of character codes Chars-Chars0.
with_output_to_chars(?Goal, -Stream, ?Chars0, -Chars )
Execute goal Goal such that its standard output will be sent to a memory
buffer. After successful execution the contents of the memory buffer will be
converted to the difference list of character codes Chars-Chars0 and Stream
receives the stream corresponding to the memory buffer.
The implementation of the character IO operations relies on three YAP built-ins:
charsio:open_mem_read_stream(+String, -Stream )
Store a string in a memory buffer and output a stream that reads from this
memory buffer.
charsio:open_mem_write_stream(-Stream )
Create a new memory buffer and output a stream that writes to it.
charsio:peek_mem_write_stream(-Stream, L0, L)
Convert the memory buffer associated with stream Stream to the difference list
of character codes L-L0.
These built-ins are initialized to belong to the module charsio in init.yap. Novel proce-
dures for manipulating strings by explicitly importing these built-ins.
YAP does not currently support opening a charsio stream in append mode, or seeking
in such a stream.
98 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

7.14 Calling The Operating System from YAP

Yap now provides a library of system utilities compatible with the SICStus Prolog system
library. This library extends and to some point replaces the functionality of Operating
System access routines. The library includes Unix/Linux and Win32 C code. They are
available through the use_module(library(system)) command.
datime(datime(-Year, -Month, -DayOfTheMonth,
-Hour, -Minute, -Second) The datime/1 procedure returns the current date and
time, with information on Year, Month, DayOfTheMonth, Hour, Minute, and
Second. The Hour is returned on local time. This function uses the WIN32
GetLocalTime function or the Unix localtime function.
?- datime(X).

X = datime(2001,5,28,15,29,46) ?
mktime(datime(+Year, +Month, +DayOfTheMonth,
+Hour, +Minute, +Second), -Seconds) The mktime/1 procedure returns the
number of Seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 on January 1, 1970, Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC). The user provides information on Year, Month, Day-
OfTheMonth, Hour, Minute, and Second. The Hour is given on local time. This
function uses the WIN32 GetLocalTime function or the Unix mktime function.
?- mktime(datime(2001,5,28,15,29,46),X).

X = 991081786 ? ;
delete_file(+File )
The delete_file/1 procedure removes file File. If File is a directory, remove
the directory and all its subdirectories.
?- delete_file(x).
delete_file(+File,+Opts )
The delete_file/2 procedure removes file File according to options Opts.
These options are directory if one should remove directories, recursive if
one should remove directories recursively, and ignore if errors are not to be
reported.
This example is equivalent to using the delete_file/1 predicate:
?- delete_file(x, [recursive]).
directory_files(+Dir,+List )
Given a directory Dir, directory_files/2 procedures a listing of all files and
directories in the directory:
?- directory_files(’.’,L), writeq(L).
[’Makefile.~1~’,’sys.so’,’Makefile’,’sys.o’,x,..,’.’]
The predicates uses the dirent family of routines in Unix environments, and
findfirst in WIN32.
file_exists(+File )
The atom File corresponds to an existing file.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 99

file_exists(+File,+Permissions )
The atom File corresponds to an existing file with permissions compatible with
Permissions. YAP currently only accepts for permissions to be described as a
number. The actual meaning of this number is Operating System dependent.

file_property(+File,?Property )
The atom File corresponds to an existing file, and Property will be unified
with a property of this file. The properties are of the form type(Type ), which
gives whether the file is a regular file, a directory, a fifo file, or of unknown
type; size(Size ), with gives the size for a file, and mod_time(Time ), which
gives the last time a file was modified according to some Operating System
dependent timestamp; mode(mode ), gives the permission flags for the file, and
linkto(FileName ), gives the file pointed to by a symbolic link. Properties can
be obtained through backtracking:
?- file_property(’Makefile’,P).

P = type(regular) ? ;

P = size(2375) ? ;

P = mod_time(990826911) ? ;

no

make_directory(+Dir )
Create a directory Dir. The name of the directory must be an atom.

rename_file(+OldFile,+NewFile )
Create file OldFile to NewFile. This predicate uses the C built-in function
rename.

environ(?EnvVar,+EnvValue )
Unify environment variable EnvVar with its value EnvValue, if there is one.
This predicate is backtrackable in Unix systems, but not currently in Win32
configurations.
?- environ(’HOME’,X).

X = ’C:\\cygwin\\home\\administrator’ ?

host_id(-Id )
Unify Id with an identifier of the current host. Yap uses the hostid function
when available,

host_name(-Name )
Unify Name with a name for the current host. Yap uses the hostname function
in Unix systems when available, and the GetComputerName function in WIN32
systems.
100 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

kill(Id,+SIGNAL )
Send signal SIGNAL to process Id. In Unix this predicate is a direct interface
to kill so one can send signals to groups of processes. In WIN32 the predicate
is an interface to TerminateProcess, so it kills Id indepent of SIGNAL.
mktemp(Spec,-File )
Direct interface to mktemp: given a Spec, that is a file name with six X to it,
create a file name File. Use tmpnam/1 instead.
pid(-Id )
Unify Id with the process identifier for the current process. An interface to the
getpid function.
tmpnam(-File )
Interface with tmpnam: create an unique file and unify its name with File.
exec(+Command,[+InputStream,+OutputStream,+ErrorStream], -Status) Exe-
cute command Command with its streams connected to InputStream, Output-
Stream, and ErrorStream. The result for the command is returned in Status.
The command is executed by the default shell bin/sh -c in Unix.
The following example demonstrates the use of exec/3 to send a command and
process its output:
exec(ls,[std,pipe(S),null],P),repeat, get0(S,C), (C = -1, close(S) ! ; put(C)
The streams may be one of standard stream, std, null stream, null, or pipe(S),
where S is a pipe stream. Note that it is up to the user to close the pipe.
working_directory(-CurDir,?NextDir )
Fetch the current directory at CurDir. If NextDir is bound to an atom, make
its value the current working directory.
popen(+Command, +TYPE, -Stream )
Interface to the popen function. It opens a process by creating a pipe, forking
and invoking Command on the current shell. Since a pipe is by definition
unidirectional the Type argument may be read or write, not both. The stream
should be closed using close/1, there is no need for a special pclose command.
The following example demonstrates the use of popen/3 to process the output
of a command, as exec/3 would do:
?- popen(ls,read,X),repeat, get0(X,C), (C = -1, ! ; put(C)).

X = ’C:\\cygwin\\home\\administrator’ ?
The WIN32 implementation of popen/3 relies on exec/3.
shell Start a new shell and leave Yap in background until the shell completes. Yap
uses the shell given by the environment variable SHELL. In WIN32 environment
YAP will use COMSPEC if SHELL is undefined.
shell(+Command )
Execute command Command under a new shell. Yap will be in background until
the command completes. In Unix environments Yap uses the shell given by the
environment variable SHELL with the option " -c ". In WIN32 environment
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 101

YAP will use COMSPEC if SHELL is undefined, in this case with the option " /c
".
shell(+Command,-Status )
Execute command Command under a new shell and unify Status with the exit
for the command. Yap will be in background until the command completes. In
Unix environments Yap uses the shell given by the environment variable SHELL
with the option " -c ". In WIN32 environment YAP will use COMSPEC if SHELL
is undefined, in this case with the option " /c ".
sleep(+Time )
Block the current process for Time seconds. The number of seconds must be
a positive number, and it may an integer or a float. The Unix implementation
uses usleep if the number of seconds is below one, and sleep if it is over a
second. The WIN32 implementation uses Sleep for both cases.
system Start a new default shell and leave Yap in background until the shell completes.
Yap uses /bin/sh in Unix systems and COMSPEC in WIN32.
system(+Command,-Res )
Interface to system: execute command Command and unify Res with the result.
wait(+PID,-Status )
Wait until process PID terminates, and return its exits Status.

7.15 Utilities On Terms

The next routines provide a set of commonly used utilities to manipulate terms. Most of
these utilities have been implemented in C for efficiency. They are available through the
use_module(library(terms)) command.
acyclic_term(?Term )
Succeed if the argument Term is an acyclic term.
cyclic_term(?Term )
Succeed if the argument Term is a cyclic term.
term_hash(+Term, ?Hash )
If Term is ground unify Hash with a positive integer calculated from the struc-
ture of the term. Otherwise the argument Hash is left unbound. The range of
the positive integer is from 0 to, but not including, 33554432.
term_hash(+Term, +Depth, +Range, ?Hash )
Unify Hash with a positive integer calculated from the structure of the term.
The range of the positive integer is from 0 to, but not including, Range. If
Depth is -1 the whole term is considered. Otherwise, the term is considered
only up to depth 1, where the constants and the principal functor have depth
1, and an argument of a term with depth I has depth I+1.
term_variables(?Term, -Variables )
Unify Variables with a list of all variables in term Term.
variant(?Term1, ?Term2 )
Succeed if Term1 and Term2 are variant terms.
102 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

subsumes(?Term1, ?Term2 )
Succeed if Term1 subsumes Term2. Variables in term Term1 are bound so that
the two terms become equal.
subsumes_chk(?Term1, ?Term2 )
Succeed if Term1 subsumes Term2 but does not bind any variable in Term1.
variable_in_term(?Term,?Var )
Succeed if the second argument Var is a variable and occurs in term Term.

7.16 Call Cleanup

call_cleanup/1 and call_cleanup/2 allow predicates to register code for execution
after the call is finished. Predicates can be declared to be fragile to ensure that
call_cleanup is called for any Goal which needs it. This library is loaded with the
use_module(library(cleanup)) command.
:- fragile P,....,Pn
Declares the predicate P=[module:]name/arity as a fragile predicate, module
is optional, default is the current typein module. Whenever such a fragile
predicate is used in a query it will be called through call cleanup/1.
:- fragile foo/1,bar:baz/2.
call_cleanup(+Goal )
Execute goal Goal within a cleanup-context. Called predicates might register
cleanup Goals which are called right after the end of the call to Goal. Cuts
and exceptions inside Goal do not prevent the execution of the cleanup calls.
call_cleanup might be nested.
call_cleanup(+Goal, +CleanUpGoal )
This is similar to call_cleanup/1 with an additional CleanUpGoal which gets
called after Goal is finished.
on_cleanup(+CleanUpGoal )
Any Predicate might registers a CleanUpGoal. The CleanUpGoal is put onto
the current cleanup context. All such CleanUpGoals are executed in reverse
order of their registration when the surrounding cleanup-context ends. This call
will throw an exception if a predicate tries to register a CleanUpGoal outside
of any cleanup-context.
cleanup_all
Calls all pending CleanUpGoals and resets the cleanup-system to an initial
state. Should only be used as one of the last calls in the main program.
There are some private predicates which could be used in special cases, such as manu-
ally setting up cleanup-contexts and registering CleanUpGoals for other than the current
cleanup-context. Read the Source Luke.

7.17 Calls With Timeout

The time_out/3 command relies on the alarm/3 built-in to implement a call
with a maximum time of execution. The command is available with the use_
module(library(timeout)) command.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 103

time_out(+Goal, +Timeout, -Result )

Execute goal Goal with time limited Timeout, where Timeout is measured in
milliseconds. If the goal succeeds, unify Result with success. If the timer expires
before the goal terminates, unify Result with timeout.
This command is implemented by activating an alarm at procedure entry. If the
timer expires before the goal completes, the alarm will through an exception
timeout.
One should note that time_out/3 is not reentrant, that is, a goal called from
time_out should never itself call time_out. Moreover, time_out/3 will deac-
tivate any previous alarms set by alarm/3 and vice-versa, hence only one of
these calls should be used in a program.
Last, even though the timer is set in milliseconds, the current implementation
relies on alarm/3, and therefore can only offer precision on the scale of seconds.

7.18 Updatable Binary Trees

The following queue manipulation routines are available once included with the
use_module(library(trees)) command.
get_label(+Index, +Tree, ?Label )
Treats the tree as an array of N elements and returns the Index-th.
list_to_tree(+List, -Tree )
Takes a given List of N elements and constructs a binary Tree.
map_tree(+Pred, +OldTree, -NewTree )
Holds when OldTree and NewTree are binary trees of the same shape and
Pred(Old,New) is true for corresponding elements of the two trees.
put_label(+Index, +OldTree, +Label, -NewTree )
constructs a new tree the same shape as the old which moreover has the same
elements except that the Index-th one is Label.
tree_size(+Tree, -Size )
Calculates the number of elements in the Tree.
tree_to_list(+Tree, -List )
Is the converse operation to list to tree.

7.19 Unweighted Graphs

The following graph manipulation routines are based in code originally written by Richard
O’Keefe. The code was then extended to be compatible with the SICStus Prolog ugraphs
library. The routines assume directed graphs, undirected graphs may be implemented by
using two edges. Graphs are represented in one of two ways:
• The P-representation of a graph is a list of (from-to) vertex pairs, where the pairs can
be in any old order. This form is convenient for input/output.
• The S-representation of a graph is a list of (vertex-neighbors) pairs, where the pairs are
in standard order (as produced by keysort) and the neighbors of each vertex are also in
standard order (as produced by sort). This form is convenient for many calculations.
104 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

These built-ins are available once included with the use_module(library(ugraphs))

command.
vertices_edges_to_ugraph(+Vertices, +Edges, -Graph )
Given a graph with a set of vertices Vertices and a set of edges Edges, Graph
must unify with the corresponding s-representation. Note that the vertices
without edges will appear in Vertices but not in Edges. Moreover, it is sufficient
for a vertice to appear in Edges.
?- vertices_edges_to_ugraph([],[1-3,2-4,4-5,1-5],L).

L = [1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[]] ?

In this case all edges are defined implicitly. The next example shows three
unconnected edges:
?- vertices_edges_to_ugraph([6,7,8],[1-3,2-4,4-5,1-5],L).

L = [1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]] ?

vertices(+Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with all vertices appearing in graph Graph. In the next example:
?- vertices([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[]], V).

L = [1,2,3,4,5]
edges(+Graph, -Edges )
Unify Edges with all edges appearing in graph Graph. In the next example:
?- vertices([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[]], V).

L = [1,2,3,4,5]
add_vertices(+Graph, +Vertices, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of vertices
Vertices to the graph Graph. In the next example:
?- add_vertices([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],
5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]],
[0,2,9,10,11],
NG).

NG = [0-[],1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[],
6-[],7-[],8-[],9-[],10-[],11-[]]
del_vertices(+Vertices, +Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by deleting the list of vertices
Vertices and all the edges that start from or go to a vertex in Vertices to the
graph Graph. In the next example:
?- del_vertices([2,1],[1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],
4-[5],5-[],6-[],7-[2,6],8-[]],NL).
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 105

NL = [3-[],4-[5],5-[],6-[],7-[6],8-[]]
add_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of edges Edges
to the graph Graph. In the next example:
?- add_edges([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[],6-[],
7-[],8-[]],[1-6,2-3,3-2,5-7,3-2,4-5],NL).

NL = [1-[3,5,6],2-[3,4],3-[2],4-[5],5-[7],6-[],7-[],8-[]]
del_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by removing the list of edges Edges
from the graph Graph. Notice that no vertices are deleted. In the next example:
?- del_edges([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[],
6-[],7-[],8-[]],
[1-6,2-3,3-2,5-7,3-2,4-5,1-3],NL).

NL = [1-[5],2-[4],3-[],4-[],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]]
transpose(+Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained from Graph by replacing all edges
of the form V1-V2 by edges of the form V2-V1. The cost is O(|V|^2). In the
next example:
?- transpose([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],
4-[5],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]], NL).

NL = [1-[],2-[],3-[1],4-[2],5-[1,4],6-[],7-[],8-[]]
Notice that an undirected graph is its own transpose.
neighbors(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the list of neighbors of vertex Vertex in Graph. If the
vertice is not in the graph fail. In the next example:
?- neighbors(4,[1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],
4-[1,2,7,5],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]],
NL).

NL = [1,2,7,5]
neighbours(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the list of neighbours of vertex Vertex in Graph. In the
next example:
?- neighbours(4,[1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],
4-[1,2,7,5],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]], NL).

NL = [1,2,7,5]
complement(+Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with the graph complementary to Graph. In the next example:
106 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

?- complement([1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],
4-[1,2,7,5],5-[],6-[],7-[],8-[]], NL).

NL = [1-[2,4,6,7,8],2-[1,3,5,6,7,8],3-[1,2,4,5,6,7,8],
4-[3,5,6,8],5-[1,2,3,4,6,7,8],6-[1,2,3,4,5,7,8],
7-[1,2,3,4,5,6,8],8-[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]]
compose(+LeftGraph, +RightGraph, -NewGraph )
Compose the graphs LeftGraph and RightGraph to form NewGraph. In the
next example:
?- compose([1-[2],2-[3]],[2-[4],3-[1,2,4]],L).

L = [1-[4],2-[1,2,4],3-[]]
top_sort(+Graph, -Sort )
Generate the set of nodes Sort as a topological sorting of graph Graph, if one
is possible. In the next example we show how topological sorting works for a
linear graph:
?- top_sort([_138-[_219],_219-[_139], _139-[]],L).

L = [_138,_219,_139]
top_sort(+Graph, -Sort0, -Sort )
Generate the difference list Sort-Sort0 as a topological sorting of graph Graph,
if one is possible.
transitive_closure(+Graph, +Closure )
Generate the graph Closure as the transitive closure of graph Graph. In the
next example:
?- transitive_closure([1-[2,3],2-[4,5],4-[6]],L).

L = [1-[2,3,4,5,6],2-[4,5,6],4-[6]]
reachable(+Node, +Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the set of all vertices in graph Graph that are reachable
from Node. In the next example:
?- reachable(1,[1-[3,5],2-[4],3-[],4-[5],5-[]],V).

V = [1,3,5]

7.20 Directed Graphs

The following graph manipulation routines use the red-black tree library to try to avoid
linear-time scans of the graph for all graph operations. Graphs are represented as a red-
black tree, where the key is the vertex, and the associated value is a list of vertices reachable
from that vertex through an edge (ie, a list of edges).
dgraph_new(+Graph )
Create a new directed graph. This operation must be performed before trying
to use the graph.
Chapter 7: Library Predicates 107

dgraph_vertices(+Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with all vertices appearing in graph Graph.

dgraph_edges(+Graph, -Edges )
Unify Edges with all edges appearing in graph Graph.

dgraph_add_vertices(+Graph, +Vertices, -NewGraph )

Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of vertices
Vertices to the graph Graph.

dgraph_del_vertices(+Vertices, +Graph, -NewGraph )

Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by deleting the list of vertices
Vertices and all the edges that start from or go to a vertex in Vertices to the
graph Graph.

dgraph_add_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )

Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of edges Edges
to the graph Graph.

dgraph_del_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )

Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by removing the list of edges Edges
from the graph Graph. Notice that no vertices are deleted.

dgraph_neighbors(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )

Unify Vertices with the list of neighbors of vertex Vertex in Graph. If the
vertice is not in the graph fail.

dgraph_neighbours(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )

Unify Vertices with the list of neighbours of vertex Vertex in Graph.

dgraph_complement(+Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with the graph complementary to Graph.

dgraph_transpose(+Graph, -Transpose )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained from Graph by replacing all edges
of the form V1-V2 by edges of the form V2-V1.

dgraph_close(+Graph1, +Graph2, -ComposedGraph )

Unify ComposedGraph with a new graph obtained by composing Graph1 and
Graph2, ie, ComposedGraph has an edge V1-V2 iff there is a V such that V1-V
in Graph1 and V-V2 in Graph2.

dgraph_transitive_closure(+Graph, -Closure )
Unify Closure with the transitive closure of graph Graph.

dgraph_symmetric_closure(+Graph, -Closure )
Unify Closure with the symmetric closure of graph Graph, that is, if Closure
contains an edge U-V it must also contain the edge V-U.

dgraph_top_sort(+Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the topological sort of graph Graph.
108 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

7.21 Undirected Graphs

The following graph manipulation routines use the red-black tree graph library to implement
undirected graphs. Mostly, this is done by having two directed edges per undirected edge.
undgraph_new(+Graph )
Create a new directed graph. This operation must be performed before trying
to use the graph.
undgraph_vertices(+Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with all vertices appearing in graph Graph.
undgraph_edges(+Graph, -Edges )
Unify Edges with all edges appearing in graph Graph.
undgraph_add_vertices(+Graph, +Vertices, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of vertices
Vertices to the graph Graph.
undgraph_del_vertices(+Vertices, +Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by deleting the list of vertices
Vertices and all the edges that start from or go to a vertex in Vertices to the
graph Graph.
undgraph_add_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by adding the list of edges Edges
to the graph Graph.
undgraph_del_edges(+Graph, +Edges, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with a new graph obtained by removing the list of edges Edges
from the graph Graph. Notice that no vertices are deleted.
undgraph_neighbors(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the list of neighbors of vertex Vertex in Graph. If the
vertice is not in the graph fail.
undgraph_neighbours(+Vertex, +Graph, -Vertices )
Unify Vertices with the list of neighbours of vertex Vertex in Graph.
undgraph_complement(+Graph, -NewGraph )
Unify NewGraph with the graph complementary to Graph.
Chapter 8: SWI-Prolog Emulation 109

8 SWI-Prolog Emulation
This library provides a number of SWI-Prolog builtins that are not by default in YAP. This
library is loaded with the use_module(library(swi)) command.
append(?List1,?List2,?List3 )
Succeeds when List3 unifies with the concatenation of List1 and List2. The
predicate can be used with any instantiation pattern (even three variables).
between(+Low,+High,?Value )
Low and High are integers, High less or equal than Low. If Value is an integer,
Low less or equal than Value less or equal than High. When Value is a variable
it is successively bound to all integers between Low and High. If High is inf,
between/3 is true iff Value less or equal than Low, a feature that is particularly
interesting for generating integers from a certain value.
chdir(+Dir )
Compatibility predicate. New code should use working_directory/2.
concat_atom(+List,-Atom )
List is a list of atoms, integers or floating point numbers. Succeeds if Atom
can be unified with the concatenated elements of List. If List has exactly 2
elements it is equivalent to atom_concat/3, allowing for variables in the list.
concat_atom(?List,+Separator,?Atom )
Creates an atom just like concat atom/2, but inserts Separator between each
pair of atoms. For example: \
?- concat_atom([gnu, gnat], ’, ’, A).

A = ’gnu, gnat’
(Unimplemented) This predicate can also be used to split atoms by instantiating
Separator and Atom:
?- concat_atom(L, -, ’gnu-gnat’).

L = [gnu, gnat]
nth1(+Index,?List,?Elem )
Succeeds when the Index-th element of List unifies with Elem. Counting starts
at 1.
Set environment variable. Name and Value should be instantiated to atoms or
integers. The environment variable will be passed to shell/[0-2] and can be
requested using getenv/2. They also influence expand_file_name/2.
setenv(+Name,+Value )
Set environment variable. Name and Value should be instantiated to atoms or
integers. The environment variable will be passed to shell/[0-2] and can be
requested using getenv/2. They also influence expand_file_name/2.
term_to_atom(?Term,?Atom )
Succeeds if Atom describes a term that unifies with Term. When Atom is
instantiated Atom is converted and then unified with Term. If Atom has no
110 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

valid syntax, a syntax_error exception is raised. Otherwise Term is “written”

on Atom using write/1.
working_directory(-Old,+New )
Unify Old with an absolute path to the current working directory and change
working directory to New. Use the pattern working_directory(CWD, CWD) to
get the current directory. See also absolute_file_name/2 and chdir/1.

8.1 Invoking Predicates on all Members of a List

All the predicates in this section call a predicate on all members of a list or until the predicate
called fails. The predicate is called via call/[2..], which implies common arguments can
be put in front of the arguments obtained from the list(s). For example:
?- maplist(plus(1), [0, 1, 2], X).

X = [1, 2, 3]
we will phrase this as “Predicate is applied on ...”
maplist(+Pred,+List )
Pred is applied successively on each element of List until the end of the list or
Pred fails. In the latter case maplist/2 fails.
maplist(+Pred,+List1,+List2 )
Apply Pred on all successive triples of elements from List1 and List2. Fails if
Pred can not be applied to a pair. See the example above.
maplist(+Pred,+List1,+List2,+List4 )
Apply Pred on all successive triples of elements from List1, List2 and List3.
Fails if Pred can not be applied to a triple. See the example above.

8.2 Forall
forall(+Cond,+Action )
For all alternative bindings of Cond Action can be proven. The next example
verifies that all arithmetic statements in the list L are correct. It does not say
which is wrong if one proves wrong.
?- forall(member(Result = Formula, [2 = 1 + 1, 4 = 2 * 2]),
Result =:= Formula).

8.3 hProlog and SWI-Prolog Attributed Variables

Attributed variables provide a technique for extending the Prolog unification algorithm by
hooking the binding of attributed variables. There is little consensus in the Prolog commu-
nity on the exact definition and interface to attributed variables. Yap Prolog traditionally
implements a SICStus-like interface, but to enable SWI-compatibility we have implemented
the SWI-Prolog interface, identical to the one realised by Bart Demoen for hProlog.
Binding an attributed variable schedules a goal to be executed at the first possible op-
portunity. In the current implementation the hooks are executed immediately after a suc-
cessful unification of the clause-head or successful completion of a foreign language (builtin)
Chapter 8: SWI-Prolog Emulation 111

predicate. Each attribute is associated to a module and the hook (attr unify hook/2) is
executed in this module. The example below realises a very simple and incomplete finite
domain reasoner.
:- module(domain,
[ domain/2 % Var, ?Domain
]).
:- use_module(library(oset)).

domain(X, Dom) :-
var(Dom), !,
get_attr(X, domain, Dom).
domain(X, List) :-
sort(List, Domain),
put_attr(Y, domain, Domain),
X = Y.

% An attributed variable with attribute value Domain has been

% assigned the value Y

attr_unify_hook(Domain, Y) :-
( get_attr(Y, domain, Dom2)
-> oset_int(Domain, Dom2, NewDomain),
( NewDomain == []
-> fail
; NewDomain = [Value]
-> Y = Value
; put_attr(Y, domain, NewDomain)
)
; var(Y)
-> put_attr( Y, domain, Domain )
; memberchk(Y, Domain)
).
Before explaining the code we give some example queries:
?- domain(X, [a,b]), X = c
no
?- domain(X, [a,b]), domain(X, [a,c]).
X=a
?- domain(X, [a,b,c]), domain(X, [a,c]).
X = D0
The predicate domain/2 fetches (first clause) or assigns (second clause) the variable a
domain, a set of values it can be unified with. In the second clause first associates the
domain with a fresh variable and then unifies X to this variable to deal with the possibility
that X already has a domain. The predicate attr_unify_hook/2 is a hook called after a
variable with a domain is assigned a value. In the simple case where the variable is bound
to a concrete value we simply check whether this value is in the domain. Otherwise we take
112 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

the intersection of the domains and either fail if the intersection is empty (first example),
simply assign the value if there is only one value in the intersection (second example) or
assign the intersection as the new domain of the variable (third example).
put_attr(+Var,+Module,+Value )
If Var is a variable or attributed variable, set the value for the attribute named
Module to Value. If an attribute with this name is already associated with
Var, the old value is replaced. Backtracking will restore the old value (i.e. an
attribute is a mutable term. See also setarg/3). This predicate raises a type
error if Var is not a variable or Module is not an atom.
get_attr(+Var,+Module,+Value )
Request the current value for the attribute named Module. If Var is not an
attributed variable or the named attribute is not associated to Var this predicate
fails silently. If Module is not an atom, a type error is raised.
del_attr(+Var,+Module )
Delete the named attribute. If Var loses its last attribute it is transformed back
into a traditional Prolog variable. If Module is not an atom, a type error is
raised. In all other cases this predicate succeeds regarless whether or not the
named attribute is present.
attr_unify_hook(+AttValue,+VarValue )
Hook that must be defined in the module an attributed variable refers to. Is is
called after the attributed variable has been unified with a non-var term, possi-
bly another attributed variable. AttValue is the attribute that was associated
to the variable in this module and VarValue is the new value of the variable.
Normally this predicate fails to veto binding the variable to VarValue, forcing
backtracking to undo the binding. If VarValue is another attributed variable the
hook often combines the two attribute and associates the combined attribute
with VarValue using put_attr/3.

8.3.1 Special Purpose SWI Predicates for Attributes

Normal user code should deal with put_attr/3, get_attr/3 and del_attr/2. The routines
in this section fetch or set the entire attribute list of a variables. Use of these predicates is
anticipated to be restricted to printing and other special purpose operations.
get_attrs(+Var,-Attributes )
Get all attributes of Var. Attributes is a term of the form att(Module, Value,
MoreAttributes), where MoreAttributes is [] for the last attribute.
put_attrs(+Var,+Attributes )
Set all attributes of Var. See get attrs/2 for a description of Attributes.
copy_term_nat(?TI,-TF )
As copy_term/2. Attributes however, are not copied but replaced by fresh
variables.

8.4 SWI Global variables

SWI-Prolog global variables are associations between names (atoms) and terms. They differ
in various ways from storing information using assert/1 or recorda/3.
Chapter 8: SWI-Prolog Emulation 113

• The value lives on the Prolog (global) stack. This implies that lookup time is indepen-
dent from the size of the term. This is particulary interesting for large data structures
such as parsed XML documents or the CHR global constraint store.
• They support both global assignment using nb_setval/2 and backtrackable assignment
using b_setval/2.
• Only one value (which can be an arbitrary complex Prolog term) can be associated to
a variable at a time.
• Their value cannot be shared among threads. Each thread has its own namespace and
values for global variables.
• Currently global variables are scoped globally. We may consider module scoping in
future versions.
Both b_setval/2 and nb_setval/2 implicitely create a variable if the referenced name
does not already refer to a variable.
Global variables may be initialised from directives to make them available during the
program lifetime, but some considerations are necessary for saved-states and threads.
Saved-states to not store global variables, which implies they have to be declared with
initialization/1 to recreate them after loading the saved state. Each thread has its own
set of global variables, starting with an empty set. Using thread_inititialization/1
to define a global variable it will be defined, restored after reloading a saved state and
created in all threads that are created after the registration.
b_setval(+Name,+Value )
Associate the term Value with the atom Name or replaces the currently asso-
ciated value with Value. If Name does not refer to an existing global variable a
variable with initial value [] is created (the empty list). On backtracking the
assignment is reversed.
b_getval(+Name,-Value )
Get the value associated with the global variable Name and unify it with Value.
Note that this unification may further instantiate the value of the global vari-
able. If this is undesirable the normal precautions (double negation or copy_
term/2) must be taken. The b_getval/2 predicate generates errors if Name is
not an atom or the requested variable does not exist.
nb_setval(+Name,+Value )
Associates a copy of Value created with duplicate_term/2 with the atom
Name. Note that this can be used to set an initial value other than [] prior to
backtrackable assignment.
nb_getval(+Name,-Value )
The nb_getval/2 predicate is a synonym for b getval/2, introduced for com-
patibility and symetry. As most scenarios will use a particular global variable
either using non-backtracable or backtrackable assignment, using nb_getval/2
can be used to document that the variable is used non-backtracable.
nb_current(?Name,?Value )
Enumerate all defined variables with their value. The order of enumeration is
undefined.
114 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

nb_delete(?Name )
Delete the named global variable.

8.4.1 Compatibility of SWI-Prolog Global Variables

Global variables have been introduced by various Prolog implementations recently. The
implementation of them in SWI-Prolog is based on hProlog by Bart Demoen. In discussion
with Bart it was decided that the semantics if hProlog nb_setval/2, which is equivalent
to nb_linkval/2 is not acceptable for normal Prolog users as the behaviour is influenced
by how builtin predicates constructing terms (read/1, =../2, etc.) are implemented.
GNU-Prolog provides a rich set of global variables, including arrays. Arrays can be
implemented easily in SWI-Prolog using functor/3 and setarg/3 due to the unrestricted
arity of compound terms.
Chapter 9: Extensions to Prolog 115

9 Extensions to Prolog
YAP includes several extensions that are not enabled by default, but that can be used to
extend the functionality of the system. These options can be set at compilation time by
enabling the related compilation flag, as explained in the Makefile

9.1 Rational Trees

Prolog unification is not a complete implementation. For efficiency considerations, Prolog
systems do not perform occur checks while unifying terms. As an example, X = a(X) will
not fail but instead will create an infinite term of the form a(a(a(a(a(...))))), or rational
tree.
Rational trees are no supported by default in YAP. In previous versions, this was not the
default and these terms could easily lead to infinite computation. For example, X = a(X),
X = X would enter an infinite loop.
The RATIONAL_TREES flag improves support for these terms. Internal primitives are now
aware that these terms can exist, and will not enter infinite loops. Hence, the previous
unification will succeed. Another example, X = a(X), ground(X) will succeed instead of
looping. Other affected built-ins include the term comparison primitives, numbervars/3,
copy_term/2, and the internal data base routines. The support does not extend to In-
put/Output routines or to assert/1 YAP does not allow directly reading rational trees,
and you need to use write_depth/2 to avoid entering an infinite cycle when trying to write
an infinite term.

9.2 Coroutining
Prolog uses a simple left-to-right flow of control. It is sometimes convenient to change this
control so that goals will only be executed when conditions are fulfilled. This may result
in a more "data-driven" execution, or may be necessary to correctly implement extensions
such as negation by default.
The COROUTINING flag enables this option. Note that the support for coroutining will in
general slow down execution.
The following declaration is supported:
block/1 The argument to block/1 is a condition on a goal or a conjunction of condi-
tions, with each element separated by commas. Each condition is of the form
predname(C1,...,CN ), where N is the arity of the goal, and each CI is of
the form -, if the argument must suspend until the variable is bound, or ?,
otherwise.
wait/1 The argument to wait/1 is a predicate descriptor or a conjunction of these
predicates. These predicates will suspend until their first argument is bound.
The following primitives are supported:
dif(X,Y ) Succeed if the two arguments do not unify. A call to dif/2 will suspend if
unification may still succeed or fail, and will fail if they always unify.
freeze(?X,:G )
Delay execution of goal G until the variable X is bound.
116 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

frozen(X,G )
Unify G with a conjunction of goals suspended on variable X, or true if no goal
has suspended.
when(+C,:G )
Delay execution of goal G until the conditions C are satisfied. The conditions
are of the following form:
C1,C2 Delay until both conditions C1 and C2 are satisfied.
C1 ;C2 Delay until either condition C1 or condition C2 is satisfied.
?=(V1,C2 )
Delay until terms V1 and V1 have been unified.
nonvar(V )
Delay until variable V is bound.
ground(V )
Delay until variable V is ground.
Note that when/2 will fail if the conditions fail.
call_residue(:G,L )
Call goal G. If subgoals of G are still blocked, return a list containing these
goals and the variables they are blocked in. The goals are then considered as
unblocked. The next example shows a case where dif/2 suspends twice, once
outside call_residue/2, and the other inside:
?- dif(X,Y),
call_residue((dif(X,Y),(X = f(Z) ; Y = f(Z))), L).

X = f(Z),
L = [[Y]-dif(f(Z),Y)],
dif(f(Z),Y) ? ;

Y = f(Z),
L = [[X]-dif(X,f(Z))],
dif(X,f(Z)) ? ;

no
The system only reports one invocation of dif/2 as having suspended.
Chapter 10: Attributed Variables 117

10 Attributed Variables
YAP now supports the attributed variables packaged developed at OFAI by Christian
Holzbaur. Attributes are a means of declaring that an arbitrary term is a property for
a variable. These properties can be updated during forward execution. Moreover, the uni-
fication algorithm is aware of attributed variables and will call user defined handlers when
trying to unify these variables.
Attributed variables provide an elegant abstraction over which one can extend Prolog
systems. Their main application so far has been in implementing constraint handlers, such
as Holzbaur’s CLPQR and Fruewirth and Holzbaur’s CHR, but other applications have
been proposed in the literature.
The command
| ?- use_module(library(atts)).
enables the use of attributed variables. The package provides the following functionality:
• Each attribute must be declared first. Attributes are described by a functor and are
declared per module. Each Prolog module declares its own sets of attributes. Different
modules may have different functors with the same module.
• The built-in put_atts/2 adds or deletes attributes to a variable. The variable may be
unbound or may be an attributed variable. In the latter case, YAP discards previous
values for the attributes.
• The built-in get_atts/2 can be used to check the values of an attribute associated
with a variable.
• The unification algorithm calls the user-defined predicate verify_attributes/3 before
trying to bind an attributed variable. Unification will resume after this call.
• The user-defined predicate attribute_goal/2 converts from an attribute to a goal.
• The user-defined predicate project_attributes/2 is used from a set of variables into
a set of constraints or goals. One application of project_attributes/2 is in the
top-level, where it is used to output the set of floundered constraints at the end of a
query.

10.1 Attribute Declarations

Attributes are compound terms associated with a variable. Each attribute has a name
which is private to the module in which the attribute was defined. Variables may have at
most one attribute with a name. Attribute names are defined with the following declaration:
:- attribute AttributeSpec, ..., AttributeSpec.
where each AttributeSpec has the form (Name/Arity). One single such declaration is
allowed per module Module.
Although the YAP module system is predicate based, attributes are local to modules.
This is implemented by rewriting all calls to the built-ins that manipulate attributes so that
attribute names are preprocessed depending on the module. The user:goal_expansion/3
mechanism is used for this purpose.
118 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

10.2 Attribute Manipulation

The attribute manipulation predicates always work as follows:
1. The first argument is the unbound variable associated with attributes,
2. The second argument is a list of attributes. Each attribute will be a Prolog term or a
constant, prefixed with the + and - unary operators. The prefix + may be dropped for
convenience.
The following three procedures are available to the user. Notice that these built-ins are
rewritten by the system into internal built-ins, and that the rewriting process depends on
the module on which the built-ins have been invoked.
Module :get_atts(-Var,?ListOfAttributes )
Unify the list ?ListOfAttributes with the attributes for the unbound variable
Var. Each member of the list must be a bound term of the form +(Attribute ),
-(Attribute ) (the kbd prefix may be dropped). The meaning of + and - is:
+(Attribute )
Unifies Attribute with a corresponding attribute associated with Var, fails oth-
erwise.
-(Attribute )
Succeeds if a corresponding attribute is not associated with Var. The arguments
of Attribute are ignored.
Module :put_atts(-Var,?ListOfAttributes )
Associate with or remove attributes from a variable Var. The attributes are
given in ?ListOfAttributes, and the action depends on how they are prefixed:
+(Attribute )
Associate Var with Attribute. A previous value for the attribute is simply
replace (like with set_mutable/2).
-(Attribute )
Remove the attribute with the same name. If no such attribute existed, simply
succeed.

10.3 Attributed Unification

The user-predicate predicate verify_attributes/3 is called when attempting to unify an
attributed variable which might have attributes in some Module.
Module :verify_attributes(-Var, +Value, -Goals )
The predicate is called when trying to unify the attributed variable Var with
the Prolog term Value. Note that Value may be itself an attributed variable, or
may contain attributed variables. The goal verify_attributes/3 is actually
called before Var is unified with Value.
It is up to the user to define which actions may be performed by
verify_attributes/3 but the procedure is expected to return in Goals a list
of goals to be called after Var is unified with Value. If verify_attributes/3
fails, the unification will fail.
Chapter 10: Attributed Variables 119

Notice that the verify_attributes/3 may be called even if Var has no at-
tributes in module Module. In this case the routine should simply succeed with
Goals unified with the empty list.
attvar(-Var )
Succeed if Var is an attributed variable.

10.4 Displaying Attributes

Attributes are usually presented as goals. The following routines are used by built-in pred-
icates such as call_residue/2 and by the Prolog top-level to display attributes:
Module :attribute_goal(-Var, -Goal )
User-defined procedure, called to convert the attributes in Var to a Goal.
Should fail when no interpretation is available.
Module :project_attributes(-QueryVars, +AttrVars )
User-defined procedure, called to project the attributes in the query, AttrVars,
given that the set of variables in the query is QueryVars.

10.5 Projecting Attributes

Constraint solvers must be able to project a set of constraints to a set of variables. This
is useful when displaying the solution to a goal, but may also be used to manipulate com-
putations. The user-defined project_attributes/2 is responsible for implementing this
projection.
Module :project_attributes(+QueryVars, +AttrVars )
Given a list of variables QueryVars and list of attributed variables AttrVars,
project all attributes in AttrVars to QueryVars. Although projection is con-
straint system dependent, typically this will involve expressing all constraints
in terms of QueryVars and considering all remaining variables as existentially
quantified.
Projection interacts with attribute_goal/2 at the prolog top level. When the query
succeeds, the system first calls project_attributes/2. The system then calls attribute_
goal/2 to get a user-level representation of the constraints. Typically, attribute_goal/2
will convert from the original constraints into a set of new constraints on the projection,
and these constraints are the ones that will have an attribute_goal/2 handler.

10.6 Attribute Examples

The following two examples example is taken from the SICStus Prolog manual. It sketches
the implementation of a simple finite domain “solver”. Note that an industrial strength
solver would have to provide a wider range of functionality and that it quite likely would
utilize a more efficient representation for the domains proper. The module exports a single
predicate domain(-Var,?Domain ) which associates Domain (a list of terms) with Var. A
variable can be queried for its domain by leaving Domain unbound.
We do not present here a definition for project_attributes/2. Projecting finite domain
constraints happens to be difficult.
120 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

:- module(domain, [domain/2]).

:- use_module(library(atts)).
:- use_module(library(ordsets), [
ord_intersection/3,
ord_intersect/2,
list_to_ord_set/2
]).

:- attribute dom/1.

verify_attributes(Var, Other, Goals) :-

get_atts(Var, dom(Da)), !, % are we involved?
( var(Other) -> % must be attributed then
( get_atts(Other, dom(Db)) -> % has a domain?
ord_intersection(Da, Db, Dc),
Dc = [El|Els], % at least one element
( Els = [] -> % exactly one element
Goals = [Other=El] % implied binding
; Goals = [],
put_atts(Other, dom(Dc))% rescue intersection
)
; Goals = [],
put_atts(Other, dom(Da)) % rescue the domain
)
; Goals = [],
ord_intersect([Other], Da) % value in domain?
).
verify_attributes(_, _, []). % unification triggered
% because of attributes
% in other modules

attribute_goal(Var, domain(Var,Dom)) :- % interpretation as goal

get_atts(Var, dom(Dom)).

domain(X, Dom) :-
var(Dom), !,
get_atts(X, dom(Dom)).
domain(X, List) :-
list_to_ord_set(List, Set),
Set = [El|Els], % at least one element
( Els = [] -> % exactly one element
X = El % implied binding
; put_atts(Fresh, dom(Set)),
X = Fresh % may call
% verify_attributes/3
).
Chapter 10: Attributed Variables 121

Note that the “implied binding” Other=El was deferred until after the completion of
verify_attribute/3. Otherwise, there might be a danger of recursively invoking verify_
attribute/3, which might bind Var, which is not allowed inside the scope of verify_
attribute/3. Deferring unifications into the third argument of verify_attribute/3 ef-
fectively serializes the calls to verify_attribute/3.
Assuming that the code resides in the file ‘domain.yap’, we can use it via:
| ?- use_module(domain).
Let’s test it:
| ?- domain(X,[5,6,7,1]), domain(Y,[3,4,5,6]), domain(Z,[1,6,7,8]).

domain(X,[1,5,6,7]),
domain(Y,[3,4,5,6]),
domain(Z,[1,6,7,8]) ?

yes
| ?- domain(X,[5,6,7,1]), domain(Y,[3,4,5,6]), domain(Z,[1,6,7,8]),
X=Y.

Y = X,
domain(X,[5,6]),
domain(Z,[1,6,7,8]) ?

yes
| ?- domain(X,[5,6,7,1]), domain(Y,[3,4,5,6]), domain(Z,[1,6,7,8]),
X=Y, Y=Z.

X = 6,
Y = 6,
Z = 6
To demonstrate the use of the Goals argument of verify_attributes/3, we give an
implementation of freeze/2. We have to name it myfreeze/2 in order to avoid a name
clash with the built-in predicate of the same name.
:- module(myfreeze, [myfreeze/2]).

:- use_module(library(atts)).

:- attribute frozen/1.

verify_attributes(Var, Other, Goals) :-

get_atts(Var, frozen(Fa)), !, % are we involved?
( var(Other) -> % must be attributed then
( get_atts(Other, frozen(Fb)) % has a pending goal?
-> put_atts(Other, frozen((Fa,Fb))) % rescue conjunction
; put_atts(Other, frozen(Fa)) % rescue the pending goal
),
122 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Goals = []
; Goals = [Fa]
).
verify_attributes(_, _, []).

attribute_goal(Var, Goal) :- % interpretation as goal

get_atts(Var, frozen(Goal)).

myfreeze(X, Goal) :-
put_atts(Fresh, frozen(Goal)),
Fresh = X.
Assuming that this code lives in file ‘myfreeze.yap’, we would use it via:
| ?- use_module(myfreeze).
| ?- myfreeze(X,print(bound(x,X))), X=2.

bound(x,2) % side effect

X = 2 % bindings
The two solvers even work together:
| ?- myfreeze(X,print(bound(x,X))), domain(X,[1,2,3]),
domain(Y,[2,10]), X=Y.

bound(x,2) % side effect

X = 2, % bindings
Y = 2
The two example solvers interact via bindings to shared attributed variables only. More
complicated interactions are likely to be found in more sophisticated solvers. The cor-
responding verify_attributes/3 predicates would typically refer to the attributes from
other known solvers/modules via the module prefix in Module :get_atts/2.
Chapter 11: Constraint Logic Programming over Reals 123

11 Constraint Logic Programming over Reals

YAP now uses the CLP(R) package developed by Leslie De Koninck, K.U. Leuven as part
of a thesis with supervisor Bart Demoen and daily advisor Tom Schrijvers, and distributed
with SWI-Prolog.
This CLP(R) system is a port of the CLP(Q,R) system of Sicstus Prolog and
YAP by Christian Holzbaur: Holzbaur C.: OFAI clp(q,r) Manual, Edition 1.3.3,
Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Vienna, TR-95-09, 1995,
http://www.ai.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/tr-online?number+95-09 This port only
contains the part concerning real arithmetics. This manual is roughly based on the manual
of the above mentioned CLP(QR) implementation.
Please note that the ‘clpr’ library is not an autoload library and therefore this library
must be loaded explicitely before using it:
:- use_module(library(clpr)).

11.1 Solver Predicates

The following predicates are provided to work with constraints:
{+Constraints }
Adds the constraints given by Constraints to the constraint store.
entailed(+Constraint )
Succeeds if Constraint is necessarily true within the current constraint store.
This means that adding the negation of the constraint to the store results in
failure.
inf(+Expression,-Inf )
Computes the infimum of Expression within the current state of the constraint
store and returns that infimum in Inf. This predicate does not change the
constraint store.
inf(+Expression,-Sup )
Computes the supremum of Expression within the current state of the constraint
store and returns that supremum in Sup. This predicate does not change the
constraint store.
min(+Expression )
Minimizes Expression within the current constraint store. This is the same as
computing the infimum and equation the expression to that infimum.
max(+Expression )
Maximizes Expression within the current constraint store. This is the same as
computing the supremum and equating the expression to that supremum.
bb_inf(+Ints,+Expression,-Inf,-Vertext,+Eps )
Computes the infimum of Expression within the current constraint store, with
the additional constraint that in that infimum, all variables in Ints have integral
values. Vertex will contain the values of Ints in the infimum. Eps denotes how
much a value may differ from an integer to be considered an integer. E.g. when
124 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Eps = 0.001, then X = 4.999 will be considered as an integer (5 in this case).

Eps should be between 0 and 0.5.
bb_inf(+Ints,+Expression,-Inf )
The same as bb inf/5 but without returning the values of the integers and with
an eps of 0.001.
bb_inf(+Target,+Newvars,-CodedAnswer )
Returns the constraints on Target in the list CodedAnswer where all variables
of Target have veen replaced by NewVars. This operation does not change the
constraint store. E.g. in
dump([X,Y,Z],[x,y,z],Cons)
Cons will contain the constraints on X, Y and Z where these variables have
been replaced by atoms x, y and z.

11.2 Syntax of the predicate arguments

The arguments of the predicates defined in the subsection above are defined in the following
table. Failing to meet the syntax rules will result in an exception.
<Constraints> ---> <Constraint> \\ single constraint \\
| <Constraint> , <Constraints> \\ conjunction \\
| <Constraint> ; <Constraints> \\ disjunction \\

<Constraint> ---> <Expression> {<} <Expression> \\ less than \\

| <Expression> {>} <Expression> \\ greater than \\
| <Expression> {=<} <Expression> \\ less or equal \\
| {<=}(<Expression>, <Expression>) \\ less or equal \\
| <Expression> {>=} <Expression> \\ greater or equal \\
| <Expression> {=\=} <Expression> \\ not equal \\
| <Expression> =:= <Expression> \\ equal \\
| <Expression> = <Expression> \\ equal \\

<Expression> ---> <Variable> \\ Prolog variable \\

| <Number> \\ Prolog number (float, integer) \\
| +<Expression> \\ unary plus \\
| -<Expression> \\ unary minus \\
| <Expression> + <Expression> \\ addition \\
| <Expression> - <Expression> \\ substraction \\
| <Expression> * <Expression> \\ multiplication \\
| <Expression> / <Expression> \\ division \\
| abs(<Expression>) \\ absolute value \\
| sin(<Expression>) \\ sine \\
| cos(<Expression>) \\ cosine \\
| tan(<Expression>) \\ tangent \\
| exp(<Expression>) \\ exponent \\
| pow(<Expression>) \\ exponent \\
| <Expression> {^} <Expression> \\ exponent \\
| min(<Expression>, <Expression>) \\ minimum \\
Chapter 11: Constraint Logic Programming over Reals 125

| max(<Expression>, <Expression>) \\ maximum \\

11.3 Use of unification

Instead of using the {}/1 predicate, you can also use the standard unification mechanism
to store constraints. The following code samples are equivalent:
‘Unification with a variable’
{X =:= Y}
{X = Y}
X = Y
‘Unification with a number’
{X =:= 5.0}
{X = 5.0}
X = 5.0

11.4 Non-Linear Constraints

In this version, non-linear constraints do not get solved until certain conditions are satisfied.
We call these conditions the isolation axioms. They are given in the following table.
A = B * C when B or C is ground or // A = 5 * C or A = B * 4 \\
A and (B or C) are ground // 20 = 5 * C or 20 = B * 4 \\

A = B / C when C is ground or // A = B / 3
A and B are ground // 4 = 12 / C

X = min(Y,Z) when Y and Z are ground or // X = min(4,3)

X = max(Y,Z) Y and Z are ground // X = max(4,3)
X = abs(Y) Y is ground // X = abs(-7)

X = pow(Y,Z) when X and Y are ground or // 8 = 2 ^ Z

X = exp(Y,Z) X and Z are ground // 8 = Y ^ 3
X = Y ^ Z Y and Z are ground // X = 2 ^ 3

X = sin(Y) when X is ground or // 1 = sin(Y)

X = cos(Y) Y is ground // X = sin(1.5707)
X = tan(Y)
126 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 12: CHR: Constraint Handling Rules 127

12 CHR: Constraint Handling Rules

This chapter is written by Tom Schrijvers, K.U. Leuven for the hProlog system. Adjusted
by Jan Wielemaker to fit the SWI-Prolog documentation infrastructure and remove hProlog
specific references.
The CHR system of SWI-Prolog is the K.U.Leuven CHR system. The runtime environ-
ment is written by Christian Holzbaur and Tom Schrijvers while the compiler is written
by Tom Schrijvers. Both are integrated with SWI-Prolog and licenced under compatible
conditions with permission from the authors.
The main reference for SWI-Prolog’s CHR system is:
• T. Schrijvers, and B. Demoen, The K.U.Leuven CHR System: Implementation and
Application, First Workshop on Constraint Handling Rules: Selected Contributions
(Fruwirth, T. and Meister, M., eds.), pp. 1–5, 2004.

12.1 Introduction
Constraint Handling Rules (CHR) is a committed-choice bottom-up language embedded in
Prolog. It is designed for writing constraint solvers and is particularily useful for provid-
ing application-specific constraints. It has been used in many kinds of applications, like
scheduling, model checking, abduction, type checking among many others.
CHR has previously been implemented in other Prolog systems (SICStus, Eclipse, Yap),
Haskell and Java. This CHR system is based on the compilation scheme and runtime
environment of CHR in SICStus.
In this documentation we restrict ourselves to giving a short overview of CHR in general
and mainly focus on elements specific to this implementation. For a more thorough review
of CHR we refer the reader to [Freuhwirth:98]. More background on CHR can be found at
the CHR web site.

12.2 Syntax and Semantics

12.2.1 Syntax
The syntax of CHR rules in hProlog is the following:
rules --> rule, rules.
rules --> [].

rule --> name, actual_rule, pragma, [atom(’.’)].

name --> atom, [atom(’´

)].
name --> [].

actual_rule --> simplification_rule.

actual_rule --> propagation_rule.
actual_rule --> simpagation_rule.

simplification_rule --> constraints, [atom(’<=>’)], guard, body.

128 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

propagation_rule --> constraints, [atom(’==>’)], guard, body.

simpagation_rule --> constraints, [atom(’\’)], constraints, [atom(’<=>’)],
guard, body.

constraints --> constraint, constraint_id.

constraints --> constraint, [atom(’,’)], constraints.

constraint --> compound_term.

constraint_id --> [].

constraint_id --> [atom(’#’)], variable.

guard --> [].

guard --> goal, [atom(’|’)].

body --> goal.

pragma --> [].

pragma --> [atom(’pragma’)], actual_pragmas.

actual_pragmas --> actual_pragma.

actual_pragmas --> actual_pragma, [atom(’,’)], actual_pragmas.

actual_pragma --> [atom(’passive(’)], variable, [atom(’)’)].

Additional syntax-related terminology:

• head: the constraints in an actual_rule before the arrow (either <=> or ==>)

12.2.2 Semantics
In this subsection the operational semantics of CHR in Prolog are presented informally.
They do not differ essentially from other CHR systems.
When a constraint is called, it is considered an active constraint and the system will try
to apply the rules to it. Rules are tried and executed sequentially in the order they are
written.
A rule is conceptually tried for an active constraint in the following way. The active
constraint is matched with a constraint in the head of the rule. If more constraints appear
in the head they are looked for among the suspended constraints, which are called passive
constraints in this context. If the necessary passive constraints can be found and all match
with the head of the rule and the guard of the rule succeeds, then the rule is committed and
the body of the rule executed. If not all the necessary passive constraint can be found, the
matching fails or the guard fails, then the body is not executed and the process of trying
and executing simply continues with the following rules. If for a rule, there are multiple
constraints in the head, the active constraint will try the rule sequentially multiple times,
each time trying to match with another constraint.
Chapter 12: CHR: Constraint Handling Rules 129

This process ends either when the active constraint disappears, i.e. it is removed by
some rule, or after the last rule has been processed. In the latter case the active constraint
becomes suspended.
A suspended constraint is eligible as a passive constraint for an active constraint. The
other way it may interact again with the rules, is when a variable appearing in the con-
straint becomes bound to either a nonvariable or another variable involved in one or more
constraints. In that case the constraint is triggered, i.e. it becomes an active constraint
and all the rules are tried.

Rule Types
There are three different kinds of rules, each with their specific semantics:
simplification
The simplification rule removes the constraints in its head and calls its body.
propagation
The propagation rule calls its body exactly once for the constraints in its head.
simpagation
The simpagation rule removes the constraints in its head after the \ and then
calls its body. It is an optimization of simplification rules of the form: \[con-
straints 1, constraints 2 <=> constraints 1, body \] Namely, in the simpagation
form:
constraints1 \ constraints2 <=> body
constraints1 constraints are not called in the body.

Rule Names
Naming a rule is optional and has no semantical meaning. It only functions as documenta-
tion for the programmer.

Pragmas
The semantics of the pragmas are:
‘passive(Identifier)’
The constraint in the head of a rule Identifier can only act as a passive constraint
in that rule.
Additional pragmas may be released in the future.

Options
It is possible to specify options that apply to all the CHR rules in the module. Options are
specified with the option/2 declaration:
option(Option,Value).
Available options are:
check_guard_bindings
This option controls whether guards should be checked for illegal variable bind-
ings or not. Possible values for this option are on, to enable the checks, and
off, to disable the checks.
130 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

optimize This is an experimental option controlling the degree of optimization. Possible

values are full, to enable all available optimizations, and off (default), to
disable all optimizations. The default is derived from the SWI-Prolog flag
optimise, where true is mapped to full. Therefore the commandline option
‘-O’ provides full CHR optimization. If optimization is enabled, debugging
should be disabled.
debug This options enables or disables the possibility to debug the CHR code. Possible
values are on (default) and off. See ‘debugging’ for more details on debugging.
The default is derived from the prolog flag generate_debug_info, which is true
by default. See ‘-nodebug’. If debugging is enabled, optimization should be
disabled.
mode This option specifies the mode for a particular constraint. The value is a term
with functor and arity equal to that of a constraint. The arguments can be one
of -, + or ?. The latter is the default. The meaning is the following:
- The corresponding argument of every occurrence of the constraint
is always unbound.
+ The corresponding argument of every occurrence of the constraint
is always ground.
? The corresponding argument of every occurrence of the constraint
can have any instantiation, which may change over time. This is
the default value.
The declaration is used by the compiler for various optimizations. Note that it
is up to the user the ensure that the mode declaration is correct with respect
to the use of the constraint. This option may occur once for each constraint.
type_declaration
This option specifies the argument types for a particular constraint. The value
is a term with functor and arity equal to that of a constraint. The arguments
can be a user-defined type or one of the built-in types:
int The corresponding argument of every occurrence of the constraint
is an integer number.
float . . . a floating point number.
number . . . a number.
natural . . . a positive integer.
any The corresponding argument of every occurrence of the constraint
can have any type. This is the default value.
Currently, type declarations are only used to improve certain optimizations
(guard simplification, occurrence subsumption, . . . ).
type_definition
This option defines a new user-defined type which can be used in type declara-
tions. The value is a term of the form type(name,list), where name is a term
and list is a list of alternatives. Variables can be used to define generic types.
Recursive definitions are allowed. Examples are
Chapter 12: CHR: Constraint Handling Rules 131

type(bool,[true,false]).
type(complex_number,[float + float * i]).
type(binary_tree(T),[ leaf(T) | node(binary_tree(T),binary_tree(T)) ]).
type(list(T),[ [] | [T | list(T)]).
The mode, type declaration and type definition options are provided for backward com-
patibility. The new syntax is described below.

12.3 CHR in YAP Programs

12.3.1 Embedding in Prolog Programs
The CHR constraints defined in a particulary ‘chr’ file are associated with a module. The
default module is user. One should never load different ‘chr’ files with the same CHR
module name.

12.3.2 Constraint declaration

Every constraint used in CHR rules has to be declared. There are two ways to do this. The
old style is as follows:
option(type_definition,type(list(T),[ [] , [T|list(T)] ]).
option(mode,foo(+,?)).
option(type_declaration,foo(list(int),float)).
:- constraints foo/2, bar/0.
The new style is as follows:
:- chr_type list(T) ---> [] ; [T|list(T)].
:- constraints foo(+list(int),?float), bar.

12.3.3 Compilation
The SWI-Prolog CHR compiler exploits term expansion/2 rules to translate the constraint
handling rules to plain Prolog. These rules are loaded from the library ‘chr’. They are
activated if the compiled file has the ‘chr’ extension or after finding a declaration of the
format below.
:- constraints ...
It is adviced to define CHR rules in a module file, where the module declaration is
immediately followed by including the ‘chr’ library as examplified below:
:- module(zebra, [ zebra/0 ]).
:- use_module(library(chr)).

:- constraints ...
Using this style CHR rules can be defined in ordinary Prolog ‘pl’ files and the operator
definitions required by CHR do not leak into modules where they might cause conflicts.

12.4 Debugging
The CHR debugging facilities are currently rather limited. Only tracing is currently avail-
able. To use the CHR debugging facilities for a CHR file it must be compiled for debugging.
132 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Generating debug info is controlled by the CHR option debug, whose default is derived from
the SWI-Prolog flag generate_debug_info. Therefore debug info is provided unless the
‘-nodebug’ is used.

12.4.1 Ports
For CHR constraints the four standard ports are defined:
call A new constraint is called and becomes active.
exit An active constraint exits: it has either been inserted in the store after trying
all rules or has been removed from the constraint store.
fail An active constraint fails.
redo An active constraint starts looking for an alternative solution.
In addition to the above ports, CHR constraints have five additional ports:
wake A suspended constraint is woken and becomes active.
insert An active constraint has tried all rules and is suspended in the constraint store.
remove An active or passive constraint is removed from the constraint store, if it had
been inserted.
try An active constraints tries a rule with possibly some passive constraints. The
try port is entered just before committing to the rule.
apply An active constraints commits to a rule with possibly some passive constraints.
The apply port is entered just after committing to the rule.

12.4.2 Tracing
Tracing is enabled with the chr trace/0 predicate and disabled with the chr notrace/0
predicate.
When enabled the tracer will step through the call, exit, fail, wake and apply ports,
accepting debug commands, and simply write out the other ports.
The following debug commans are currently supported:
CHR debug options:

<cr> creep c creep

s skip
g ancestors
n nodebug
b break
a abort
f fail
? help h help
Their meaning is:
creep Step to the next port.
skip Skip to exit port of this call or wake port.
Chapter 12: CHR: Constraint Handling Rules 133

ancestors
Print list of ancestor call and wake ports.
nodebug Disable the tracer.
break Enter a recursive Prolog toplevel. See break/0.
abort Exit to the toplevel. See abort/0.
fail Insert failure in execution.
help Print the above available debug options.

12.4.3 CHR Debugging Predicates

The ‘chr’ module contains several predicates that allow inspecting and printing the content
of the constraint store.
chr_trace/0
Activate the CHR tracer. By default the CHR tracer is activated and deacti-
vated automatically by the Prolog predicates trace/0 and notrace/0.
chr_notrace/0
De-activate the CHR tracer. By default the CHR tracer is activated and deac-
tivated automatically by the Prolog predicates trace/0 and notrace/0.
chr_leash/0
Define the set of CHR ports on which the CHR tracer asks for user intervention
(i.e. stops). Spec is either a list of ports or a predefined ‘alias’. Defined aliases
are: full to stop at all ports, none or off to never stop, and default to stop
at the call, exit, fail, wake and apply ports. See also leash/1.
chr_show_store(+Mod )
Prints all suspended constraints of module Mod to the standard output. This
predicate is automatically called by the SWI-Prolog toplevel at the end of each
query for every CHR module currently loaded. The prolog-flag chr_toplevel_
show_store controls whether the toplevel shows the constraint stores. The
value true enables it. Any other value disables it.

12.5 Examples
Here are two example constraint solvers written in CHR.
• The program below defines a solver with one constraint, leq/2, which is a less-than-
or-equal constraint.
:- module(leq,[cycle/3, leq/2]).
:- use_module(library(chr)).

:- constraints leq/2.
reflexivity leq(X,X) <=> true.
antisymmetry leq(X,Y), leq(Y,X) <=> X = Y.
idempotence leq(X,Y) \ leq(X,Y) <=> true.
transitivity leq(X,Y), leq(Y,Z) ==> leq(X,Z).
134 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

cycle(X,Y,Z):-
leq(X,Y),
leq(Y,Z),
leq(Z,X).
• The program below implements a simple finite domain constraint solver.
:- module(dom,[dom/2]).
:- use_module(library(chr)).

:- constraints dom/2.

dom(X,[]) <=> fail.

dom(X,[Y]) <=> X = Y.
dom(X,L1), dom(X,L2) <=> intersection(L1,L2,L3), dom(X,L3).

intersection([],_,[]).
intersection([H|T],L2,[H|L3]) :-
member(H,L2), !,
intersection(T,L2,L3).
intersection([_|T],L2,L3) :-
intersection(T,L2,L3).

12.6 Compatibility with SICStus CHR

There are small differences between CHR in SWI-Prolog and newer YAPs and SICStus and
older versions of YAP. Besides differences in available options and pragmas, the following
differences should be noted:
[The handler/1 declaration]
In SICStus every CHR module requires a handler/1 declaration declaring a
unique handler name. This declaration is valid syntax in SWI-Prolog, but will
have no effect. A warning will be given during compilation.
[The rules/1 declaration]
In SICStus, for every CHR module it is possible to only enable a subset of the
available rules through the rules/1 declaration. The declaration is valid syntax
in SWI-Prolog, but has no effect. A warning is given during compilation.
[Sourcefile naming]
SICStus uses a two-step compiler, where ‘chr’ files are first translated into ‘pl’
files. For SWI-Prolog CHR rules may be defined in a file with any extension.

12.7 Guidelines
In this section we cover several guidelines on how to use CHR to write constraint solvers
and how to do so efficiently.
[Set semantics]
The CHR system allows the presence of identical constraints, i.e. multiple
constraints with the same functor, arity and arguments. For most constraint
Chapter 12: CHR: Constraint Handling Rules 135

solvers, this is not desirable: it affects efficiency and possibly termination.

Hence appropriate simpagation rules should be added of the form:
{constraint \ constraint <=> true}.
[Multi-headed rules]
Multi-headed rules are executed more efficiently when the constraints share one
or more variables.
[Mode and type declarations]
Provide mode and type declarations to get more efficient program execution.
Make sure to disable debug (‘-nodebug’) and enable optimization (‘-O’).
136 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 13: Logtalk 137

13 Logtalk
The Logtalk object-oriented extension is available once included with the use_
module(library(logtalk)) command. Note that, although we load Logtalk using the
use_module/1 built-in predicate, the system is not packaged as a module not does it use
modules in its implementation.
Logtalk documentation is included in the Logtalk directory. Be sure to read the
Logtalk/INSTALL file for additional instructions on how to customize your Logtalk
installation to match your working environment.
For the latest Llogtalk news, please see the URL http://www.logtalk.org/.
138 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 14: Threads 139

14 Threads
YAP implements a SWI-Prolog compatible multithreading library. Like in SWI-Prolog,
Prolog threads have their own stacks and only share the Prolog heap: predicates, records,
flags and other global non-backtrackable data. The package is based on the POSIX thread
standard (Butenhof:1997:PPT) used on most popular systems except for MS-Windows.

14.1 Creating and Destroying Prolog Threads

thread_create(:Goal, -Id, +Options )
Create a new Prolog thread (and underlying C-thread) and start it by executing
Goal. If the thread is created succesfully, the thread-identifier of the created
thread is unified to Id. Options is a list of options. Currently defined options
are:
stack Set the limit in K-Bytes to which the Prolog stacks of this thread
may grow. If omited, the limit of the calling thread is used. See
also the commandline -S option.
trail Set the limit in K-Bytes to which the trail stack of this thread may
grow. If omited, the limit of the calling thread is used. See also the
commandline option -T.
alias Associate an alias-name with the thread. This named may be used
to refer to the thread and remains valid until the thread is joined
(see thread_join/2).
detached If false (default), the thread can be waited for using thread_
join/2. thread_join/2 must be called on this thread to reclaim
the all resources associated to the thread. If true, the system
will reclaim all associated resources automatically after the thread
finishes. Please note that thread identifiers are freed for reuse after
a detached thread finishes or a normal thread has been joined. See
also thread_join/2 and thread_detach/1.
The Goal argument is copied to the new Prolog engine. This implies further
instantiation of this term in either thread does not have consequences for the
other thread: Prolog threads do not share data from their stacks.
thread_self(-Id )
Get the Prolog thread identifier of the running thread. If the thread has an
alias, the alias-name is returned.
thread_join(+Id, -Status )
Wait for the termination of thread with given Id. Then unify the result-status
of the thread with Status. After this call, Id becomes invalid and all resources
associated with the thread are reclaimed. Note that threads with the attribute
detached true cannot be joined. See also current_thread/2.
A thread that has been completed without thread_join/2 being called on it is
partly reclaimed: the Prolog stacks are released and the C-thread is destroyed.
A small data-structure representing the exit-status of the thread is retained
until thread_join/2 is called on the thread. Defined values for Status are:
140 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

true The goal has been proven successfully.

false The goal has failed.
exception(Term )
The thread is terminated on an exception. See print_message/2
to turn system exceptions into readable messages.
exited(Term )
The thread is terminated on thread_exit/1 using the argument
Term.
thread_detach(+Id )
Switch thread into detached-state (see detached option at thread_create/3
at runtime. Id is the identifier of the thread placed in detached state.
One of the possible applications is to simplify debugging. Threads that are
created as detached leave no traces if they crash. For not-detached threads the
status can be inspected using current_thread/2. Threads nobody is waiting
for may be created normally and detach themselves just before completion.
This way they leave no traces on normal completion and their reason for failure
can be inspected.
thread_exit(+Term )
Terminates the thread immediately, leaving exited(Term ) as result-state for
thread_join/2. If the thread has the attribute detached true it terminates,
but its exit status cannot be retrieved using thread_join/2 making the value
of Term irrelevant. The Prolog stacks and C-thread are reclaimed.
thread_at_exit(:Term )
Run Goal just before releasing the thread resources. This is to be compared
to at_halt/1, but only for the current thread. These hooks are ran regardless
of why the execution of the thread has been completed. As these hooks are
run, the return-code is already available through current_thread/2 using the
result of thread_self/1 as thread-identifier.
thread_setconcurrency(+Old, -New )
Determine the concurrency of the process, which is defined as the maximum
number of concurrently active threads. ‘Active’ here means they are using CPU
time. This option is provided if the thread-implementation provides pthread_
setconcurrency(). Solaris is a typical example of this family. On other sys-
tems this predicate unifies Old to 0 (zero) and succeeds silently.

14.2 Monitoring Threads

Normal multi-threaded applications should not need these the predicates from this section
because almost any usage of these predicates is unsafe. For example checking the existence
of a thread before signalling it is of no use as it may vanish between the two calls. Catching
exceptions using catch/3 is the only safe way to deal with thread-existence errors.
These predicates are provided for diagnosis and monitoring tasks.
Chapter 14: Threads 141

current_thread(+Id, -Status )
Enumerates identifiers and status of all currently known threads. Calling cur-
rent thread/2 does not influence any thread. See also thread_join/2. For
threads that have an alias-name, this name is returned in Id instead of the
numerical thread identifier. Status is one of:
running The thread is running. This is the initial status of a thread. Please
note that threads waiting for something are considered running too.
false The Goal of the thread has been completed and failed.
true The Goal of the thread has been completed and succeeded.
exited(Term )
The Goal of the thread has been terminated using thread_exit/1
with Term as argument. If the underlying native thread has exited
(using pthread exit()) Term is unbound.
exception(Term )
The Goal of the thread has been terminated due to an uncaught
exception (see throw/1 and catch/3).
thread_statistics(+Id, +Key, -Value )
Obtains statistical information on thread Id as statistics/2 does in single-
threaded applications. This call returns all keys of statistics/2, although
only information statistics about the stacks and CPU time yield different values
for each thread.
mutex_statistics
Print usage statistics on internal mutexes and mutexes associated with dynamic
predicates. For each mutex two numbers are printed: the number of times the
mutex was acquired and the number of collisions: the number times the calling
thread has to wait for the mutex. The collistion-count is not available on
Windows as this would break portability to Windows-95/98/ME or significantly
harm performance. Generally collision count is close to zero on single-CPU
hardware.

14.3 Thread communication

14.3.1 Message Queues
Prolog threads can exchange data using dynamic predicates, database records, and other
globally shared data. These provide no suitable means to wait for data or a condition as
they can only be checked in an expensive polling loop. Message queues provide a means for
threads to wait for data or conditions without using the CPU.
Each thread has a message-queue attached to it that is identified by the thread. Addi-
tional queues are created using message_queue_create/2.
thread_send_message(+QueueOrThreadId, +Term )
Place Term in the given queue or default queue of the indicated thread (which
can even be the message queue of itself (see thread_self/1). Any term can
142 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

be placed in a message queue, but note that the term is copied to the receiving
thread and variable-bindings are thus lost. This call returns immediately.
If more than one thread is waiting for messages on the given queue and at least
one of these is waiting with a partially instantiated Term, the waiting threads
are all sent a wakeup signal, starting a rush for the available messages in the
queue. This behaviour can seriously harm performance with many threads
waiting on the same queue as all-but-the-winner perform a useless scan of the
queue. If there is only one waiting thread or all waiting threads wait with an
unbound variable an arbitrary thread is restarted to scan the queue.%
thread_get_message(?Term )
Examines the thread message-queue and if necessary blocks execution until a
term that unifies to Term arrives in the queue. After a term from the queue
has been unified unified to Term, the term is deleted from the queue and this
predicate returns.
Please note that not-unifying messages remain in the queue. After the follow-
ing has been executed, thread 1 has the term gnu in its queue and continues
execution using A is gnat.
<thread 1>
thread_get_message(a(A)),

<thread 2>
thread_send_message(b(gnu)),
thread_send_message(a(gnat)),
See also thread_peek_message/1.
thread_peek_message(?Term )
Examines the thread message-queue and compares the queued terms with Term
until one unifies or the end of the queue has been reached. In the first case the
call succeeds (possibly instantiating Term. If no term from the queue unifies
this call fails.
thread_message_queue_create(?Queue )
If Queue is an atom, create a named queue. To avoid ambiguity on thread_
send_message/2, the name of a queue may not be in use as a thread-name. If
Queue is unbound an anonymous queue is created and Queue is unified to its
identifier.
thread_message_queue_destroy(+Queue )
Destroy a message queue created with message queue create/1. It is not allows
to destroy the queue of a thread. Neither is it allowed to destroy a queue other
threads are waiting for or, for anynymous message queues, may try to wait for
later.%
thread_get_message(+Queue, +Term )
As thread get message/1, operating on a given queue. It is allowed to peek
into another thread’s message queue, an operation that can be used to check
whether a thread has swallowed a message sent to it.
Chapter 14: Threads 143

Explicit message queues are designed with the worker-pool model in mind, where multiple
threads wait on a single queue and pick up the first goal to execute. Below is a simple
implementation where the workers execute arbitrary Prolog goals. Note that this example
provides no means to tell when all work is done. This must be realised using additional
synchronisation.
% create_workers(+Id, +N)
%
% Create a pool with given Id and number of workers.

create_workers(Id, N) :-
message_queue_create(Id),
forall(between(1, N, _),
thread_create(do_work(Id), _, [])).

do_work(Id) :-
repeat,
thread_get_message(Id, Goal),
( catch(Goal, E, print_message(error, E))
-> true
; print_message(error, goal_failed(Goal, worker(Id)))
),
fail.

% work(+Id, +Goal)
%
% Post work to be done by the pool

work(Id, Goal) :-
thread_send_message(Id, Goal).

14.3.2 Signalling Threads

These predicates provide a mechanism to make another thread execute some goal as an
interrupt. Signalling threads is safe as these interrupts are only checked at safe points in the
virtual machine. Nevertheless, signalling in multi-threaded environments should be handled
with care as the receiving thread may hold a mutex (see with mutex). Signalling probably
only makes sense to start debugging threads and to cancel no-longer-needed threads with
throw/1, where the receiving thread should be designed carefully do handle exceptions at
any point.

thread_signal(+ThreadId, :Goal )
Make thread ThreadId execute Goal at the first opportunity. In the current im-
plementation, this implies at the first pass through the Call-port. The predicate
thread_signal/2 itself places Goal into the signalled-thread’s signal queue and
returns immediately.
Signals (interrupts) do not cooperate well with the world of multi-threading,
mainly because the status of mutexes cannot be guaranteed easily. At the call-
144 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

port, the Prolog virtual machine holds no locks and therefore the asynchronous
execution is safe.
Goal can be any valid Prolog goal, including throw/1 to make the receiving
thread generate an exception and trace/0 to start tracing the receiving thread.

14.3.3 Threads and Dynamic Predicates

Besides queues threads can share and exchange data using dynamic predicates. The multi-
threaded version knows about two types of dynamic predicates. By default, a predicate
declared dynamic (see dynamic/1) is shared by all threads. Each thread may assert, retract
and run the dynamic predicate. Synchronisation inside Prolog guarantees the consistency
of the predicate. Updates are logical : visible clauses are not affected by assert/retract after
a query started on the predicate. In many cases primitive from thread synchronysation
should be used to ensure application invariants on the predicate are maintained.
Besides shared predicates, dynamic predicates can be declared with the thread_local/1
directive. Such predicates share their attributes, but the clause-list is different in each
thread.
thread_local(+Functor/Arity )
related to the dynamic/1 directive. It tells the system that the predicate may
be modified using assert/1, retract/1, etc, during execution of the program.
Unlike normal shared dynamic data however each thread has its own clause-list
for the predicate. As a thread starts, this clause list is empty. If there are
still clauses as the thread terminates these are automatically reclaimed by the
system. The thread local property implies the property dynamic.
Thread-local dynamic predicates are intended for maintaining thread-specific
state or intermediate results of a computation.
It is not recommended to put clauses for a thread-local predicate into a file as
in the example below as the clause is only visible from the thread that loaded
the source-file. All other threads start with an empty clause-list.
:- thread_local
foo/1.

foo(gnat).

14.4 Thread Synchronisation

All internal Prolog operations are thread-safe. This implies two Prolog threads can operate
on the same dynamic predicate without corrupting the consistency of the predicate. This
section deals with user-level mutexes (called monitors in ADA or critical-sections by Mi-
crosoft). A mutex is a MUT ual EX clusive device, which implies at most one thread can
hold a mutex.
Mutexes are used to realise related updates to the Prolog database. With ‘related’,
we refer to the situation where a ‘transaction’ implies two or more changes to the Prolog
database. For example, we have a predicate address/2, representing the address of a person
and we want to change the address by retracting the old and asserting the new address.
Between these two operations the database is invalid: this person has either no address or
two addresses, depending on the assert/retract order.
Chapter 14: Threads 145

Here is how to realise a correct update:

:- initialization
mutex_create(addressbook).

change_address(Id, Address) :-
mutex_lock(addressbook),
retractall(address(Id, _)),
asserta(address(Id, Address)),
mutex_unlock(addressbook).

mutex_create(?MutexId )
Create a mutex. if MutexId is an atom, a named mutex is created. If it is a
variable, an anonymous mutex reference is returned. There is no limit to the
number of mutexes that can be created.
mutex_destroy(+MutexId )
Destroy a mutex. After this call, MutexId becomes invalid and further refer-
ences yield an existence_error exception.
with_mutex(+MutexId, :Goal )
Execute Goal while holding MutexId. If Goal leaves choicepoints, these are
destroyed (as in once/1). The mutex is unlocked regardless of whether Goal
succeeds, fails or raises an exception. An exception thrown by Goal is re-thrown
after the mutex has been successfully unlocked. See also mutex_create/2.
Although described in the thread-section, this predicate is also available in the
single-threaded version, where it behaves simply as once/1.
mutex_lock(+MutexId )
Lock the mutex. Prolog mutexes are recursive mutexes: they can be locked
multiple times by the same thread. Only after unlocking it as many times as it
is locked, the mutex becomes available for locking by other threads. If another
thread has locked the mutex the calling thread is suspended until to mutex is
unlocked.
If MutexId is an atom, and there is no current mutex with that name, the mutex
is created automatically using mutex_create/1. This implies named mutexes
need not be declared explicitly.
Please note that locking and unlocking mutexes should be paired carefully.
Especially make sure to unlock mutexes even if the protected code fails or
raises an exception. For most common cases use with_mutex/2, wich provides
a safer way for handling prolog-level mutexes.
mutex_trylock(+MutexId )
As mutex lock/1, but if the mutex is held by another thread, this predicates
fails immediately.
mutex_unlock(+MutexId )
Unlock the mutex. This can only be called if the mutex is held by the calling
thread. If this is not the case, a permission_error exception is raised.
146 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

mutex_unlock_all
Unlock all mutexes held by the current thread. This call is especially useful
to handle thread-termination using abort/0 or exceptions. See also thread_
signal/2.
current_mutex(?MutexId, ?ThreadId, ?Count )
Enumerates all existing mutexes. If the mutex is held by some thread, ThreadId
is unified with the identifier of te holding thread and Count with the recursive
count of the mutex. Otherwise, ThreadId is [] and Count is 0.
Chapter 15: Parallelism 147

15 Parallelism
There has been a sizeable amount of work on an or-parallel implementation for YAP, called
YapOr. Most of this work has been performed by Ricardo Rocha. In this system parallelism
is exploited implicitly by running several alternatives in or-parallel. This option can be
enabled from the configure script or by checking the system’s Makefile.
YapOr is still a very experimental system, going through rapid development. The fol-
lowing restrictions are of note:
• YapOr currently only supports the Linux/X86 and SPARC/Solaris platforms. Porting
to other Unix-like platforms should be straightforward.
• YapOr does not support parallel updates to the data-base.
• YapOr does not support opening or closing of streams during parallel execution.
• Garbage collection and stack shifting are not supported in YapOr.
• Built-ins that cause side-effects can only be executed when left-most in the search-tree.
There are no primitives to provide asynchronous or cavalier execution of these built-ins,
as in Aurora or Muse.
• YAP does not support voluntary suspension of work.
We expect that some of these restrictions will be removed in future releases.
148 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 16: Tabling 149

16 Tabling
An initial cut for an implementation of tabling in the style of XSB-Prolog is now available.
Tabling was implemented by Ricardo Rocha. To experiment with tabling use -DTABLING
to YAP_EXTRAS in the system’s Makefile.
You can use the directive table to force calls for the argument predicate to be tabled.
Tabling information is stored in a trie, as for XSB-Prolog.
The following predicates may be useful to control tabled execution:
is_tabled(+PredIndicator )
Succeeds if the predicate PredIndicator, of the form Name/Arity, is a tabled
predicate.
tabling_mode(+PredIndicator,+Options )
Sets tabling mode options for the list or predicate given by PredIndicator. The
list of Options includes:
batched: use batched scheduling for this predicate (default).
local: use local scheduling for this predicate.
exec_answers: use complete tries as code (default).
load_answers: use complete tries as a consumer, somewhat less
efficient but creates less choice-points.
abolish_table(+PredIndicator )
Remove tables for PredIndicator
show_table(+PredIndicator )
Print out the contents of the table generated for PredIndicator.
table_statistics(+PredIndicator )
Print out some information on the current tables for PredIndicator.
150 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 17: Tracing at Low Level 151

17 Tracing at Low Level

It is possible to follow the flow at abstract machine level if YAP is compiled with the flag
LOW_LEVEL_TRACER. Note that this option is of most interest to implementers, as it quickly
generates an huge amount of information.
Low level tracing can be toggled from an interrupt handler by using the option T. There
are also two built-ins that activate and deactivate low level tracing:
start_low_level_trace
Begin display of messages at procedure entry and retry.
stop_low_level_trace
Stop display of messages at procedure entry and retry.
Note that this compile-time option will slow down execution.
152 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 18: Profiling the Abstract Machine 153

18 Profiling the Abstract Machine

Implementors may be interested in detecting on which abstract machine instructions are
executed by a program. The ANALYST flag can give WAM level information. Note that this
option slows down execution very substantially, and is only of interest to developers of the
system internals, or to system debuggers.
reset_op_counters
Reinitialize all counters.
show_op_counters(+A )
Display the current value for the counters, using label A. The label must be an
atom.
show_ops_by_group(+A )
Display the current value for the counters, organized by groups, using label A.
The label must be an atom.
154 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Chapter 19: Debugging 155

19 Debugging

19.1 Debugging Predicates

The following predicates are available to control the debugging of programs:
debug Switches the debugger on.
debugging
Outputs status information about the debugger which includes the leash mode
and the existing spy-points, when the debugger is on.
nodebug Switches the debugger off.
spy +P Sets spy-points on all the predicates represented by P. P can either be a sin-
gle specification or a list of specifications. Each one must be of the form
Name/Arity or Name. In the last case all predicates with the name Name
will be spied. As in C-Prolog, system predicates and predicates written in C,
cannot be spied.
nospy +P Removes spy-points from all predicates specified by P. The possible forms for
P are the same as in spy P.
nospyall Removes all existing spy-points.
notrace Switches off the debugger and stops tracing.
leash(+M )
Sets leashing mode to M. The mode can be specified as:
full prompt on Call, Exit, Redo and Fail
tight prompt on Call, Redo and Fail
half prompt on Call and Redo
loose prompt on Call
off never prompt
none never prompt, same as off
The initial leashing mode is full.
The user may also specify directly the debugger ports where he wants to be
prompted. If the argument for leash is a number N, each of lower four bits of
the number is used to control prompting at one the ports of the box model.
The debugger will prompt according to the following conditions:
• if N/\ 1 =\= 0 prompt on fail
• if N/\ 2 =\= 0 prompt on redo
• if N/\ 4 =\= 0 prompt on exit
• if N/\ 8 =\= 0 prompt on call
156 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Therefore, leash(15) is equivalent to leash(full) and leash(0) is equivalent

to leash(off).
Another way of using leash is to give it a list with the names of the ports where
the debugger should stop. For example, leash([call,exit,redo,fail]) is
the same as leash(full) or leash(15) and leash([fail]) might be used
instead of leash(1).
spy_write(+Stream,Term)
If defined by the user, this predicate will be used to print goals by the debugger
instead of write/2.
trace Switches on the debugger and starts tracing.

19.2 Interacting with the debugger

Debugging with YAP is similar to debugging with C-Prolog. Both systems include a pro-
cedural debugger, based in the four port model. In this model, execution is seen at the
procedure level: each activation of a procedure is seen as a box with control flowing into
and out of that box.
In the four port model control is caught at four key points: before entering the procedure,
after exiting the procedure (meaning successful evaluation of all queries activated by the
procedure), after backtracking but before trying new alternative to the procedure and after
failing the procedure. Each one of these points is named a port:
*--------------------------------------*
Call | | Exit
---------> + descendant(X,Y) :- offspring(X,Y). + --------->
| |
| descendant(X,Z) :- |
<--------- + offspring(X,Y), descendant(Y,Z). + <---------
Fail | | Redo
*--------------------------------------*

Call The call port is activated before initial invocation of procedure. Afterwards,
execution will try to match the goal with the head of existing clauses for the
procedure.
Exit This port is activated if the procedure succeeds. Control will now leave the
procedure and return to its ancestor.
Redo if the goal, or goals, activated after the call port fail then backtracking will
eventually return control to this procedure through the redo port.
Fail If all clauses for this predicate fail, then the invocation fails, and control will
try to redo the ancestor of this invocation.
To start debugging, the user will usually spy the relevant procedures, entering debug
mode, and start execution of the program. When finding the first spy-point, YAP’s debugger
will take control and show a message like:
* (1) call: quicksort([1,2,3],_38) ?
The debugger message will be shown while creeping, or at spy-points, and it includes
four or five fields:
Chapter 19: Debugging 157

• The first three characters are used to point out special states of the debugger. If the
port is exit and the first character is ’ ?’, the current call still has alternatives to be
tried. If the second character is a *, execution is at a spy-point. If the third character
is a >, execution has returned either from a skip, a fail or a redo command.
• The second field is the activation number, and uniquely identifies the activation. The
number will start from 1 and will be incremented for each activation found by the
debugger.
• In the third field, the debugger shows the active port.
• The fourth field is the goal. The goal is written by write/1.
If the active port is leashed, the debugger will prompt the user with a ?, and wait for
a command. A debugger command is just a character, followed by a return. By default,
only the call and redo entries are leashed, but the leash/1 predicate can be used in order
to make the debugger stop where needed.
There are several commands available, but the user only needs to remember the help
command, which is h. This command shows all the available options, which are:
c - creep this command makes YAP continue execution and stop at the next leashed
port.
return - creep
the same as c
l - leap YAP will continue execution until a port of a spied predicate is found;
k - quasi-leap
similar to leap but faster since the computation history is not kept; useful when
leap becomes too slow.
s - skip YAP will continue execution without showing any messages until returning to
the current activation. Spy-points will be ignored in this mode. This command
is meaningless, and therefore illegal, in the fail and exit ports.
t - fast-skip
similar to skip but faster since the computation history is not kept; useful when
skip becomes too slow.
q - quasi-leap
YAP will continue execution until a port of a spied predicate is found or until
returning to the current activation.
f - fail forces YAP to fail the goal proceeding directly to the fail port. The command
is not available in the fail port.
r - retry after this command, YAP will retry the present goal, and so go back to the call
port. Note that any side effects of the goal will not be undone. This command
is not available at the call port.
a - abort execution will be aborted, and the interpreter will return to the top-level.
n - nodebug
stop debugging but continue execution. The command will clear all active spy-
points, leave debugging mode and continue execution.
158 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

e - exit leave YAP.

h - help show the debugger commands.
! Query execute a query. YAP will not show the result of the query.
b - break break active execution and launch a break level. This is the same as ! break.
+ - spy this goal
start spying the active goal. The same as ! spy G where G is the active goal.
- - nospy this goal
stop spying the active goal. The same as ! nospy G where G is the active goal.
p - print shows the active goal using print/1
d - display
shows the active goal using display/1
<Depth - debugger write depth
sets the maximum write depth, both for composite terms and lists, that will
be used by the debugger. For more information about write_depth/2 (see
Section 6.6.7 [I/O Control], page 51).
< - full term
resets to the default of ten the debugger’s maximum write depth. For more
information about write_depth/2 (see Section 6.6.7 [I/O Control], page 51).
A - alternatives
show the list of backtrack points in the current execution.
The debugging information, when fast-skip quasi-leap is used, will be lost.
Chapter 20: Indexing 159

20 Indexing
The indexation mechanism restricts the set of clauses to be tried in a procedure by using
information about the status of a selected argument of the goal (in YAP, as in most com-
pilers, the first argument). This argument is then used as a key, selecting a restricted set
of a clauses from all the clauses forming the procedure.
As an example, the two clauses for concatenate:
concatenate([],L,L).
concatenate([H|T],A,[H|NT]) :- concatenate(T,A,NT).
If the first argument for the goal is a list, then only the second clause is of interest. If
the first argument is the nil atom, the system needs to look only for the first clause. The
indexation generates instructions that test the value of the first argument, and then proceed
to a selected clause, or group of clauses.
Note that if the first argument was a free variable, then both clauses should be tried. In
general, indexation will not be useful if the first argument is a free variable.
When activating a predicate, a Prolog system needs to store state information. This
information, stored in a structure known as choice point or fail point, is necessary when
backtracking to other clauses for the predicate. The operations of creating and using a
choice point are very expensive, both in the terms of space used and time spent. Creating
a choice point is not necessary if there is only a clause for the predicate as there are no
clauses to backtrack to. With indexation, this situation is extended: in the example, if the
first argument was the atom nil, then only one clause would really be of interest, and it is
pointless to create a choice point. This feature is even more useful if the first argument is a
list: without indexation, execution would try the first clause, creating a choice point. The
clause would fail, the choice point would then be used to restore the previous state of the
computation and the second clause would be tried. The code generated by the indexation
mechanism would behave much more efficiently: it would test the first argument and see
whether it is a list, and then proceed directly to the second clause.
An important side effect concerns the use of "cut". In the above example, some pro-
grammers would use a "cut" in the first clause just to inform the system that the predicate
is not backtrackable and force the removal the choice point just created. As a result, less
space is needed but with a great loss in expressive power: the "cut" would prevent some
uses of the procedure, like generating lists through backtracking. Of course, with indexation
the "cut" becomes useless: the choice point is not even created.
Indexation is also very important for predicates with a large number of clauses that are
used like tables:
logician(aristhoteles,greek).
logician(frege,german).
logician(russel,english).
logician(godel,german).
logician(whitehead,english).
An interpreter like C-Prolog, trying to answer the query:
?- logician(godel,X).
would blindly follow the standard Prolog strategy, trying first the first clause, then the
second, the third and finally finding the relevant clause. Also, as there are some more
160 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

clauses after the important one, a choice point has to be created, even if we know the next
clauses will certainly fail. A "cut" would be needed to prevent some possible uses for the
procedure, like generating all logicians. In this situation, the indexing mechanism generates
instructions that implement a search table. In this table, the value of the first argument
would be used as a key for fast search of possibly matching clauses. For the query of the
last example, the result of the search would be just the fourth clause, and again there would
be no need for a choice point.
If the first argument is a complex term, indexation will select clauses just by testing its
main functor. However, there is an important exception: if the first argument of a clause
is a list, the algorithm also uses the list’s head if not a variable. For instance, with the
following clauses,
rules([],B,B).
rules([n(N)|T],I,O) :- rules_for_noun(N,I,N), rules(T,N,O).
rules([v(V)|T],I,O) :- rules_for_verb(V,I,N), rules(T,N,O).
rules([q(Q)|T],I,O) :- rules_for_qualifier(Q,I,N), rules(T,N,O).
if the first argument of the goal is a list, its head will be tested, and only the clauses
matching it will be tried during execution.
Some advice on how to take a good advantage of this mechanism:
• Try to make the first argument an input argument.
• Try to keep together all clauses whose first argument is not a variable, that will decrease
the number of tests since the other clauses are always tried.
• Try to avoid predicates having a lot of clauses with the same key. For instance, the
procedure:
type(n(mary),person).
type(n(john), person).
type(n(chair),object).
type(v(eat),active).
type(v(rest),passive).
becomes more efficient with:
type(n(N),T) :- type_of_noun(N,T).
type(v(V),T) :- type_of_verb(V,T).

type_of_noun(mary,person).
type_of_noun(john,person).
type_of_noun(chair,object).

type_of_verb(eat,active).
type_of_verb(rest,passive).
Chapter 21: C Language interface to YAP 161

21 C Language interface to YAP

YAP provides the user with the necessary facilities for writing predicates in a language
other than prolog. Since, under Unix systems, most language implementations are link-able
to C, we will describe here only the YAP interface to the C language.
Before describing in full detail how to interface to C code, we will examine a brief
example.
Assume the user requires a predicate my_process_id(Id) which succeeds when Id unifies
with the number of the process under which YAP is running.
In this case we will create a my_process.c file containing the C-code described below.

#include "Yap/YapInterface.h"

static int my_process_id(void)

{
YAP_Term pid = YAP_MkIntTerm(getpid());
YAP_Term out = YAP_ARG1;
return(YAP_Unify(out,pid));
}

void init_my_predicates()
{
YAP_UserCPredicate("my_process_id",my_process_id,1);
}

The commands to compile the above file depend on the operating system. Under Linux
(i386 and Alpha) you should use:
gcc -c -shared -fPIC my_process.c
ld -shared -o my_process.so my_process.o
Under Solaris2 it is sufficient to use:
gcc -fPIC -c my_process.c
Under SunOS it is sufficient to use:
gcc -c my_process.c
Under Digital Unix you need to create a so file. Use:
gcc tst.c -c -fpic
ld my_process.o -o my_process.so -shared -expect_unresolved ’*’
and replace my process.so for my process.o in the remainder of the example. And could
be loaded, under YAP, by executing the following prolog goal
load_foreign_files([’my_process’],[],init_my_predicates).
Note that since Yap4.3.3 you should not give the suffix for object files. YAP will deduce
the correct suffix from the operating system it is running under.
Yap4.3.3 now supports loading WIN/NT DLLs. Currently you must compile YAP under
cygwin to create a library yap.dll first. You can then use this dll to create your own dlls.
162 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Have a look at the code in library/regex to see how to create a dll under the cygwin/mingw32
environment.
After loading that file the following prolog goal
my_process_id(N)
would unify N with the number of the process under which Yap is running.
Having presented a full example, we will now examine in more detail the contents of the
C source code file presented above.
The include statement is used to make available to the C source code the macros for the
handling of prolog terms and also some Yap public definitions.
The function my_process_id is the implementation, in C, of the desired predicate. Note
that it returns an integer denoting the success of failure of the goal and also that it has
no arguments even though the predicate being defined has one. In fact the arguments of
a prolog predicate written in C are accessed through macros, defined in the include file,
with names YAP ARG1, YAP ARG2, ..., YAP ARG16 or with YAP A(N ) where N is the
argument number (starting with 1). In the present case the function uses just one local
variable of type YAP_Term, the type used for holding Yap terms, where the integer returned
by the standard unix function getpid() is stored as an integer term (the conversion is done
by YAP_MkIntTerm(Int)). Then it calls the pre-defined routine YAP_Unify(YAP_Term,
YAP_Term) which in turn returns an integer denoting success or failure of the unification.
The role of the procedure init_my_predicates is to make known to YAP, by calling
YAP_UserCPredicate, the predicates being defined in the file. This is in fact why, in the
example above, init_my_predicates was passed as the third argument to load_foreign_
files.
The rest of this appendix describes exhaustively how to interface C to YAP.

21.1 Terms
This section provides information about the primitives available to the C programmer for
manipulating prolog terms.
Several C typedefs are included in the header file yap/YapInterface.h to describe, in
a portable way, the C representation of prolog terms. The user should write is programs
using this macros to ensure portability of code across different versions of YAP.
The more important typedef is YAP Term which is used to denote the type of a prolog
term.
Terms, from a point of view of the C-programmer, can be classified as follows
uninstantiated variables
instantiated variables
integers
floating-point numbers
database references
atoms
pairs (lists)
compound terms
The primitive
Chapter 21: C Language interface to YAP 163

YAP_Bool YAP_IsVarTerm(YAP_Term t )
returns true iff its argument is an uninstantiated variable. Conversely the primitive
YAP_Bool YAP_NonVarTerm(YAP_Term t )
returns true iff its argument is not a variable.
The user can create a new uninstantiated variable using the primitive
YAP_Term YAP_MkVarTerm()
The following primitives can be used to discriminate among the different types of non-
variable terms:
YAP_Bool YAP_IsIntTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Bool YAP_IsFloatTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Bool YAP_IsDbRefTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Bool YAP_IsAtomTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Bool YAP_IsPairTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Bool YAP_IsApplTerm(YAP_Term t )
Next, we mention the primitives that allow one to destruct and construct terms. All
the above primitives ensure that their result is dereferenced, i.e. that it is not a pointer to
another term.
The following primitives are provided for creating an integer term from an integer and
to access the value of an integer term.
YAP_Term YAP_MkIntTerm(YAP_Int i )
YAP_Int YAP_IntOfTerm(YAP_Term t )
where YAP_Int is a typedef for the C integer type appropriate for the machine or compiler
in question (normally a long integer). The size of the allowed integers is implementation
dependent but is always greater or equal to 24 bits: usually 32 bits on 32 bit machines, and
64 on 64 bit machines.
The two following primitives play a similar role for floating-point terms
YAP_Term YAP_MkFloatTerm(YAP_flt double )
YAP_flt YAP_FloatOfTerm(YAP_Term t )
where flt is a typedef for the appropriate C floating point type, nowadays a double
The following primitives are provided for verifying whether a term is a big int, creating
a term from a big integer and to access the value of a big int from a term.
YAP_Bool YAP_IsBigNumTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Term YAP_MkBigNumTerm(void *b )
void *YAP_BigNumOfTerm(YAP_Term t, void *b )
YAP must support bignum for the configuration you are using (check the YAP configuration
and setup). For now, Yap only supports the GNU GMP library, and void * will be a cast
for mpz_t. Notice that YAP_BigNumOfTerm requires the number to be already initialised.
As an example, we show how to print a bignum:
static int
p_print_bignum(void)
{
mpz_t mz;
if (!YAP_IsBigNumTerm(YAP_ARG1))
164 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

return FALSE;

mpz_init(mz);
YAP_BigNumOfTerm(YAP_ARG1, mz);
gmp_printf("Shows up as %Zd\n", mz);
mpz_clear(mz);
return TRUE;
}
Currently, no primitives are supplied to users for manipulating data base references.
A special typedef YAP_Atom is provided to describe prolog atoms (symbolic constants).
The two following primitives can be used to manipulate atom terms
YAP_Term YAP_MkAtomTerm(YAP_Atom at)
YAP_Atom YAP_AtomOfTerm(YAP_Term t )
The following primitives are available for associating atoms with their names
YAP_Atom YAP_LookupAtom(char * s )
YAP_Atom YAP_FullLookupAtom(char * s )
char *YAP_AtomName(YAP_Atom t )
The function YAP_LookupAtom looks up an atom in the standard hash table. The function
YAP_FullLookupAtom will also search if the atom had been "hidden": this is useful for
system maintenance from C code. The functor YAP_AtomName returns a pointer to the
string for the atom.
A pair is a Prolog term which consists of a tuple of two prolog terms designated as
the head and the tail of the term. Pairs are most often used to build lists. The following
primitives can be used to manipulate pairs:
YAP_Term YAP_MkPairTerm(YAP_Term Head, YAP_Term Tail )
YAP_Term YAP_MkNewPairTerm(void)
YAP_Term YAP_HeadOfTerm(YAP_Term t )
YAP_Term YAP_TailOfTerm(YAP_Term t )
One can construct a new pair from two terms, or one can just build a pair whose head
and tail are new unbound variables. Finally, one can fetch the head or the tail.
A compound term consists of a functor and a sequence of terms with length equal to the
arity of the functor. A functor, described in C by the typedef Functor, consists of an atom
and of an integer. The following primitives were designed to manipulate compound terms
and functors
YAP_Term YAP_MkApplTerm(YAP_Functor f, unsigned long int n, YAP_Term[] args )
YAP_Term YAP_MkNewApplTerm(YAP_Functor f, int n )
YAP_Term YAP_ArgOfTerm(int argno,YAP_Term ts )
YAP_Functor YAP_FunctorOfTerm(YAP_Term ts )
The YAP_MkApplTerm function constructs a new term, with functor f (of arity n), and using
an array args of n terms with n equal to the arity of the functor. YAP_MkNewApplTerm
builds up a compound term whose arguments are unbound variables. YAP_ArgOfTerm gives
an argument to a compound term. argno should be greater or equal to 1 and less or equal
to the arity of the functor.
Chapter 21: C Language interface to YAP 165

YAP allows one to manipulate the functors of compound term. The function YAP_
FunctorOfTerm allows one to obtain a variable of type YAP_Functor with the functor to
a term. The following functions then allow one to construct functors, and to obtain their
name and arity.
YAP_Functor YAP_MkFunctor(YAP_Atom a,unsigned long int arity )
YAP_Atom YAP_NameOfFunctor(YAP_Functor f )
YAP_Int YAP_ArityOfFunctor(YAP_Functor f )
Note that the functor is essentially a pair formed by an atom, and arity.

21.2 Unification
YAP provides a single routine to attempt the unification of two prolog terms. The routine
may succeed or fail:
Int YAP_Unify(YAP_Term a, YAP_Term b )
The routine attempts to unify the terms a and b returning TRUE if the unification succeeds
and FALSE otherwise.

21.3 Strings
The YAP C-interface now includes an utility routine to copy a string represented as a list
of a character codes to a previously allocated buffer
int YAP_StringToBuffer(YAP_Term String, char *buf, unsigned int buf-
size )
The routine copies the list of character codes String to a previously allocated buffer buf.
The string including a terminating null character must fit in bufsize characters, otherwise
the routine will simply fail. The StringToBuffer routine fails and generates an exception if
String is not a valid string.
The C-interface also includes utility routines to do the reverse, that is, to copy a from a
buffer to a list of character codes or to a list of character atoms
YAP_Term YAP_BufferToString(char *buf )
YAP_Term YAP_BufferToAtomList(char *buf )
The user-provided string must include a terminating null character.
The C-interface function calls the parser on a sequence of characters stored at buf and
returns the resulting term.
YAP_Term YAP_ReadBuffer(char *buf,YAP_Term *error )
The user-provided string must include a terminating null character. Syntax errors will cause
returning FALSE and binding error to a Prolog term.

21.4 Memory Allocation

The next routine can be used to ask space from the Prolog data-base:
void *YAP_AllocSpaceFromYap(int size )
The routine returns a pointer to a buffer allocated from the code area, or NULL if sufficient
space was not available.
The space allocated with YAP_AllocSpaceFromYap can be released back to Yap by using:
166 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

void YAP_FreeSpaceFromYap(void *buf )

The routine releases a buffer allocated from the code area. The system may crash if buf is
not a valid pointer to a buffer in the code area.

21.5 Controlling Yap Streams from C

The C-Interface also provides the C-application with a measure of control over the Yap
Input/Output system. The first routine allows one to find a file number given a current
stream:
int YAP_StreamToFileNo(YAP_Term stream )
This function gives the file descriptor for a currently available stream. Note that null
streams and in memory streams do not have corresponding open streams, so the routine
will return a negative. Moreover, Yap will not be aware of any direct operations on this
stream, so information on, say, current stream position, may become stale.
A second routine that is sometimes useful is:
void YAP_CloseAllOpenStreams(void)
This routine closes the Yap Input/Output system except for the first three streams, that
are always associated with the three standard Unix streams. It is most useful if you are
doing fork().
The next routine allows a currently open file to become a stream. The routine receives
as arguments a file descriptor, the true file name as a string, an atom with the user name,
and a set of flags:
void YAP_OpenStream(void *FD, char *name, YAP_Term t, int flags )
The available flags are YAP_INPUT_STREAM, YAP_OUTPUT_STREAM, YAP_APPEND_STREAM,
YAP_PIPE_STREAM, YAP_TTY_STREAM, YAP_POPEN_STREAM, YAP_BINARY_STREAM, and
YAP_SEEKABLE_STREAM. By default, the stream is supposed to be at position 0. The
argument name gives the name by which YAP should know the new stream.

21.6 From C back to Prolog

Newer versions of YAP allow for calling the Prolog interpreter from C. One must first
construct a goal G, and then it is sufficient to perform:
YAP_Bool YapCallProlog(YAP_Term G )
the result will be FALSE, if the goal failed, or TRUE, if the goal succeeded. In this case, the
variables in G will store the values they have been unified with. Execution only proceeds
until finding the first solution to the goal, but you can call findall/3 or friends if you need
all the solutions.

21.7 Writing predicates in C

We will distinguish two kinds of predicates:
deterministic predicates which either fail or succeed but are not
backtrackable, like the one in the introduction;
backtrackable
predicates which can succeed more than once.
Chapter 21: C Language interface to YAP 167

The first kind of predicates should be implemented as a C function with no arguments

which should return zero if the predicate fails and a non-zero value otherwise. The predicate
should be declared to YAP, in the initialization routine, with a call to
void YAP_UserCPredicate(char *name, YAP_Bool *fn (), unsigned long int ar-
ity );
where name is the name of the predicate, fn is the C function implementing the predicate
and arity is its arity.
For the second kind of predicates we need two C functions. The first one which is called
when the predicate is first activated, and the second one to be called on backtracking to
provide (possibly) other solutions. Note also that we normally also need to preserve some
information to find out the next solution.
In fact the role of the two functions can be better understood from the following prolog
definition
p :- start.
p :- repeat,
continue.
where start and continue correspond to the two C functions described above.
As an example we will consider implementing in C a predicate n100(N) which, when
called with an instantiated argument should succeed if that argument is a numeral less
or equal to 100, and, when called with an uninstantiated argument, should provide, by
backtracking, all the positive integers less or equal to 100.
To do that we first declare a structure, which can only consist of prolog terms, containing
the information to be preserved on backtracking and a pointer variable to a structure of
that type.
#include "YapInterface.h"

static int start_n100(void);

static int continue_n100(void);

typedef struct {
YAP_Term next_solution; /* the next solution */
} n100_data_type;

n100_data_type *n100_data;
We now write the C function to handle the first call:
static int start_n100(void)
{
YAP_Term t = YAP_ARG1;
YAP_PRESERVE_DATA(n100_data,n100_data_type);
if(YAP_IsVarTerm(t)) {
n100_data->next_solution = YAP_MkIntTerm(0);
return continue_n100();
}
if(!YAP_IsIntTerm(t) || YAP_IntOfTerm(t)<0 || YAP_IntOfTerm(t)>100) {
168 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

YAP_cut_fail();
} else {
YAP_cut_succeed();
}
}

The routine starts by getting the dereference value of the argument. The call to YAP_
PRESERVE_DATA is used to initialize the memory which will hold the information to be
preserved across backtracking. The first argument is the variable we shall use, and the
second its type. Note that we can only use YAP_PRESERVE_DATA once, so often we will want
the variable to be a structure.
If the argument of the predicate is a variable, the routine initializes the structure to be
preserved across backtracking with the information required to provide the next solution,
and exits by calling continue_n100 to provide that solution.
If the argument was not a variable, the routine then checks if it was an integer, and if
so, if its value is positive and less than 100. In that case it exits, denoting success, with
YAP_cut_succeed, or otherwise exits with YAP_cut_fail denoting failure.
The reason for using for using the functions YAP_cut_succeed and YAP_cut_fail instead
of just returning a non-zero value in the first case, and zero in the second case, is that
otherwise, if backtracking occurred later, the routine continue_n100 would be called to
provide additional solutions.
The code required for the second function is
static int continue_n100(void)
{
int n;
YAP_Term t;
YAP_Term sol = YAP_ARG1;
YAP_PRESERVED_DATA(n100_data,n100_data_type);
n = YAP_IntOfTerm(n100_data->next_solution);
if( n == 100) {
t = YAP_MkIntTerm(n);
YAP_Unify(sol,t);
YAP_cut_succeed();
}
else {
YAP_Unify(sol,n100_data->next_solution);
n100_data->next_solution = YAP_MkIntTerm(n+1);
return(TRUE);
}
}
Note that again the macro YAP_PRESERVED_DATA is used at the beginning of the function
to access the data preserved from the previous solution. Then it checks if the last solution
was found and in that case exits with YAP_cut_succeed in order to cut any further back-
tracking. If this is not the last solution then we save the value for the next solution in the
data structure and exit normally with 1 denoting success. Note also that in any of the two
Chapter 21: C Language interface to YAP 169

cases we use the function YAP_unify to bind the argument of the call to the value saved in
n100_state->next_solution.
Note also that the only correct way to signal failure in a backtrackable predicate is to
use the YAP_cut_fail macro.
Backtrackable predicates should be declared to YAP, in a way similar to what happened
with deterministic ones, but using instead a call to
void YAP_UserBackCPredicate(char *name,
int *init (), int *cont (),
unsigned long int arity, unsigned int sizeof );
where name is a string with the name of the predicate, init and cont are the C functions
used to start and continue the execution of the predicate, arity is the predicate arity, and
sizeof is the size of the data to be preserved in the stack. In this example, we would have
something like
void
init_n100(void)
{
YAP_UserBackCPredicate("n100", start_n100, continue_n100, 1, 1);
}

21.8 Loading Object Files

The primitive predicate
load_foreign_files(Files,Libs,InitRoutine )
should be used, from inside YAP, to load object files produced by the C compiler. The
argument ObjectFiles should be a list of atoms specifying the object files to load, Libs is
a list (possibly empty) of libraries to be passed to the unix loader (ld) and InitRoutine is
the name of the C routine (to be called after the files are loaded) to perform the necessary
declarations to YAP of the predicates defined in the files.
YAP will search for ObjectFiles in the current directory first. If it cannot find them
it will search for the files using the environment variable YAPLIBDIR, if defined, or in the
default library.
In a.out systems YAP by default only reserves a fixed amount of memory for object code
(64 Kbytes in the current version). Should this size prove inadequate the flag -c n can be
passed to YAP (in the command line invoking YAP) to force the allocation of n Kbytes.

21.9 Saving and Restoring

Yap4 currently does not support save and restore for object code loaded with load_
foreign_files. We plan to support save and restore in future releases of Yap.

21.10 Changes to the C-Interface in Yap4

Yap4 includes several changes over the previous load_foreign_files interface. These
changes were required to support the new binary code formats, such as ELF used in Solaris2
and Linux.
170 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• All Names of YAP objects now start with YAP . This is designed to avoid clashes
with other code. Use YapInterface.h to take advantage of the new interface. c_
interface.h is still available if you cannot port the code to the new interface.
• Access to elements in the new interface always goes through functions. This includes
access to the argument registers, YAP_ARG1 to YAP_ARG16. This change breaks code
such as unify(&ARG1,&t), which is nowadays:
{
YAP_Unify(ARG1, t);
}
• cut_fail() and cut_succeed() are now functions.
• The use of Deref is deprecated. All functions that return Prolog terms, including the
ones that access arguments, already dereferenciate their arguments.
• Space allocated with PRESERVE DATA is ignored by garbage collection and stack
shifting. As a result, any pointers to a Prolog stack object, including some terms, may
be corrupted after garbage collection or stack shifting. Prolog terms should instead be
stored as arguments to the backtrackable procedure.
Chapter 22: Using YAP as a Library 171

22 Using YAP as a Library

YAP can be used as a library to be called from other programs. To do so, you must first
create the YAP library:
make library
make install_library
This will install a file libyap.a in LIBDIR and the Prolog headers in INCLUDEDIR.
The library contains all the functionality available in YAP, except the foreign function loader
and for Yap’s startup routines.
To actually use this library you must follow a five step process:
1. You must initialize the YAP environment. A single function, YAP_FastInit asks for
a contiguous chunk in your memory space, fills it in with the data-base, and sets up
YAP’s stacks and execution registers. You can use a saved space from a standard
system by calling save_program/1.
2. You then have to prepare a query to give to YAP. A query is a Prolog term, and you
just have to use the same functions that are available in the C-interface.
3. You can then use YAP_RunGoal(query) to actually evaluate your query. The argument
is the query term query, and the result is 1 if the query succeeded, and 0 if it failed.
4. You can use the term destructor functions to check how arguments were instantiated.
5. If you want extra solutions, you can use YAP_RestartGoal() to obtain the next solu-
tion.
The next program shows how to use this system. We assume the saved program contains
two facts for the procedure b:

#include <stdio.h>
#include "Yap/YapInterface.h"

int
main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
if (YAP_FastInit("saved_state") == YAP_BOOT_ERROR)
exit(1);
if (YAP_RunGoal(YAP_MkAtomTerm(YAP_LookupAtom("do")))) {
printf("Success\n");
while (YAP_RestartGoal())
printf("Success\n");
}
printf("NO\n");
}

The program first initializes YAP, calls the query for the first time and succeeds, and
then backtracks twice. The first time backtracking succeeds, the second it fails and exits.
To compile this program it should be sufficient to do:
172 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

cc -o exem -I../Yap4.3.0 test.c -lYap -lreadline -lm

You may need to adjust the libraries and library paths depending on the Operating
System and your installation of Yap.
Note that Yap4.3.0 provides the first version of the interface. The interface may change
and improve in the future.
The following C-functions are available from Yap:
• YAP CompileClause(YAP_Term Clause) Compile the Prolog term Clause and assert it
as the last clause for the corresponding procedure.
• int YAP ContinueGoal(void) Continue execution from the point where it stopped.
• void YAP Error(int ID,YAP_Term Cause,char * error description) Generate an YAP
System Error with description given by the string error description. ID is the error
ID, if known, or 0. Cause is the term that caused the crash.
• void YAP Exit(int exit code) Exit YAP immediately. The argument exit code gives
the error code and is supposed to be 0 after successful execution in Unix and Unix-like
systems.
• YAP_Term YAP GetValue(Atom at) Return the term value associated with the atom at.
If no such term exists the function will return the empty list.
• YAP FastInit(char * SavedState) Initialize a copy of YAP from SavedState. The copy
is monolithic and currently must be loaded at the same address where it was saved.
YAP_FastInit is a simpler version of YAP_Init.
• YAP Init(InitInfo) Initialize YAP. The arguments are in a C structure of type YAP_
init_args.
The fields of InitInfo are char * SavedState, int HeapSize, int StackSize, int Trail-
Size, int NumberofWorkers, int SchedulerLoop, int DelayedReleaseLoad, int argc,
char ** argv, int ErrorNo, and char * ErrorCause. The function returns an integer,
which indicates the current status. If the result is YAP_BOOT_ERROR booting failed.
If SavedState is not NULL, try to open and restore the file SavedState. Initially YAP
will search in the current directory. If the saved state does not exist in the current
directory YAP will use either the default library directory or the directory given by the
environment variable YAPLIBDIR. Note that currently the saved state must be loaded
at the same address where it was saved.
If HeapSize is different from 0 use HeapSize as the minimum size of the Heap (or code
space). If StackSize is different from 0 use HeapSize as the minimum size for the Stacks.
If TrailSize is different from 0 use TrailSize as the minimum size for the Trails.
The NumberofWorkers, NumberofWorkers, and DelayedReleaseLoad are only of inter-
est to the or-parallel system.
The argument count argc and string of arguments argv arguments are to be passed to
user programs as the arguments used to call YAP.
If booting failed you may consult ErrorNo and ErrorCause for the cause of the error,
or call YAP_Error(ErrorNo,0L,ErrorCause) to do default processing.
• void YAP PutValue(Atom at, YAP_Term value) Associate the term value with the atom
at. The term value must be a constant. This functionality is used by YAP as a simple
way for controlling and communicating with the Prolog run-time.
Chapter 22: Using YAP as a Library 173

• YAP_Term YAP Read(int (*)(void) GetC) Parse a Term using the function GetC to
input characters.
• YAP_Term YAP RunGoal(YAP_Term Goal) Execute query Goal and return 1 if the query
succeeds, and 0 otherwise. The predicate returns 0 if failure, otherwise it will return
YAP Term. Note that YAP Term may change due to garbage collection, so you should
use something like:
t = YAP_RunGoal(t);
if (t == 0) return FALSE;
If the execution fails, garbage collection might still have changed the term, so you
should not use the input argument again.
An alternative is to use slots, as shown next:
long sl = YAP_InitSlot(scoreTerm);

out = YAP_RunGoal(t);
t = YAP_GetFromSlot(sl);
YAP_RecoverSlots(1);
if (out == 0) return FALSE;
Slots are safe houses in the stack, preserved by the garbage collector and the stack
shifter. In this case, we use a slot to preserve t during the execution of YAP_RunGoal.
When the execution of t is over we read the (possibly changed) value of t back from
the slot sl and tell YAP that the slot sl is not needed and can be given back to the
system.
• int YAP RestartGoal(void) Look for the next solution to the current query by forcing
YAP to backtrack.
• int YAP Reset(void) Reset execution environment (similar to the abort/0 built-in).
This is useful when you want to start a new query before asking all solutions to the
previous query.
• YAP_Bool YAP GoalHasException(YAP_Term *tp) Check if the last goal generated an
exception, and if so copy it to the space pointed to by tp
• void YAP ClearExceptions(void) Reset any exceptions left over by the system.
• void YAP Write(YAP_Term t, void (*)(int) PutC, int flags) Write a Term t using
the function PutC to output characters. The term is written according to a mask of the
following flags in the flag argument: YAP_WRITE_QUOTED, YAP_WRITE_HANDLE_VARS,
and YAP_WRITE_IGNORE_OPS.
• void YAP WriteBuffer(YAP_Term t, char * buff, unsigned int size, int flags) Write
a YAP Term t to buffer buff with size size. The term is written according to a mask
of the following flags in the flag argument: YAP_WRITE_QUOTED, YAP_WRITE_HANDLE_
VARS, and YAP_WRITE_IGNORE_OPS.
• void YAP InitConsult(int mode, char * filename) Enter consult mode on file filename.
This mode maintains a few data-structures internally, for instance to know whether a
predicate before or not. It is still possible to execute goals in consult mode.
If mode is TRUE the file will be reconsulted, otherwise just consulted. In practice, this
function is most useful for bootstrapping Prolog, as otherwise one may call the Prolog
predicate compile/1 or consult/1 to do compilation.
174 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

Note that it is up to the user to open the file filename. The YAP_InitConsult function
only uses the file name for internal bookkeeping.
• void YAP EndConsult(void) Finish consult mode.
Some observations:
• The system will core dump if you try to load the saved state in a different address from
where it was made. This may be a problem if your program uses mmap. This problem
will be addressed in future versions of YAP.
• Currently, the YAP library will pollute the name space for your program.
• The initial library includes the complete YAP system. In the future we plan to split
this library into several smaller libraries (e.g. if you do not want to perform I/O).
• You can generate your own saved states. Look at the boot.yap and init.yap files.
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 175

23 Compatibility with Other Prolog systems

YAP has been designed to be as compatible as possible with other Prolog systems, and
initially with C-Prolog. More recent work on YAP has included features initially proposed
for the Quintus and SICStus Prolog systems.
Developments since Yap4.1.6 we have striven at making YAP compatible with the ISO-
Prolog standard.

23.1 Compatibility with the C-Prolog interpreter

23.1.1 Major Differences between YAP and C-Prolog.
YAP includes several extensions over the original C-Prolog system. Even so, most C-Prolog
programs should run under YAP without changes.
The most important difference between YAP and C-Prolog is that, being YAP a compiler,
some changes should be made if predicates such as assert, clause and retract are used.
First predicates which will change during execution should be declared as dynamic by using
commands like:
:- dynamic f/n.
where f is the predicate name and n is the arity of the predicate. Note that several such
predicates can be declared in a single command:
:- dynamic f/2, ..., g/1.
Primitive predicates such as retract apply only to dynamic predicates. Finally note
that not all the C-Prolog primitive predicates are implemented in YAP. They can easily be
detected using the unknown system predicate provided by YAP.
Last, by default YAP enables character escapes in strings. You can disable the special
interpretation for the escape character by using:
:- yap_flag(character_escapes,off).
or by using:
:- yap_flag(language,cprolog).

23.1.2 Yap predicates fully compatible with C-Prolog

These are the Prolog built-ins that are fully compatible in both C-Prolog and YAP:

! <
!/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 </2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

, =
,/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 =../2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
=:=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
=</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
; ==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
;/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 =\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
176 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

> F
>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 fail/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 fileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
findall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
functor/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
@
@</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
@>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
G
@>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 get/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
get0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

[ H
[-]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
halt/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
[]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

\ I
instance/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
\+/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
integer/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
\==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

A K
keysort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
abort/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
atomic/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 L
leash/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
B
bagof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
break/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 N
name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
nl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
C nodebug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
call/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 nofileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 nonvar/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
compare/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 nospy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
consult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 not/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
current atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 number/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
current predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

O
D op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
db reference/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
debug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
debugging/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 P
display/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 primitive/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
print/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
prompt/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
E put/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
erase/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
erased/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
exists/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
R
expand exprs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 read/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
expand term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 reconsult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
recorda/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 177

recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 T
recordz/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
tab/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
rename/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
tell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
repeat/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
telling/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
term expansion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
S told/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
save/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 true/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
see/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
seeing/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
seen/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 V
setof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 var/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
sh/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
skip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
sort/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
spy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 W
statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 write/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
system/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 writeq/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

23.1.3 Yap predicates not strictly compatible with C-Prolog

These are YAP built-ins that are also available in C-Prolog, but that are not fully compat-
ible:

A I
abolish/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 is/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
abolish/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assert/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assert/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 L
asserta/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 listing/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
asserta/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 listing/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
assertz/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assertz/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
N
nth clause/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
C
clause/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
clause/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 R
retract/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

23.1.4 Yap predicates not available in C-Prolog

These are YAP built-ins not available in C-Prolog.

- A
->/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 abolish table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
absolute file name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
= add to array element/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 add to heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
alarm/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
\ all/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 always prompt user/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
append/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87, 109
178 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

arg/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 compound/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
array/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 concat atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
array element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 concat atom/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
assert static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 convlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
asserta static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 copy term/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
assertz static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 copy term nat/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
assoc to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 create mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
at end of stream/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 current char conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
at end of stream/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 current input/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
atom chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current key/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
atom codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
atom concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
atom concat/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current mutex/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
atom length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
atom to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 current output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
atom to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 current predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
atomic concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 current prolog flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
attr unify hook/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 current stream/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
attribute goal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 current thread/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
attvar/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 cyclic term/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
avl insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
avl lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
D
B datime/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
del assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
b getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
b setval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 del attr/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
bb delete/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
bb get/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 del max assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
bb put/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 del min assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
bb update/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
between/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 delete/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
delete file/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
delete file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
C dgraph add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
dgraph add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
C/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
dgraph complement/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
call cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
dgraph compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
call cleanup/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
call count data/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 dgraph del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
call count data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 dgraph del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
call residue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 dgraph edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
call with args/n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 dgraph neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
callable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 dgraph neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
catch/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 dgraph new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
cd/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 dgraph symmetric closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
char code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 dgraph top sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
char conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 dgraph transitive closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
chdir/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 dgraph transpose/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
checklist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 dgraph vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
checknodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 dif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
cleanup all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 directory files/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
close/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 discontiguous/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
close static array/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 display/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 50
compile/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 display/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
compile/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 do not compile expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
compile expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 dynamic/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 dynamic predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 179

E ground/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 grow heap/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
empty assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 grow stack/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
empty heap/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
empty queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
environ/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 99 H
eraseall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 halt/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
exec/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 head queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
heap size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
heap to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
F hide/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
false/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 hide predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
file exists/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 host id/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
file exists/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 host name/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
file property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
file search path/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
findall/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 I
flatten/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 if/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
float/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 incore/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
flush output/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 initialization/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
flush output/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 initialization/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
forall/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 is assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
format/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 is list/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
format/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 is mutable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
format to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 is rbtree/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
format to chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 is tabled/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
fragile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
freeze/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
frozen/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 J
join queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
jump queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
G
garbage collect/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
garbage collect atoms/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 K
gc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 key statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
gen assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 key statistics/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
get/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 kill/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
get assoc/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get assoc/5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
get attrs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
L
get atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 last/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
get byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 length queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 library directory/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
get char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 list concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
get char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 list join queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 list jump queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 list to assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get from heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 list to heap/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
get label/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 list to ord set/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
get mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 list to queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get next assoc/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 list to rbtree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
get prev assoc/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 list to tree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
get value/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
get0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
getcwd/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 M
getrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 make directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
goal expansion/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 make queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
180 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

map assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 O
map assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 on cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
map tree/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 on signal/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
mapargs/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 once/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
maplist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 open/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
maplist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 110 open/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
maplist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 open chars stream/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
mapnodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 ord add element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
max assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 ord del element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
max list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ord disjoint/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
member/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ord insert/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
memberchk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ord intersect/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
merge/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ord intersect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
meta predicate/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ord intersect/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
min assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 ord list to assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
min list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 ord member/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
min of heap/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ord seteq/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
min of heap/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 ord setproduct/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
mktemp/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 ord subtract/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
mktime/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 ord symdiff/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ord union/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
module/2 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ord union/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
module/3 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ord union/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
multifile/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 ordsubset/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
mutex create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
mutex destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
mutex lock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 P
mutex statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 21
mutex trylock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 peek byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
mutex unlock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 peek byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
mutex unlock all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 peek char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
peek char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
peek code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
N peek code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
permutation/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
nb current/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
phrase/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
nb delete/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
phrase/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
nb getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
pid/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
nb setval/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
popen/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 portray clause/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 portray clause/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
nl/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 predicate property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
no source/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 print/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
nogc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 profile data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
nospyall/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 profiled reset/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
nth/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 project attributes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
nth/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 prolog file name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
nth recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 prolog flag/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
nth0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 prolog initialization/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
nth0/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 prolog load context/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
nth1/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 public/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
number atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 put/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
number chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 put assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
number codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 put attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
number to chars/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 put attrs/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
number to chars/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 put atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
numbervars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 put byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
put byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 181

put char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 resize static array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

put char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 restore/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
put code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 retract/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
put code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 retractall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
put label/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 reverse/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
putenv/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

S
Q same length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
queue to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 save/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
save program/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
save program/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
R select/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
random/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 selectlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
random/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 serve queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
randseq/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 set input/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
randset/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 set output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
rannum/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set prolog flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ranstart/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set stream position/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
ranstart/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set value/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
ranunif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 setarg/3n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
rb apply/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 setenv/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
rb clone/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 setrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
rb del max/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 shell/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
rb del min/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 shell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 101
rb delete/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 show op counters/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
rb delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 show ops by group/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
rb empty/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 show table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
rb insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 simple/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
rb keys/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 skip/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
rb lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 sleep/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
rb lookupall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 socket/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb map/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb max/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket accept/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
rb min/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket accept/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
rb new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 socket bind/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb next/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket buffering/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
rb partial map/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb previous/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket connect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket listen/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
rb update/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 socket select/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
rb visit/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 source/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
reachable/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 source mode/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
read/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 splay access/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
read from chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 splay delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
read term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 splay init/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
read term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 splay insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
recorda/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 splay join/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
recorda at/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 splay split/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
recordaifnot/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59, 60 spy write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
recordz at/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 srandom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
recordzifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 start low level trace/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
regexp/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 static array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70, 71
regexp/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 static array location/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
remove duplicates/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 static array properties/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
remove from path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 static array to term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
rename file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 statistics/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
reset op counters/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 stream property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
182 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

stream select/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 U
style check/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 undgraph add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sub atom/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
undgraph add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sublist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
undgraph complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
subsumes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
undgraph del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
subsumes chk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
undgraph del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
suffix/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
sum list/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 undgraph edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumargs/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumlist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 undgraph neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumlist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumnodes/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
system/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 unhide/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
system/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 unify with occurs check/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
system predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 unix/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
unknown/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
unknown predicate handler/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
T update array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
tab/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 update mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
table statistics/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 use module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
term hash/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 use module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
term hash/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 use module/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
term to atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
term variables/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
thread at exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 V
thread create/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
variable in term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
thread detach/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
variant/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
thread exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
verify attributes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
thread get message/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
version/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
thread get message/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread join/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 version/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
thread local/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
thread message queue create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 vertices edges to ugraph/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
thread message queue destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread peek message/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread self/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 W
thread send message/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 wait/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
thread setconcurrency/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 when/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
thread signal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 with mutex/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
thread statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 with output to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
throw/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 with output to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
time out/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 with output to chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
tmpnam/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 working directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 110
top sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
top sort/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
write depth/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
transitive closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
write term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
transpose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
tree size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 write term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
tree to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 write to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
ttyget/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 write to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
ttyget0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 writeq/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
ttynl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
ttyput/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
ttyskip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Y
ttytab/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 yap flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 183

23.1.5 Yap predicates not available in C-Prolog

These are C-Prolog built-ins not available in YAP:
’LC’ The following Prolog text uses lower case letters.
’NOLC’ The following Prolog text uses upper case letters only.

23.2 Compatibility with the Quintus and SICStus Prolog

systems
The Quintus Prolog system was the first Prolog compiler to use Warren’s Abstract Machine.
This system was very influential in the Prolog community. Quintus Prolog implemented
compilation into an abstract machine code, which was then emulated. Quintus Prolog also
included several new built-ins, an extensive library, and in later releases a garbage collector.
The SICStus Prolog system, developed at SICS (Swedish Institute of Computer Science), is
an emulator based Prolog system largely compatible with Quintus Prolog. SICStus Prolog
has evolved through several versions. The current version includes several extensions, such
as an object implementation, co-routining, and constraints.
Recent work in YAP has been influenced by work in Quintus and SICStus Prolog. Wher-
ever possible, we have tried to make YAP compatible with recent versions of these systems,
and specifically of SICStus Prolog. You should use
:- yap_flag(language, sicstus).
for maximum compatibility with SICStus Prolog.

23.2.1 Major Differences between YAP and SICStus Prolog.

Both YAP and SICStus Prolog obey the Edinburgh Syntax and are based on the WAM.
Even so, there are quite a few important differences:
• Differently from SICStus Prolog, YAP does not have a notion of interpreted code. All
code in YAP is compiled.
• YAP does not support an intermediate byte-code representation, so the fcompile/1
and load/1 built-ins are not available in YAP.
• YAP implements escape sequences as in the ISO standard. SICStus Prolog implements
Unix-like escape sequences.
• YAP implements initialization/1 as per the ISO standard. Use prolog_
initialization/1 for the SICStus Prolog compatible built-in.
• Prolog flags are different in SICStus Prolog and in YAP.
• The SICStus Prolog on_exception/3 and raise_exception built-ins correspond to
the ISO built-ins catch/3 and throw/1.
• The following SICStus Prolog v3 built-ins are not (currently) implemented in YAP
(note that this is only a partial list): call_cleanup/1, file_search_path/2, stream_
interrupt/3, reinitialize/0, help/0, help/1, trimcore/0, load_files/1, load_
files/2, and require/1.
The previous list is incomplete. We also cannot guarantee full compatibility for other
built-ins (although we will try to address any such incompatibilities). Last, SICStus
Prolog is an evolving system, so one can be expect new incompatibilities to be intro-
duced in future releases of SICStus Prolog.
184 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

• YAP allows asserting and abolishing static code during execution through the assert_
static/1 and abolish/1 built-ins. This is not allowed in Quintus Prolog or SICStus
Prolog.
• YAP implements rational trees and co-routining but they are not included by default
in the system. You must enable these extensions when compiling the system.
• YAP does not currently implement constraints.
• The socket predicates, although designed to be compatible with SICStus Prolog, are
built-ins, not library predicates, in YAP.
• This list is incomplete.
The following differences only exist if the language flag is set to yap (the default):
• The consult/1 predicate in YAP follows C-Prolog semantics. That is, it adds clauses
to the data base, even for preexisting procedures. This is different from consult/1 in
SICStus Prolog.
• By default, the data-base in YAP follows "immediate update semantics", instead of
"logical update semantics", as Quintus Prolog or SICStus Prolog do. The difference is
depicted in the next example:
:- dynamic a/1.

?- assert(a(1)).

?- retract(a(X)), X1 is X +1, assertz(a(X)).

With immediate semantics, new clauses or entries to the data base are visible in back-
tracking. In this example, the first call to retract/1 will succeed. The call to assertz/1
will then succeed. On backtracking, the system will retry retract/1. Because the
newly asserted goal is visible to retract/1, it can be retracted from the data base,
and retract(a(X)) will succeed again. The process will continue generating integers
for ever. Immediate semantics were used in C-Prolog.
With logical update semantics, any additions or deletions of clauses for a goal will not
affect previous activations of the goal. In the example, the call to assertz/1 will not
see the update performed by the assertz/1, and the query will have a single solution.
Calling yap_flag(update_semantics,logical) will switch YAP to use logical update
semantics.
• dynamic/1 is a built-in, not a directive, in YAP.
• By default, YAP fails on undefined predicates. To follow default SICStus Prolog use:
:- yap_flag(unknown,error).
• By default, directives in YAP can be called from the top level.

23.2.2 Yap predicates fully compatible with SICStus Prolog

These are the Prolog built-ins that are fully compatible in both SICStus Prolog and YAP:

! ,
!/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ,/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 185

- B
->/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 bb delete/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
bb get/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
bb put/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
; bb update/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
;/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 break/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

< C
</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 C/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
call/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
call cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
= call cleanup/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
=../2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 call residue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 callable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
=:=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 char code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
=</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 char conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 cleanup all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
=\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
compare/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
compile/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
> complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 compound/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
copy term/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
create mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
@ current atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
@</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 current char conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
@>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 current input/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
@>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 current key/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
current module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
current module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
\ current op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
\+/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 current output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
\==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 current predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
current predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
current stream/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
A cyclic term/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
abort/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
absolute file name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 D
add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
add to heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 datime/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 db reference/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
append/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 debugging/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
arg/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 del assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
assoc to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
at end of stream/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 del max assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
at end of stream/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 del min assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
atom codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 delete/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
atom concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 delete file/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
atom concat/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 delete file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
atom to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 dgraph del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
atom to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 dif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
atomic/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 directory files/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
attribute goal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 discontiguous/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
display/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 50
186 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

display/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 H
halt/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
halt/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
E head queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 heap size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
empty assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 heap to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
empty heap/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 host id/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
empty queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 host name/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
environ/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 99
exec/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
expand term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
I
if/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
incore/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
F initialization/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
integer/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
fail/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 is/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
false/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 is assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
file exists/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 is list/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
file exists/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 is mutable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
file property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
file search path/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
fileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 J
findall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 join queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
findall/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 jump queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
flatten/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
float/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
flush output/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 K
flush output/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 keysort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
format to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 kill/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
format to chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
fragile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
freeze/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 L
frozen/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
last/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
functor/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 leash/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
length queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
G list join queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
garbage collect/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 list jump queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
garbage collect atoms/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 list to assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
gc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 list to heap/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
gen assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 list to ord set/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
get/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 list to queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 list to tree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
get assoc/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 listing/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
get assoc/5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
get from heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
M
get label/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 make directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
get mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 make queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get next assoc/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 map assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get prev assoc/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 map assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 map tree/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
get0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 max assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
max list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
getrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
member/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
ground/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
memberchk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
merge/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 187

meta predicate/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 P

min assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 peek char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
min list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 permutation/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
min of heap/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 phrase/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
min of heap/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 phrase/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
mktemp/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 pid/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 popen/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
module/2 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 portray clause/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
module/3 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 portray clause/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
multifile/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 primitive/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
print/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
print/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
N project attributes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 prolog file name/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 prolog flag/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 prolog load context/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
nl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 prompt/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
nl/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 put/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
nodebug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 put/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
nofileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 put assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
nogc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 put atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
nonvar/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 put label/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
nospy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
nospyall/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
nth/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Q
nth/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 queue to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
nth0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
nth0/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
number/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 R
number codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
number to chars/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 random/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
number to chars/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 random/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
numbervars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 randseq/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
randset/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
reachable/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
O read/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
read/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
on cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 read from chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 remove duplicates/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
open/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 rename file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
open chars stream/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 repeat/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ord add element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 restore/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ord del element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 reverse/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ord disjoint/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord insert/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord intersect/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 S
ord intersect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord intersect/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 same length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ord list to assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 save program/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ord member/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 save program/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ord seteq/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 see/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ord setproduct/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 seeing/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ord subtract/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 seen/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ord symdiff/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 select/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ord union/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 serve queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ord union/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set input/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
ord union/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
ordsubset/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 set stream position/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
setrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
188 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

shell/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 tree size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

shell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 101 tree to list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
simple/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 true/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
skip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 ttyget/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
skip/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 ttyget0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
sleep/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 ttynl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
socket/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 ttyput/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
socket/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 ttyskip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
socket accept/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 ttytab/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
socket accept/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
socket bind/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
socket buffering/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 U
socket close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 undgraph del vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
socket connect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 unify with occurs check/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
socket listen/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 unknown predicate handler/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
socket select/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 update mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
sort/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 use module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
spy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
use module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
stream select/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
use module/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
sublist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
subsumes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
subsumes chk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 V
suffix/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
sum list/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 var/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
sumlist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 variant/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
system/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 verify attributes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
system/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 version/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
system predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
vertices edges to ugraph/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

T
tab/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
W
tab/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 wait/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
tell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 when/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
telling/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 with output to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
term expansion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 with output to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
term hash/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 with output to chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
term hash/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 working directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
term variables/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 write/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
time out/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
tmpnam/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 write term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
told/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 write term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
top sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 write to chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
top sort/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 write to chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
transitive closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 writeq/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
transpose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 writeq/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 189

23.2.3 Yap predicates not strictly compatible with SICStus Prolog

These are YAP built-ins that are also available in SICStus Prolog, but that are not fully
compatible:

[ L
[-]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 listing/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
[]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

N
A nth clause/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
abolish/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 nth recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
abolish/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 number chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
assert/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assert/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
asserta/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 O
asserta/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
assertz/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 open/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
assertz/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
atom chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
P
predicate property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
B prolog initialization/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
bagof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

R
C read term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
clause/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 read term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
clause/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 recorda/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
close/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 recordaifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
recordz/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
D retract/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
debug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 retract/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
dynamic/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 retractall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

E S
erase/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 setof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
erased/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
statistics/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

F
format/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 U
format/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 unknown/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

I V
instance/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 version/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

23.2.4 Yap predicates not available in SICStus Prolog

These are YAP built-ins not available in SICStus Prolog.

\ A
\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 abolish table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
190 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

add to array element/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 dgraph symmetric closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

alarm/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 dgraph top sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
all/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 dgraph transitive closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
always prompt user/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 dgraph transpose/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
append/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 dgraph vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
array/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 do not compile expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
array element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 dynamic predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assert static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
asserta static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
assertz static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 E
atom concat/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
eraseall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
atom length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
exists/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
atomic concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
expand exprs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
attr unify hook/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
attvar/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
avl insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
avl lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
F
forall/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

B
b getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 G
b setval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 get attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
between/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 get attrs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
get byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
get byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
C get char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
call count data/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 get char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
call count data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 get code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
call with args/n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 get code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
catch/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 get value/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
cd/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 getcwd/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
chdir/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 goal expansion/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
checklist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 grow heap/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
checknodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 grow stack/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
close static array/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
compile/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
compile expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 H
concat atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 hide/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
concat atom/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 hide predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
consult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
convlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
copy term nat/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 I
current mutex/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
current prolog flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 initialization/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
current thread/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 is rbtree/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
is tabled/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

D
del attr/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
K
dgraph add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 key statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
dgraph add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 key statistics/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
dgraph complement/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
dgraph compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
dgraph del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 L
dgraph edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 library directory/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22
dgraph neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 list concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
dgraph neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 list to rbtree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
dgraph new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 191

M ranunif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
mapargs/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 rb apply/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
maplist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 rb clone/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
maplist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 110 rb del max/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
maplist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 rb del min/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mapnodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 rb delete/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mktime/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 rb delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mutex create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 rb empty/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mutex destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 rb insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mutex lock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 rb keys/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
mutex statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 rb lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mutex trylock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 rb lookupall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
mutex unlock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 rb map/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
mutex unlock all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 rb max/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
rb min/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
rb new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
N rb next/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
rb partial map/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
nb current/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
rb previous/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
nb delete/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
rb size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
nb getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
rb update/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
nb setval/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
rb visit/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
no source/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
reconsult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
not/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
recorda/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
nth1/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
recorda at/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
number atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
recordaifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
recordz at/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
recordzifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
O regexp/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
on signal/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 regexp/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
once/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 remove from path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
rename/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
reset op counters/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
P resize static array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 21
peek byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
peek byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 S
peek char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 save/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
peek code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 save/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
peek code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 selectlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
profile data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 set prolog flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
profiled reset/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 set value/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
public/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 setarg/3n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
put attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 setenv/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
put attrs/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 sh/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
put byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 show op counters/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
put byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 show ops by group/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
put char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 show table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
put char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 source/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
put code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 source mode/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
put code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 splay access/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
putenv/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 splay delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
splay init/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
splay insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
R splay join/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
rannum/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 splay split/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
ranstart/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 spy write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
ranstart/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 srandom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
192 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

start low level trace/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 thread statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

static array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70, 71 throw/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
static array location/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
static array properties/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
static array to term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 U
stream property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 undgraph add edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
style check/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 undgraph add vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sub atom/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 undgraph complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumargs/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph del edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumlist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
sumnodes/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 undgraph neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
system/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 undgraph neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
undgraph new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
undgraph vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
T unhide/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
table statistics/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 unix/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
term to atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 update array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
thread at exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
thread create/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
thread detach/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
V
thread exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 variable in term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
thread get message/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread get message/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread join/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 W
thread local/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 with mutex/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
thread message queue create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 working directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
thread message queue destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 write depth/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
thread peek message/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 write depth/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
thread self/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
thread send message/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
thread setconcurrency/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Y
thread signal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 yap flag/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

23.3 Compatibility with the ISO Prolog standard

The Prolog standard was developed by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG17, the international stan-
dardization working group for the programming language Prolog. The book "Prolog: The
Standard" by Deransart, Ed-Dbali and Cervoni gives a complete description of this stan-
dard. Development in YAP from YAP4.1.6 onwards have striven at making YAP compatible
with ISO Prolog. As such:
• YAP now supports all of the built-ins required by the ISO-standard, and,
• Error-handling is as required by the standard.
YAP by default is not fully ISO standard compliant. You can set the language flag to
iso to obtain very good compatibility. Setting this flag changes the following:
• By default, YAP uses "immediate update semantics" for its database, and not "logical
update semantics", as per the standard, (see Section 23.2 [SICStus Prolog], page 183).
This affects assert/1, retract/1, and friends.
Calling set_prolog_flag(update_semantics,logical) will switch YAP to use logi-
cal update semantics.
• By default, YAP implements the atom_chars/2 (see Section 6.3 [Testing Terms],
page 32), and number_chars/2, (see Section 6.3 [Testing Terms], page 32), built-ins as
per the original Quintus Prolog definition, and not as per the ISO definition.
Chapter 23: Compatibility with Other Prolog systems 193

Calling set_prolog_flag(to_chars_mode,iso) will switch YAP to use the ISO defi-

nition for atom_chars/2 and number_chars/2.
• By default, YAP fails on undefined predicates. To follow the ISO Prolog standard use:
:- set_prolog_flag(unknown,error).
• By default, YAP allows executable goals in directives. In ISO mode most directives
can only be called from top level (the exceptions are set_prolog_flag/2 and op/3).
• Error checking for meta-calls under ISO Prolog mode is stricter than by default.
• The strict_iso flag automatically enables the ISO Prolog standard. This feature
should disable all features not present in the standard.
The following incompatibilities between YAP and the ISO standard are known to still
exist:
• Currently, YAP does not handle overflow errors in integer operations, and handles
floating-point errors only in some architectures. Otherwise, YAP follows IEEE arith-
metic.
Please inform the authors on other incompatibilities that may still exist.
194 YAP Prolog User’s Manual
Appendix A: Summary of Yap Predefined Operators 195

Appendix A Summary of Yap Predefined

Operators
The Prolog syntax caters for operators of three main kinds:
• prefix;
• infix;
• postfix.
Each operator has precedence in the range 1 to 1200, and this precedence is used to
disambiguate expressions where the structure of the term denoted is not made explicit
using brackets. The operator of higher precedence is the main functor.
If there are two operators with the highest precedence, the ambiguity is solved analyzing
the types of the operators. The possible infix types are: xfx, xfy, yfx.
With an operator of type xfx both sub-expressions must have lower precedence than the
operator itself, unless they are bracketed (which assigns to them zero precedence). With
an operator type xfy only the left-hand sub-expression must have lower precedence. The
opposite happens for yfx type.
A prefix operator can be of type fx or fy, and a postfix operator, xf, yf. The meaning of
the notation is analogous to the above.
a + b * c
means
a + (b * c)
as + and * have the following types and precedences:
:-op(500,yfx,’+’).
:-op(400,yfx,’*’).
Now defining
:-op(700,xfy,’++’).
:-op(700,xfx,’=:=’).
a ++ b =:= c
means
a ++ (b =:= c)
The following is the list of the declarations of the predefined operators:
:-op(1200,fx,[’?-’, ’:-’]).
:-op(1200,xfx,[’:-’,’-->’]).
:-op(1150,fx,[block,dynamic,mode,public,multifile,meta_predicate,
sequential,table,initialization]).
:-op(1100,xfy,[’;’,’|’]).
:-op(1050,xfy,->).
:-op(1000,xfy,’,’).
:-op(999,xfy,’.’).
:-op(900,fy,[’\+’, not]).
:-op(900,fx,[nospy, spy]).
:-op(700,xfx,[@>=,@=<,@<,@>,<,=,>,=:=,=\=,\==,>=,=<,==,\=,=..,is]).
:-op(500,yfx,[’\/’,’/\’,’+’,’-’]).
196 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

:-op(500,fx,[’+’,’-’]).
:-op(400,yfx,[’<<’,’>>’,’//’,’*’,’/’]).
:-op(300,xfx,mod).
:-op(200,xfy,[’^’,’**’]).
:-op(50,xfx,same).
Predicate Index 197

Predicate Index

! abolish/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
!/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 abolish_table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
abort/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
absolute_file_name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
, add_edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
,/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 add_to_array_element/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
add_to_heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
add_to_path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
- add_to_path/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
->/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 add_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
alarm/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
all/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
; always_prompt_user/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
append/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87, 109
;/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
arg/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
argv (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
< array/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
array_element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
assert/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
assert/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
= assert_static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
asserta/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
=../2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
asserta/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
asserta_static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
=:=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
assertz/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
=</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
assertz/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
assertz_static/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
=\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
assoc_to_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
at_end_of_stream/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
> at_end_of_stream/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
atom_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
atom_codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
atom_concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
@ atom_concat/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
atom_length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
@</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 atom_to_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
@=</2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 atom_to_chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
@>/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 atomic/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
@>=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 atomic_concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
attr_unify_hook/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
attribute/1 (declaration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
[ attribute_goal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
[-]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 attvar/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
[]/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 avl_insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
avl_lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

\
\+/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 B
\=/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 b_getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
\==/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 b_setval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
bagof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
bb_delete/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
A bb_get/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
abolish/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 bb_put/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
198 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

bb_update/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 current_stream/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
between/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 current_thread/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
bounded (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 cyclic_term/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
break/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

D
C datime/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
C/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 db_reference/1C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
call/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 debug (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
call_cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 debug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
call_cleanup/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 debugging/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
call_count_data/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 del_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
call_count_data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 del_attr/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
call_counting (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 74 del_edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
call_residue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 del_max_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
call_with_args/n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 del_min_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
callable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 del_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
catch/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 delete/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
cd/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 delete_file/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
char_code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 delete_file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
char_conversion (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . 74 dgraph_add_edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
char_conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 dgraph_add_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
character_escapes (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . 74 dgraph_complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
chdir/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 dgraph_compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
checklist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 dgraph_del_edges/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
checknodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 dgraph_del_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
clause/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 dgraph_edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
clause/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 dgraph_neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
cleanup_all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 dgraph_neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 dgraph_new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
close/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 dgraph_symmetric_closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
close_static_array/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 dgraph_top_sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
compare/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 dgraph_transitive_closure/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
compile/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 dgraph_transpose/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
compile_expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 dgraph_vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 dif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
compose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 directory (prolog_load_context/2 option) . . 80
compound/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 directory_files/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
concat_atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 discontiguous/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
concat_atom/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 discontiguous_warnings (yap_flag/2 option)
consult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74, 77
convlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 display/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 50
copy_term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 display/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
copy_term_nat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 do_not_compile_expressions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
cputime (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 dollar_as_lower_case (yap_flag/2 option) . . 74
create_mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 double_quotes (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 74
current_atom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 dynamic/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
current_char_conversion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 dynamic_predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
current_input/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
current_key/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
current_module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 E
current_module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
current_mutex/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 empty_assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
current_op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 empty_heap/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
current_output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 empty_queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
current_predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 ensure_loaded/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
current_predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 environ/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64, 99
current_prolog_flag/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 erase/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Predicate Index 199

eraseall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 get_code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
erased/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 get_from_heap/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
exec/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 get_label/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
exists/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 get_mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
expand_exprs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 get_next_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
expand_term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 get_prev_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get_value/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
get0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
F get0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
fail/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 getcwd/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
false/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 getrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
fast (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 global_stack (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . 73
file (prolog_load_context/2 option) . . . . . . . 81 goal_expansion/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
file_exists/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 ground/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
file_exists/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 grow_stack/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
file_property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
file_search_path/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
fileerrors (yap_flag/2 option). . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 H
fileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
halt/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
findall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
halt/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
findall/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
flatten/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 head_queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
float/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 heap (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
float_format (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . 75 heap_size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
flush_output/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 heap_to_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
flush_output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 hide/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
forall/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 hide_predicate/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
format/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 host_id/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
format/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 host_name/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
format_to_chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 host_type (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
format_to_chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
fragile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
freeze/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 I
frozen/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 if/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
functor/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 include/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
incore/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
index (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
G informational_messages (yap_flag/2 option)
garbage_collect/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
garbage_collect_atoms/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 initialization/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
garbage_collection (statistics/2 option) . . 73 initialization/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
gc (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 instance/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
gc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 integer/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
gc_margin (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 integer_rounding_function (yap_flag/2
gc_trace (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
gen_assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 is/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
get/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 is_assoc/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
get/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 is_list/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
get_assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 is_mutable/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
get_assoc/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 is_rbtree/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
get_attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
is_tabled/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
get_attrs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
get_atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
get_byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 J
get_byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
get_char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 join_queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get_char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 jump_queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
get_code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
200 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

K module/3 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
key_statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 multifile/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
key_statistics/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 mutex_create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
keysort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 mutex_destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
kill/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 mutex_lock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
mutex_statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
mutex_trylock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
L mutex_unlock/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
language (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 mutex_unlock_all/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
last/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
leash/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
length/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
N
length_queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 n_of_integer_keys_in_bb (yap_flag/2 option)
library_directory/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21, 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
list_concat/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 n_of_integer_keys_in_db (yap_flag/2 option)
list_join_queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
list_jump_queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
list_to_assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 nb_current/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
list_to_heap/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 nb_delete/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
list_to_ord_set/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 nb_getval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
list_to_queue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 nb_setval/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
list_to_rbtree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 neighbors/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
list_to_tree/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
listing/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 nl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
listing/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 nl/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
local_stack (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 73 no_source/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
no_style_check/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
nodebug/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
M nofileerrors/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
make_directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 nogc/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
make_queue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 nonvar/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
map_assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 nospy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
map_assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 nospyall/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
map_tree/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 not/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
mapargs/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 nth/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
maplist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 nth/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
maplist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 110 nth_clause/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
maplist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 nth_recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
mapnodes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 nth0/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
max_arity (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 nth0/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
max_assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 nth1/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
max_integer (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . 76 number/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
max_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 number_atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
max_tagged_integer (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . 76 number_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
member/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 number_codes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
memberchk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 number_to_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
merge/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 number_to_chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
meta_predicate/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 numbervars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
min_assoc/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
min_integer (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . 76
min_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 O
min_of_heap/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 on_cleanup/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
min_of_heap/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 on_signal/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
mktemp/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 once/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
mktime/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 op/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
module (prolog_load_context/2 option) . . . . . 81 open/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
module/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 open/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
module/2 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 open_chars_stream/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Predicate Index 201

ord_add_element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 put_char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
ord_del_element/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 put_code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
ord_disjoint/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 put_code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
ord_insert/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 put_label/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
ord_intersect/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 putenv/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
ord_intersect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord_intersect/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord_list_to_assoc/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Q
ord_member/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 queue_to_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ord_seteq/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
ord_setproduct/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
ord_subtract/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 R
ord_symdiff/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 random/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ord_union/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 random/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ord_union/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 randseq/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
ord_union/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 randset/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
ordsubset/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 rannum/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
ranstart/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
ranstart/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
P ranunif/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 rb_apply/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
peek_byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 rb_clone/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
peek_byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 rb_del_max/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
peek_char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 rb_del_min/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
peek_char/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 rb_delete/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
peek_code/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 rb_delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
peek_code/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 rb_empty/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
permutation/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 rb_insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
phrase/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 rb_keys/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
phrase/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 rb_lookup/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
pid/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 rb_lookupall/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
popen/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 rb_map/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
portray_clause/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 rb_max/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
portray_clause/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 rb_min/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
predicate_property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 rb_new/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
primitive/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 rb_next/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
print/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 rb_partial_map/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
print/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 rb_previous/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
profile_data/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 rb_size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
profiled_reset/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 rb_update/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
profiling (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 rb_visit/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
program (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 reachable/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
project_attributes/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 read/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
prolog_file_name/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 read/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
prolog_flag/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 read_from_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
prolog_initialization/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 read_term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
prolog_load_context/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 read_term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
prompt/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 reconsult/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
public/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 recorda/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58, 59
put/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 recorda_at/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
put/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 recordaifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59, 60
put_assoc/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 recorded/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
put_attr/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 recordz/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
put_attrs/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 recordz_at/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
put_atts/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 recordzifnot/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
put_byte/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 regexp/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
put_byte/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 regexp/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
put_char/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 remove_duplicates/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
202 YAP Prolog User’s Manual

remove_from_path/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 source/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
rename/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 source_mode/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
rename_file/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 splay_access/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
repeat/0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 splay_delete/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
reset_op_counters/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 splay_init/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
resize_static_array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 splay_insert/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
restore/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 splay_join/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
retract/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 splay_split/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
retract/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 spy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
retractall/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 spy_write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
reverse/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 srandom/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
runtime (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 stack_dump_on_error (yap_flag/2 option) . . . 77
stack_shifts (stack_shifts/3 option) . . . . . . 73
start_low_level_trace/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
S static_array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70, 71
same_length/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 static_array_location/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
save/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 static_array_properties/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
save/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 static_array_to_term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
save_program/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 statistics/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
save_program/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 statistics/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
see/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 stream_property/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
seeing/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 stream_select/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
seen/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 strict_iso (prolog_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 77
select/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 style_check/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
selectlist/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 sub_atom/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
serve_queue/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 sublist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
set_input/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 subsumes/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
set_output/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 subsumes_chk/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
set_prolog_flag/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 suffix/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
set_stream_position/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 sum_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
set_value/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 sumargs/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
setarg/3n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 sumlist/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
setenv/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 sumlist/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
setof/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 sumnodes/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
setrand/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 syntax_errors (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 77
sh/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 syntax_errors/1 (read_term/2 option) . . . . . . 44
shell/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 system/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
shell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 101 system/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
show_op_counters/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 system/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
show_ops_by_group/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 system_options (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . 78
show_table/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 system_predicate/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
simple/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
single_var_warnings (yap_flag/2 option) . . . 77
singletons/1 (read_term/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 44 T
skip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 tab/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
skip/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 tab/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
sleep/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 table_statistics/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
socket/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 tell/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
socket/4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 telling/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
socket_accept/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 term_expansion/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
socket_accept/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 term_hash/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
socket_bind/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 term_hash/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
socket_buffering/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 term_to_atom/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
socket_close/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 term_variables/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
socket_connect/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 thread_at_exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
socket_listen/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 thread_create/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
socket_select/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 thread_detach/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 thread_exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Predicate Index 203

thread_get_message/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 user_error (yap_flag/2 option). . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

thread_get_message/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 user_input (yap_flag/2 option). . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
thread_join/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 user_output (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . 79
thread_local/1 (directive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
thread_message_queue_create/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
thread_message_queue_destroy/1 . . . . . . . . . . . 142 V
thread_peek_message/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 var/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
thread_self/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 variable_in_term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
thread_send_message/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 variable_names/1 (read_term/2 option) . . . . . 44
thread_setconcurrency/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 variables/1 (read_term/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . 44
thread_signal/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 variant/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
thread_statistics/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 verify_attributes/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
throw/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 version (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
time_out/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 version/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
tmpnam/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 version/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
to_chars_modes (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . 78 vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
told/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 vertices_edges_to_ugraph/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
top_sort/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
top_sort/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
toplevel_hook (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 78 W
trail (statistics/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 wait/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
transitive_closure/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 walltime (statistics/2 option). . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
transpose/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 when/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
tree_size/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 with_mutex/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
tree_to_list/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 with_output_to_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
true/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 with_output_to_chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ttyget/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 with_output_to_chars/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ttyget0/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 working_directory/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 110
ttynl/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 write/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
ttyput/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 write/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
ttyskip/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 write_depth/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
ttytab/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 write_depth/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
typein_module (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 78 write_strings (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . 79
write_term/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
write_term/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
U write_to_chars/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
undgraph_add_edges/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 write_to_chars/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
undgraph_add_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 writeq/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
undgraph_complement/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 writeq/2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
undgraph_del_edges/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
undgraph_del_vertices/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
undgraph_edges/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Y
undgraph_neighbors/3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 YAP_AllocSpaceFromYap (C-Interface function)
undgraph_neighbours/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
undgraph_new/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 YAP_ArgOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . . 164
undgraph_vertices/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 YAP_ArityOfFunctor (C-Interface function)
unhide/1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
unify_with_occurs_check/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 YAP_AtomName (C-Interface function) . . . . . . 164
unix/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 YAP_AtomOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164
unknown (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 YAP_BigNumOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . 163
unknown/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 YAP_BufferToAtomList (C-Interface function)
unknown_predicate_handler/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
update_array/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 YAP_BufferToString (C-Interface function)
update_mutable/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
update_semantics (yap_flag/2 option) . . . . . . 78 YAP_CallProlog (C-Interface function) . . . . 166
use_module/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 YAP_ClearExceptions/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
use_module/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 YAP_CloseAllOpenStreams (C-Interface
use_module/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 function) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
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YAP_CompileClause/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 YAP_MkIntTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . . 163

YAP_ContinueGoal/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 YAP_MkNewApplTerm (C-Interface function)
YAP_cutfail (C-Interface function) . . . . . . . 167 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
YAP_cutsucceed (C-Interface function) . . . . 167 YAP_MkNewPairTerm (C-Interface function)
YAP_EndConsult/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
YAP_Error/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 YAP_MkPairTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164
YAP_Exit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 YAP_NameOfFunctor (C-Interface function)
YAP_FastInit/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
yap_flag/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 YAP_OpenStream (C-Interface function) . . . . 166
YAP_FloatOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . 163 YAP_PRESERVE_DATA (C-Interface function)
YAP_FreeSpaceFromYap (C-Interface function) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 YAP_PRESERVED_DATA (C-Interface function)
YAP_FullLookupAtom (C-Interface function) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 YAP_PutValue/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
YAP_FunctorOfTerm (C-Interface function) YAP_Read/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 YAP_ReadBuffer (C-Interface function) . . . . 165
YAP_GetValue/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
YAP_Reset/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_HeadOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164
YAP_RestartGoal/0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_Init/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
YAP_RestartGoal/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_InitConsult/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_RunGoal/1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_IntOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . . 163
YAP_IsApplTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 163 YAP_StreamToFileNo (C-Interface function)
YAP_IsAtomTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
YAP_IsBigNumTerm (C-Interface function) . . 163 YAP_StringToBuffer (C-Interface function)
YAP_IsDBRefTerm (C-Interface function) . . . 163 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
YAP_IsFloatTerm (C-Interface function) . . . 163 YAP_TailOfTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164
YAP_IsIntTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . . 163 YAP_Unify (C-Interface function) . . . . . . . . . 165
YAP_IsNonVarTerm (C-Interface function) . . 163 YAP_UserBackCPredicate (C-Interface
YAP_IsPairTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 163 function) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
YAP_IsVarTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . . 162 YAP_UserCPredicate (C-Interface function)
YAP_LookupAtom (C-Interface function) . . . . 164 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
YAP_MkApplTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164 YAP_Write/3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_MkAtomTerm (C-Interface function) . . . . 164 YAP_WriteBuffer/4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
YAP_MkBigNumTerm (C-Interface function) . . 163 YAPBINDIR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
YAP_MkFloatTerm (C-Interface function) . . . 163 YAPLIBDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
YAP_MkFunctor (C-Interface function) . . . . . 165 YAPSHAREDIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Concept Index 205

Concept Index

A mutable variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
anonymous variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
association list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
N
attribute declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
attributed variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
AVL trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 O
Operating System Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
B or-parallelism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
booting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ordered set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

C P
parallelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
cleanup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
profiling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CLPQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
pseudo random . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
CLPR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
punctuation token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Counting Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Q
D queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 91
declaration, attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
R
E Red-Black Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
regular expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Efficient Directed Graphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
end of term . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 S
splay trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
F string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
floating-point number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 string I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
SWI-Prolog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 13
H
heap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 T
hProlog Attributed Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
tabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
I token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
integer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 U
undrected graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
unweighted graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
L updatable tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
list manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 update semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Logtalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 updating terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
utilities on terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
M
machine optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 V
macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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