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Introduction to Prolog
Outline
• What is Prolog?
• Prolog basics
• Prolog Demo
• Syntax:
– Atoms and Variables
– Complex Terms
– Facts & Queries
– Rules
• Examples
What is Prolog?
• Prolog is the most commonly used logic
– Simple syntax
• PROgramming in LOGic
• High-level interactive language.
• Logic programming language.
What is Prolog? (Cont.)
• Programming languages are of two kinds:
– Procedural (BASIC, Pascal, C++, Java);
– Declarative (LISP, Prolog, ML).
• In procedural programming, we tell the computer how
to solve a problem.
• In declarative programming, we tell the computer what
problem we want solved.
• (However, in Prolog, we are often forced to give clues
as to the solution method).
The use of Prolog
• Prolog is used in artificial intelligence applications such as:
– Natural language interfaces,
– automated reasoning systems and
– Expert systems: usually consist of a data base of facts and
rules and an inference engine, the run time system of Prolog
provides much of the services of an inference engine.
What is Prolog used for?
• Good at
– Grammars and Language processing,
– Knowledge representation and reasoning,
– Unification,
– Pattern matching,
– Planning and Search.
• Poor at:
– Repetitive number crunching,
– Representing complex data structures,
– Input/Output (interfaces).
Basic Elements of Prolog
• A program consists of clauses. These are of 3 types: facts, rules,
and questions (Queries).
• Some are always true (facts):
father( ali, haya).
• Some are dependent on others being true (rules):
parent( Person1, Person2 ) :- father( Person1, Person2 ).
• To run a program, we ask questions about the database.
KB
Prolog
Interpreter
Query
Answer
Prolog in English• Example Database:
– Saleh is a teacher
– Nora is a teacher
– Saleh is the father of Jaber.
– Nora is the mother of Jaber.
– Hamza is the father of Saleh
– Person 1 is a parent of Person 2 if
Person 1 is the father of Person 2 or
Person 1 is the mother of Person 2.
– Person 1 is a grandparent of Person 2 if
some Person 3 is a parent of Person 2 and
Person 1 is a parent of Person 3.
• Example questions:
– Who is Jaber's father?
– Is Nora the mother of Jaber?
– Does Hamza have a grandchild?
Facts
Rules
A knowledge base of facts
• teacher(saleh).
• teacher(nora).
• father( saleh, jaber).
• mother( nora, jaber ).
• father( hamza, saleh ).
Queries we can ask
?- teacher(saleh). Yes
?- teacher(nora). Yes
?- mother( nora, jaber ). Yes
?- mother( nora, saleh ). No
?- grandparent( hamza, X). Jaber
?- nurse(nora).
ERROR: Undefined procedure: nurse/1
More queries we can ask
• ?-teacher(X).
– X=saleh ;
– X=nora ;
– No.
• ?-mother(X,Y).
– X = nora
– Y = jaber ;
– No
Syntax: Atoms and Variables
• Atoms:
– All terms that consist of letters, numbers, and the underscore
and start with a non-capital letter are atoms: uncle_ali, nora,
year2007, . . . .
– All terms that are enclosed in single quotes are atoms:
’Aunt Hiba’, ’(@ *+ ’, . . . .
– Certain special symbols are also atoms: +, ,, . . . .
• Variables:
– All terms that consist of letters, numbers, and the underscore
and start with a capital letter or an underscore are variables:
X, Jaber, Lama, . . . .
– _is an anonymous variable: two occurrences of _are different
variables.
– E.g. if we are interested in people who have children, but not
in the name of the children, then we can simply ask: ?-
parent(X,_).
Syntax: Complex Terms
• Complex terms
– Complex terms are of the form:
functor (argument, ..., argument).
– Functors have to be atoms.
– Arguments can be any kind of Prolog term, e.g., complex
terms.
• likes(lama,apples), likes(amy,X).
Syntax: Facts & Queries
• Facts are complex terms which begin with lower case alphabetic
letter and ends with a full stop.
– teacher(nora).
– female( aunt hiba).
– likes(alia,choclate).
• Queries are also complex terms followed by a full stop.
– ?- teacher(nora).
Query
Prompt provided by the Prolog interpreter.
Syntax: Rules
• A Prolog rule consists of a head and a body.
a(X) :- b(X), c(X)
• Rules are of the form Head :- Body.
• Like facts and queries, they have to be followed by a full stop.
• Head is a complex term.
• Body is complex term or a sequence of complex terms separated by
commas.
happy(uncle_ yussef) :- happy(nora).
grandparent( Person1, Person2 ) :- parent( Person3, Person2 ) ,
parent( Person1, Person3 ).
head body
A knowledge base of facts & Rules
• happy(uncle_ yussef) :- happy(nora).
if ... then ...: If happy(nora) is true, then happy(uncle_ yussef) is true.
• parent( Person1, Person2 ) :- father( Person1, Person2 ).
• parent( Person1, Person2 ) :- mother( Person1, Person2 ).
Person 1 is a parent of Person 2 if Person 1 is the father of Person 2
or Person 1 is the mother of Person 2.
• grandparent( Person1, Person2 ) :- parent( Person3, Person2 )
, parent( Person1, Person3 ).
Person 1 is a grandparent of Person 2 if some Person 3 is a parent of Person 2
and Person 1 is a parent of Person 3.
Querying slide 15
• ?- happy(nora). Yes
• ?-happy(uncle_yussef). yes
• ?- happy(X).
– X = uncle_yussef ;
– X = nora ;
– No
• Does Hamza have a grandchild?
• ?- grandparent(hamza,_).
– Yes
Facts & Rules containing variables
• teacher(saleh).
• teacher(nora).
• father( saleh, jaber).
• mother( nora, jaber ).
• This knowledge base defines 3 predicates:
– teacher/1.
– father/2, and
– mother/2.
• teacher(X) :- father(Y,X), teacher(Y),mother(Z,X), teacher(Z).
• For all X, Y, Z, if father(Y,X)is true and teacher (Y) is true and
mother(Z,X) is true and teacher (Z) is true, then teacher (X) is true.
• I.e., for all X, if X’s father and mother are teachers,
then X is a teacher.
Summary
• A Prolog program consists of a database of facts and rules, and
queries (questions).
– Fact: ... .
– Rule: ... :- ... .
– Query: ?- ... .
– Variables: must begin with an upper case letter or underscore.
• Nora, _nora.
– Constants (atoms): begin with lowercase letter, or enclosed in
single quotes.
• uncle_ali, nora, year2007, .
• numbers 3, 6, 2957, 8.34, ...
– complex terms An atom (the functor) is followed by a comma
separated sequence of Prolog terms enclosed in parenthesis (the
arguments).
• likes(lama,apples), likes(amy,X).