This section describes a programming interface by means of which new constraints can be written. The interface consists of a set of predicates provided by this library module. Constraints defined in this way can take arbitrary arguments and may use any constraint solving algorithm, provided it makes sense. Reification cannot be expressed in this interface; instead, reification may be achieved by explicitly passing a 0/1-variable to the constraint in question.
Global constraints have state, which may be updated each time the constraint is resumed. The state information may be used e.g. in incremental constraint solving.
The following two predicates are the principal entrypoints for defining and posting new global constraints:
clpfd:dispatch_global(
+Constraint,
+State0,
-State,
-Actions)
extendible
Tells the solver how to solve constraints of the form Constraint. Defined as a dynamic, multifile predicate.
When defining a new constraint, a clause of this predicate must be added. Its body defines a constraint solving method and should always succeed determinately. When a global constraint is called or resumed, the solver will call this predicate to deal with the constraint.
Please note: the constraint is identified by its principal functor; there
is no provision for having two constraints with the same name in
different modules. It is good practice to include a cut in
every clause of clpfd:dispatch_global/4
.
State0 and State are the old and new state respectively.
The constraint solving method must not invoke the constraint solver recursively e.g. by binding variables or posting new constraints; instead, Actions should be unified with a list of requests to the solver. Each request should be of the following form:
exit
fail
X =
V
X in
R
X in_set
S
call(
Goal)
clpfd
module.
Goal is executed as any Prolog goal, but in a context where some constraints may already be enqueued for execution, in which case those constraints will run after the completion of the call request.
fd_global(
:Constraint,
+State,
+Susp)
fd_global(
:Constraint,
+State,
+Susp,
+Options)
where Constraint is a constraint goal, State is its initial state, and Susp is a term encoding how the constraint should wake up in response to domain changes. This predicate posts the constraint.
Susp is a list of F(Var) terms where Var is a variable to suspend on and F is a functor encoding when to wake up:
dom(
X)
min(
X)
max(
X)
minmax(
X)
val(
X)
Options is a list of zero or more of the following:
source(
Term)
fd_copy_term/3
, and
shown in the answer constraint if clpfd:full_answer
holds, equals
Constraint, module name expanded. With this option, the
symbolic form will instead be Term. In particular, if Term
equals true
, the constraint will not appear in the Body
argument of fd_copy_term/3
. This can be useful if you are
posting some redundant (implied) constraint.
idempotent(
Boolean)
true
(the default), the constraint solving method is assumed
to be idempotent. That is, in the scope of
clpfd:dispatch_global/4
, the solver will not check for the
resumption conditions for the given constraint, while performing its
Actions. If false
, an action may well cause the solver to resume
the constraint that produced the action.
If a variable occurs more than once in a global constraint that is being posted, or due to a variable-variable unification, the solver will no longer trust the constraint solving method to be idempotent.
For an example of usage, see A Global Constraint Example.
The following predicate controls operational aspects of the constraint solver:
fd_flag(
+FlagName,
?OldValue,
?NewValue)
OldValue is the value of the FD flag FlagName, and the new value of FlagName is set to NewValue. The possible FD flag names and values are:
overflow
error
fail
debug
on
and off
(the default). For iternal use by
library(fdbg)
.