A representation error occurs when your program calls for the computation of some well-defined value that cannot be represented.
Most representation errors are some sort of overflow. For example, creating a compound term with arity greater than 255 results in a representation error.
The SICStus_Error term for a representation error is
representation_error(Goal, ArgNo, Message)
identifies the argument of the goal that cannot be constructed.
further classifies the problem. A message of 0 or
'' provides no further information.