Next: Indexicals, Previous: Definitions, Up: Defining Primitive Constraints [Contents][Index]
In most circumstances, arithmetic constraints maintain bounds consistency
and detect bounds entailment and disentailment. There are cases where a
constraint maintaining bounds consistency may detect a contradiction when
the constraint is not yet bounds-disentailed, as the following example
illustrates. Note that X #\= Y
maintains
domain consistency if both arguments are constants or variables:
| ?- X+Y #= Z, X=1, Z=6, Y in 1..10, Y #\= 5. no | ?- X+Y #= Z #<=> B, X=1, Z=6, Y in 1..10, Y #\= 5. X = 1, Z = 6, Y in(1..4)\/(6..10), B in 0..1
Since 1+5#=6
holds, X+Y #= Z
is not bounds-disentailed,
although any attempt to make it bounds-consistent wrt. the store
results in a contradictory store.