Lecture 9 A closer look at terms.ppt

Lecture 9: A closer look at terms Theory Introduce the == predicate Take a closer look at term structure Introduce strings in Prolog Introduce operators Exercises Exercises of LPN: 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 Practical session Comparing terms: ==/2 Prolog contains an important predicate for comparing terms This is the identity predicate ==/2 The identity predicate ==/2 does not instantiate variables, that is, it behaves differently from =/2 Comparing terms: ==/2 Prolog contains an important predicate for comparing terms This is the identity predicate ==/2 The identity predicate ==/2 does not instantiate variables, that is, it behaves differently from =/2 Comparing variables Two different uninstantiated variables are not identical terms Variables instantiated with a term T are identical to T Comparing variables Two different uninstantiated variables are not identical terms Variables instantiated with a term T are identical to T Comparing terms: \==/2 The predicate \==/2 is defined so that it succeeds in precisely those cases where ==/2 fails In other words, it succeeds whenever two terms are not identical, and fails otherwise Comparing terms: \==/2 The predicate \==/2 is defined so that it succeeds in precisely those cases where ==/2 fails In other words, it succeeds whenever two terms are not identical, and fails otherwise Terms with a special notation Sometimes terms look different, but Prolog regards them as identical For example: a and a, but there are many other cases Why does Prolog do this? Because it makes programming more pleasant More natural way of coding Prolog programs Arithmetic terms Recall lecture 5 where we introduced arithmetic +, -, , , etc are functors and expressions such as 2+3 are actually ordinary complex terms The term 2+3 is identical to the term +(2,3) Arithmetic terms Recall lecture 5 where we introduced arithmetic +, -, , , etc are functors and expressions such as 2+3 are actually ordinary complex terms The term 2+3 is identical to the t