Lecture 4: Lists

•  Theory
–  Introduce lists, an important recursive data
structure often used in Prolog programming
–  Define the member/2 predicate, a fundamental
Prolog tool for manipulating lists
–  Illustrate the idea of recursing down lists
 Lecture 4: Lists

•  Exercises
–  Exercises of LPN chapter 4
–  Practical work
 Lists

•  A list is a finite sequence of elements

•  Examples of lists in Prolog:
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

[mia, vincent, jules, yolanda]

[mia, robber(honeybunny), X, 2, mia]
[]
[mia, [vincent, jules], [butch, friend(butch)]]
[[ ], dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]
 Important things about lists

•  List elements are enclosed in square

brackets
•  The length of a list is the number of
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

elements it has
•  All sorts of Prolog terms can be
elements of a list
•  There is a special list:
the empty list [ ]
 Head and Tail

•  A non-empty list can be thought of as

consisting of two parts
–  The head
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

–  The tail
•  The head is the first item in the list
•  The tail is everything else
–  The tail is the list that remains when we
take the first element away
–  The tail of a list is always a list
 Head and Tail example 1

•  [mia, vincent, jules, yolanda]

Head:
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 1

•  [mia, vincent, jules, yolanda]

Head: mia
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 1

•  [mia, vincent, jules, yolanda]

Head: mia
Tail: [vincent, jules, yolanda]
 Head and Tail example 2

•  [[ ], dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]

Head:
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 2

•  [[ ], dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]

Head: [ ]
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 2

•  [[ ], dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]

Head: [ ]
Tail: [dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]
 Head and Tail example 3

•  [dead(z)]

Head:
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 3

•  [dead(z)]

Head: dead(z)
Tail:
 Head and Tail example 3

•  [dead(z)]

Head: dead(z)
Tail: [ ]
 Head and tail of empty list

•  The empty list has neither a head

nor a tail

•  For Prolog, [ ] is a special simple list

without any internal structure

•  The empty list plays an important

role in recursive predicates for list
processing in Prolog
 The built-in operator |

•  Prolog has a special built-in operator |

which can be used to decompose a list
into its head and tail
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

•  The | operator is a key tool for writing

Prolog list manipulation predicates
 The built-in operator |

?- [Head|Tail] = [mia, vincent, jules, yolanda].

© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

Head = mia
Tail = [vincent,jules,yolanda]
yes

?-
 The built-in operator |

?- [X|Y] = [mia, vincent, jules, yolanda].

© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

X = mia
Y = [vincent,jules,yolanda]
yes

?-
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?-
no
?- [X|Y] = [ ].
The built-in operator |
 The built-in operator |

?- [X,Y|Tail] = [[ ], dead(z), [2, [b,c]], [], Z, [2, [b,c]]] .

© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

X=[]
Y = dead(z)
Z = _4543
Tail = [[2, [b,c]], [ ], Z, [2, [b,c]]]
yes

?-
 Anonymous variable

•  Suppose we are interested in the

second and fourth element of a list
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- [X1,X2,X3,X4|Tail] = [mia, vincent, marsellus, jody, yolanda].

X1 = mia
X2 = vincent
X3 = marsellus
X4 = jody
Tail = [yolanda]
yes

?-
 Anonymous variables

•  There is a simpler way of obtaining only

the information we want:
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- [ _,X2, _,X4|_ ] = [mia, vincent, marsellus, jody, yolanda].

X2 = vincent
X4 = jody
yes

?-

•  The underscore is the anonymous

variable
 The anonymous variable

•  Is used when you need to use a

variable, but you are not interested in
what Prolog instantiates it to
•  Each occurrence of the anonymous
variable is independent, i.e. can be
bound to something different
 Exercises

•  Exercise 4.1 of LPN

•  Exercise 4.2 of LPN
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz
 Member

•  One of the most basic things we would

like to know is whether something is an
element of a list or not
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

•  So let's write a predicate that when

given a term X and a list L, tells us
whether or not X belongs to L
•  This predicate is usually called

member/2
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?-
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(yolanda,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(yolanda,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
yes
?-
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(vincent,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(vincent,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
yes
?-
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(zed,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(zed,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
no
?-
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(X,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(X,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
X = yolanda
 member/2

member(X,[X|T]).
member(X,[H|T]):- member(X,T).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- member(X,[yolanda,trudy,vincent,jules]).
X = yolanda;
X = trudy;
X = vincent;
X = jules;
no
 Rewriting member/2

member(X,[X|_]).
member(X,[_|T]):- member(X,T).
 Recursing down lists

•  The member/2 predicate works by

recursively working its way down a list
–  doing something to the head, and then
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

–  recursively doing the same thing to the tail

•  This technique is very common in
Prolog. Therefore:
–  It's very important that you master it
–  So let's look at another example!
 Example: a2b/2

The predicate a2b/2 takes two lists as

arguments and succeeds
–  if the first argument is a list of a's, and
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

–  the second argument is a list of b's of

exactly the same length
 Example: a2b/2

The predicate a2b/2 takes two lists as

arguments and succeeds
–  if the first argument is a list of a's, and
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

–  the second argument is a list of b's of

exactly the same length
?- a2b([a,a,a,a],[b,b,b,b]).
yes
?- a2b([a,a,a,a],[b,b,b]).
no
?- a2b([a,c,a,a],[b,b,b,t]).
no
 Defining a2b/2: step 1

a2b([],[]).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

•  Often the best away to solve such

problems is to think about the simplest
possible case
•  Here it means: the empty list
 Defining a2b/2: step 2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

•  Now think recursively!

•  When should a2b/2 decide that two
non-empty lists are a list of as and a list
of bs of exactly the same length?
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a],[b,b,b]).
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a],[b,b,b]).
yes
?-
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a,a],[b,b,b]).
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a,a],[b,b,b]).
no
?-
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,t,a,a],[b,b,b,c]).
 Testing a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,t,a,a],[b,b,b,c]).
no
?-
 Further investigating a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a,a,a], X).
 Further investigating a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b([a,a,a,a,a], X).
X = [b,b,b,b,b]
yes
?-
 Further investigating a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b(X,[b,b,b,b,b,b,b]).
 Further investigating a2b/2

a2b([],[]).
a2b([a|L1],[b|L2]):- a2b(L1,L2).
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

?- a2b(X,[b,b,b,b,b,b,b]).
X = [a,a,a,a,a,a,a]
yes
?-
 Summary of this lecture

•  In this lecture we introduced list and

recursive predicates that work on lists
•  The kind of programming that these
© Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos & Kristina Striegnitz

predicates illustrated is fundamental to

Prolog
•  You will see that most Predicates you
will write in your Prolog career will be
variants of these predicates