Ambo University Institute of Technology

Department of Computer Science

Logic in Computer Science
Chapter 5:Introduction to Prolog

Bayisa Gutema(MSc)

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Introduction
Prolog is the most popular language of the logic programing
languages.
It is goal based language, it has automatic backtracking and uses
recursion.
Prolog stands for programmation en logique", or programming
in logic”.
Invented by Alain Colmerauer and Philippe Roussel of the
Groupe d'Intelligence Articielle (GIA) in early 1970s.
The earliest Prolog interpreter was written in Algol in1972 by
Roussel.
The official ISO standard for Prolog was published in 1996.

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Content of Logic Programming
A program is a collection of axioms
 Each axiom is a Horn clause of the form:
H :- B1, B2, ..., Bn. where H is the head term and Bi are the
body terms
– Meaning H is true if all Bi are true
 More efficient than forward chaining for larger
collections of axioms
Applications: expert systems, artificial intelligence, natural
language understanding, logical puzzles and games.

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CURRENT IMPLEMENTATIONS
There are several popular Prolog interpreters available. They
include:
 GNU Prolog (http://pauillac.inria.fr/vdiaz/gnuprolog/)SWI-
Prolog (http://www.swi-prolog.org/)
 Visual Prolog (http://
www.visualprolog.com/vip6/Download/Default.htm)
 Bprolog
 (http://www.cad.mse.kyutech.ac.jp/people/zhou/bpr
olog.html

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Prolog Paradigm
PROgramming in LOGic
– Draw inferences from facts and rules
PROLOG is
– declarative - specify facts and logical relationships
• Non-procedural: "what", not "how". (we specify the
problem but not the solution)
• Database language with automated search and the ability
to follow general rules.
– symbolic - symbols are used to represent objects
– high level - contains a built-in problem solving
mechanism
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Cont..
When we program in ProLog we need to
provide following three things
1. Declaring some facts about objects and their relationships
2. Defining some rules about objects and their relationships
3. Asking questions about objects and their relationships.

Query Prolog Database

Fact + Rules

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The PROLOG Programmer
The PROLOG Programmer
Loads facts and rules into the database.
– Makes queries to the database to see if a
fact is:
• in the database or
• can be implied from the facts and rules
therein

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System Interaction
Problem solving in PROLOG
– 1. insert facts and rules into the database
– 2. ask questions (queries) based on the contents of the
database
• Facts
– Used to represent unchanging information about objects
and their relationships.
– Only facts in the PROLOG database can be used for
problem solving.
– Insert facts into the database by,
• typing the facts into a file and loading (consulting) the file
into a running PROLOG system
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Queries
Retrieve information from the database by entering QUERIES
 A query, is a pattern that PROLOG is asked to match against
the database
has the syntax of a compound query
• may contain variables
A query will cause PROLOG to
• look at the database
• try to find a match for the query pattern
• execute the body of the matching head
• return an answer

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Logic Programming(Cot..)
Example(Facts)
English Prolog
“A dog is a mammal” isa(dog, mammal).
“A sparrow is a bird” isa(sparrow, bird).
Examples (Rules)
English PROLOG
“Something is an animal animal(X) :- isa(X,mammal).
if it is a mammal or a bird” animal(X) :- isa(X, bird).

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Logic Programming(Cont..)
English PROLOG

“is a sparrow an animal?” ?- animal(sparrow).

answer: “yes” yes
“is a table an animal?” ?- animal(table).
answer: “no” no
“what is a dog?” ?- isa(dog, X).
answer: “a mammal” X = mammal

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PROLOG syntax
Constants
Atoms
• Alphanumeric atoms - alphabetic character sequence starting
with a lower case letter. Examples: apple a1 apple_cart
• Quoted atoms “String” - sequence of characters surrounded
by single quotes. Examples: ‘Apple’ ‘hello world’
• Symbolic atoms - sequence of symbolic characters
Examples: & < > * - + >>
• Special atoms ,Examples: ! ; [ ] {}
– Numbers : Integers and Floating Point numbers
Examples: 0 1 9821 -10 1.3 -1.3E102

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PROLOG Syntax(Cont..)
Variable Names :-a sequence of alphanumeric characters
beginning with an upper case letter or an underscore
Examples: Anything _var X _
Compound Terms (structures) :-an atom followed by
an argument list containing terms.
The arguments are enclosed within brackets and separated by
commas
Example: isa(dog, mammal)
 The names of all relationships and objects must
begin with a lower case letter. For example
studies,
ali, programming
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PROLOG Syntax(Cont..)
The relationship is written first and the objects are enclosed
within parentheses and are written separated by commas. For
example, the prolog program for “Ali is studies programming”
studies(ali, programming)
• The full stop character ‘.’ must come at the end of a fact.
• Order is arbitrary but it should be consistent
Example
Program with three facts and one rule:
rainy(columbo) ?-snowy(C)
rainy(ayubia) C=ayubia
cold(ayubia)
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Example(Cont..)
Rule: snowy(X) :- rainy(X), cold(X).
Query and response:
?- snowy(ayubia).
yes because rainy(ayubia) and cold(ayubia) are sub-goals
that are both true facts in the database
Query and response:
?- snowy(columbo).
no because snowy(X) with X=columbo is a goal that fails,
because cold(X) fails, triggering backtracking

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Example of family: Propositional Calculus

Statement Logic
p:Tola is father of
Boru. p Tola is not father of Boru
q: Tola is brother of
Buraka pq Tola is father of Boru or
r: Buraka is uncle Tola is brother of Buraka
of Boru
p q  r If Tola is father of Boru and
Tola is brother of Buraka
then Buraka is uncle of
Boru
Complex statement 

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Prolog Programming for slide 18
man(tola)
Predicate(facts) Predicate
father(tola,boru) man(symbol)
brother(boru,gurm father(symbol,symbol)
u) brother(symbol,symbol)
brother(gurmu,ku brother(symbol,symbol)
msa) owns(symbol,symbol)
owns(boru,car) tall(symbol)
tall(boru) hates(symbol,symbol)
hates(tola,gurmu) Family();
family();
X,Y,Z(man(y)father(z,y)father(z,x)brother(x
,y))

Variable: X,Y,Z
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Cont..
Clause
man(Tola)
father(Tola,Boru) Rule:
brother(Boru,Gur brother(X,Y),
mu) man(X),
brother(gurmu,ku man(Y)
msa) father(Z,X),
owns(Boru,car) father(Z,Y)
tall(Boru)
Hates(Tola,Gurmu)
Family();
Goal:
Constant: Brother(Boru,
Tola, Gurmu)
Boru,Gurmu,kumsa,car

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Section of PROLOG Program
Predicates
– Declarations of Relations or Rules
– Just like function prototype (declaration).
– Zero or more arguments
Example
Predicates
man(symbol)
family()
a_new_predicate (integer, char)

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Clause
Clauses
– Definition(s) of Predicate = Sentence OR Phrase
Types
 Rules (function definitions): 0 or more conditions

(statements)
 Facts : 0 conditions

– All parameters constant

 Examples
• Fact : brother(Gurmu, Kumsa).
• Rule :brother(X,Y):-man(X),man(Y), father(Z,Y),
father(Z,X).

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Sections of Prolog Program
Goal
 Goal of inference
 Only and exactly one instance
 The only tentative section of the program
 The main() of prolog
 Goal truth value = output of program
 Syntactically and Semantically just another clause
• Empty, simple (one goal), or compound (sub-goals)
Examples
• Goal
brother(X,chand). <or> brother(ahmed,chand).
• Goal
brother(X,chand),
father()
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Prolog Variables
Constant placeholders (NOT variables)
– Bounded once
• Loosely typed
• Start with Capital letter or underscore
• Examples
– brother(ahmed, Jemal)
– brother(ahmed, _x)
– Brother(ahmed, X)
• Anonymous variable
– The _
– Some value that isn’t required
Example
brother(ahmed, _)
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