kanren

Logic Programming in Python

Examples

kanren enables the expression of relations and the search for values which satisfy them. The following code is the "Hello, world!" of logic programming. It asks for 1 number, x, such that x == 5

>>> from kanren import run, eq, membero, var, conde
>>> x = var()
>>> run(1, x, eq(x, 5))
(5,)

Multiple variables and multiple goals can be used simultaneously. The following code asks for a number x such that x == z and z == 3

>>> z = var()
>>> run(1, x, eq(x, z),
              eq(z, 3))
(3,)

kanren uses unification, an advanced form of pattern matching, to match within expression trees. The following code asks for a number, x, such that (1, 2) == (1, x) holds.

>>> run(1, x, eq((1, 2), (1, x)))
(2,)

The above examples use eq, a goal constructor to state that two expressions are equal. Other goal constructors exist such as membero(item, coll) which states that item is a member of coll, a collection.

The following example uses membero twice to ask for 2 values of x, such that x is a member of (1, 2, 3) and that x is a member of (2, 3, 4).

>>> run(2, x, membero(x, (1, 2, 3)),  # x is a member of (1, 2, 3)
              membero(x, (2, 3, 4)))  # x is a member of (2, 3, 4)
(2, 3)

Logic Variables

As in the above examples, z = var() creates a logic variable. You may also, optionally, pass a token name for a variable to aid in debugging:

>>> z = var('test')
>>> z
~test

Lastly, you may also use vars() with an integer parameter to create multiple logic variables at once:

>>> a, b, c = vars(3)
>>> a
~_1
>>> b
~_2
>>> c
~_3

Representing Knowledge

kanren stores data as facts that state relationships between terms.

The following code creates a parent relationship and uses it to state facts about who is a parent of whom within the Simpsons family.

>>> from kanren import Relation, facts
>>> parent = Relation()
>>> facts(parent, ("Homer", "Bart"),
...               ("Homer", "Lisa"),
...               ("Abe",  "Homer"))

>>> run(1, x, parent(x, "Bart"))
('Homer',)

>>> run(2, x, parent("Homer", x))
('Lisa', 'Bart')

We can use intermediate variables for more complex queries. Who is Bart's grandfather?

>>> y = var()
>>> run(1, x, parent(x, y),
              parent(y, 'Bart'))
('Abe',)

We can express the grandfather relationship separately. In this example we use conde, a goal constructor for logical and and or.

>>> def grandparent(x, z):
...     y = var()
...     return conde((parent(x, y), parent(y, z)))

>>> run(1, x, grandparent(x, 'Bart'))
('Abe,')

Data Structures

kanren depends on functions, tuples, dicts, and generators. There are almost no new data structures/classes in kanren so it should be simple to integrate into preexisting code.

Extending kanren to other Types

kanren uses Multiple Dispatch and the unification library to support pattern matching on user defined types. Also see unification (wikipedia). Types which can be unified can be used for logic programming. See the project examples for how to extend the collection of unifiable types to your use case.

Install

With pip or easy_install

pip install kanren

From source

git clone git@github.com:logpy/logpy.git
cd logpy
python setup.py install

Run tests with tox

tox

Dependencies

kanren supports 3.5+. It is pure Python and requires no dependencies beyond the standard library, toolz, multipledispatch, and unification.

It is, in short, a light weight dependency.

Author

Matthew Rocklin

License

New BSD license. See LICENSE.txt

Motivation

Logic programming is a general programming paradigm. This implementation however came about specifically to serve as an algorithmic core for Computer Algebra Systems in Python and for the automated generation and optimization of numeric software. Domain specific languages, code generation, and compilers have recently been a hot topic in the Scientific Python community. kanren aims to be a low-level core for these projects.

References

• Logic Programming on wikipedia
• miniKanren, a Scheme library for relational programming on which this library is based. More information can be found in the thesis of William Byrd.
• core.logic a popular implementation of miniKanren in Clojure.