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Constraint logic programming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Pascal Van Hentenryck
Affiliation:
Brown University, Box 1910, Providence, RI 02912, USA

Abstract

Constraint logic programming (CLP) is a generalization of logic programming (LP) where unification, the basic operation of LP languages, is replaced by constraint handling in a constraint system. The resulting languages combine the advantages of LP (declarative semantics, nondeterminism, relational form) with the efficiency of constraint-solving algorithms. For some classes of combinatorial search problems, they shorten the development time significantly while preserving most of the efficiency of imperative languages. This paper surveys this new class of programming languages from their underlying theory, to their constraint systems, and to their applications to combinatorial problems.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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