4.7 Control Predicates

The predicates of this section implement control structures. Normally the constructs in this section, except for repeat/0, are translated by the compiler. Please note that complex goals passed as arguments to meta-predicates such as findall/3 below cause the goal to be compiled to a temporary location before execution. It is faster to define a sub-predicate (i.e., one_character_atoms/1 in the example below) and make a call to this simple predicate. See also the Prolog flag compile_meta_arguments.

one_character_atoms(As) :-
        findall(A, (current_atom(A), atom_length(A, 1)), As).

[ISO]fail

Always fail. The predicate fail/0 is translated into a single virtual machine instruction.

[ISO]false

Same as fail, but the name has a more declarative connotation.

[ISO]true

Always succeed. The predicate true/0 is translated into a single virtual machine instruction.

[ISO]repeat

Always succeed, provide an infinite number of choice points.

[ISO]!

Cut. Discard all choice points created since entering the predicate in which the cut appears. In other words, commit to the clause in which the cut appears and discard choice points that have been created by goals to the left of the cut in the current clause. Meta calling is opaque to the cut. This implies that cuts that appear in a term that is subject to meta-calling (call/1) only affect choice points created by the meta-called term. The following control structures are transparent to the cut: ;/2, ->/2 and *->/2. Cuts appearing in the condition part of ->/2 and *->/2 are opaque to the cut. The table below explains the scope of the cut with examples. Prunes here means “prunes X choice point created by X” .

t0 :- (a, !, b).	% prunes a/0 and t0/0
t1 :- (a, !, fail ; b).	% prunes a/0 and t1/0
t2 :- (a -> b, ! ; c).	% prunes b/0 and t2/0
t3 :- (a, !, b -> c ; d).	% prunes a/0
t4 :- call((a, !, fail ; b)).	% prunes a/0
t5 :- \+(a, !, fail).	% prunes a/0

[ISO]:Goal1 , :Goal2

Conjunction (and). True if both Goal1 and Goal2 are true.

[ISO]:Goal1 ; :Goal2

Disjunction (or). True if either Goal1 or Goal2 succeeds. Note that the semantics change if Goal1 contains ->/2 or *->/2. ;/2 is transparent to cuts. See !/0 for details. For example:

?- (between(1,2,X) ; X = a).
X = 1 ;
X = 2 ;
X = a.

It is strongly advised to always use parenthesis around disjunctions. Conjunctions inside a disjunction should not use parenthesis. Traditionally the ; is placed at the start of the line rather than at the end because a ; at the end of a line is easily overlooked. Below is an example of the preferred style used in SWI-Prolog.^{74Some users prefer a newline after the ;.}

p :-
    a,
    (   b,
        c
    ;   d
    ).

Although ;/2 is a control structure that is normally handled by the compiler, SWI-Prolog implements ;/2 as a true predicate to support call/2 and friends as well as to allow for querying predicate properties, for example to support code analysis.

:Goal1 | :Goal2

Equivalent to ;/2. Retained for compatibility only. New code should use ;/2.

[ISO]:Condition -> :Action

If-then and If-Then-Else. The ->/2 construct commits to the choices made at its left-hand side, destroying choice points created inside the clause (by ;/2), or by goals called by this clause. Unlike !/0, the choice point of the predicate as a whole (due to multiple clauses) is not destroyed. Disregarding the interaction with !/0, the combination ;/2 and ->/2 acts as if defined as:

If -> Then; _Else :- If, !, Then.
If -> _Then; Else :- !, Else.
If -> Then :- If, !, Then.

Please note that (If -> Then) acts as (If -> Then ; fail), making the construct fail if the condition fails. This unusual semantics is part of the ISO and all de-facto Prolog standards.

Please note that (if->then;else) is read as ((if->then);else) and that the combined semantics of this syntactic construct as defined above is different from the simple nesting of the two individual constructs, i.e., the semantics of ->/2 changes when embedded in ;/2. See also once/1.

As with ;/2, this construct is always nested in parenthesis. Here is an example of the preferred layout for SWI-Prolog.

p :-
    a,
    (   b,
        c
    ->  d,
        e
    ;   f
    ->  g
    ;   h
    ).

:Condition *-> :Action ; :Else

This construct implements the so-called‘soft-cut’. The control is defined as follows: If Condition succeeds at least once, the semantics is the same as (call(Condition), Action).^{75Note that the Condition is wrapped in call/1, limiting the scope of the cut (!/0} If Condition does not succeed, the semantics is that of (\+ Condition, Else). In other words, if Condition succeeds at least once, simply behave as the conjunction of call(Condition) and Action, otherwise execute Else. The construct is known under the name if/3 in some other Prolog implementations.

The construct A *-> B, i.e., without an Else branch, the semantics is the same as (call(A), B).

This construct is rarely used. An example use case is the implementation of optional in sparql. The optional construct should preserve all solutions if the argument succeeds as least once but still succeed otherwise. This is implemented as below.

optional(Goal) :-
    (   Goal
    *-> true
    ;   true
    ).

Now calling e.g., optional(member(X, [a,b])) has the solutions X=a and X=b, while optional(member(X,[])) succeeds without binding X.

[ISO]\+ :Goal

True if‘Goal’cannot be proven (mnemonic: + refers to provable and the backslash (\) is normally used to indicate negation in Prolog). In contrast to the ISO standard, but compatible with several other Prolog systems, SWI-Prolog implements \+/1 as a control structure. This implies that its argument is compiled as part of the enclosing clause and possible variables in goal positions are translated to call/1. As a result, if such a variable is at runtime bound to a (!/0), the cut is scoped to the call/1 call rather than the enclosing \+/1.

Many Prolog implementations (including SWI-Prolog) provide not/1. The not/1 alternative is deprecated due to its strong link to logical negation.