Set Constraints and Logic Programming

Set constraints are inclusion relations between expressions denoting sets of ground terms over a ranked alphabet. They are the main ingredient in set-based program analysis. In this paper we describe a constraint logic programming languageclp(sc) over set constraints in the style of J. Jaffar and J. -L. Lassez (1987, “Proc. Symp. Principles of Programming Languages 1987, ” pp. 111–119). The language subsumes ordinary logic programs over an Herbrand domain. We give an efficient unification algorithm and operational, declarative, and fixpoint semantics. We show how the language can be applied in set-based program analysis by deriving explicitly the monadic approximation of the collecting semantics of N. Heintze and J. Jaffar (1992, “Set Based Program Analysis”; 1990, “Proc. 17th Symp. Principles of Programming Languages, ” pp. 197–209).

Authors

• Dexter Kozen

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