The proper treatment of undefinedness in constraint languages

Alan M. Frisch, Peter J. Stuckey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Any sufficiently complex finite-domain constraint modelling language has the ability to express undefined values, for example division by zero, or array index out of bounds. This paper gives the first systematic treatment of undefinedness for finite-domain constraint languages. We present three alternative semantics for undefinedness, and for each of the semantics show how to map models that contain undefined expressions into equivalent models that do not. The resulting models can be implemented using existing constraint solving technology.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPrinciples and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP 2009
Subtitle of host publication15th International Conference, CP 2009 Lisbon, Portugal, September 20-24, 2009 Proceedings
PublisherSpringer
Pages367-382
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-642-04244-7
ISBN (Print)978-3-642-04243-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
PublisherSpringer
Volume5732
ISSN (Print)0302-9743

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