Z3Py: How do I set boolean variable declared in List? - z3

I have created a list of boolean variables like below:
lk=[Bool("a_0"), Bool("a_1"), Bool("a_2")]
I would like to initialize all these boolean variables to False.
If I write
for i in lk: i=False
It does not set variables a_0, a_1, a_2 to False.
How can I assign True or False values to variables declared in List in Z3Py? Help in this regard is highly appreciated.

The proper way to do this would be:
from z3 import *
lk = [Bool("a_0"), Bool("a_1"), Bool("a_2")]
s = Solver()
for i in lk:
s.add(i == False)
print(s.check())
print(s.model())
Note that we directly tell the solver that you want these variables to be set to False via the s.add calls. When I run this I get:
sat
[a_0 = False, a_1 = False, a_2 = False]
However, I suspect your actual intention is to "initialize" these variables, and later on change their value. This is not possible in z3py; you should not think of the values a_0, a_1, etc., as mutable variables like you'd have in regular Python: z3py is a "functional programming" environment, i.e., you cannot mutate declared variables. (Of course, you can assert constraints about them.)
If your intention is to model a programming language, where variables get declared, initialized, and mutated; you first have to convert to the so called SSA (static single assignment) form, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_single_assignment_form
There are other questions on stack-overflow that deal with similar issues. See this one, for instance: Z3py: Add value to computed result and make another check

Related

How do I create additional constraints from a model obtained by a solver in z3 Python API?

Once I have a constraint problem, I would like to see if it is satisfiable. Based on the returned model (when it is sat) I would like to add assertions and then run the solver again. However, it seems like I am misunderstanding some of the types/values contained in the returned model. Consider the following example:
solv = z3.Solver()
n = z3.Int("n")
solv.add(n >= 42)
solv.check() # This is satisfiable
model = solv.model()
for var in model:
# do something
solv.add(var == model[var])
solv.check() # This is unsat
I would expect that after the loop i essentially have the two constraints n >= 42 and n == 42, assuming of course that z3 produces the model n=42 in the first call. Despite this, in the second call check() returns unsat. What am I missing?
Sidenote: when replacing solv.add(var == model[var]) with solv.add(var >= model[var]) I get a z3.z3types.Z3Exception: Python value cannot be used as a Z3 integer. Why is that?
When you loop over a model, you do not get a variable that you can directly query. What you get is an internal representation, which can correspond to a constant, or it can correspond to something more complicated like a function or an array. Typically, you should query the model with the variables you have, i.e., with n. (As in model[n].)
You can fix your immediate problem like this:
for var in model:
solve.add(var() == model[var()])
but this'll only work assuming you have simple variables in the model, i.e., no uninterpreted-functions, arrays, or other objects. See this question for a detailed discussion: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11869410/936310
Similarly, your second expression throws an exception because while == is defined over arbitrary objects (though doing the wrong thing here), >= isn't. So, in a sense it's the "right" thing to do to throw an exception here. (That is, == should've thrown an exception as well.) Alas, the Python bindings are loosely typed, meaning it'll try to make sense of what you wrote, not necessarily always doing what you intended along the way.

Clarification on avoid_null_checks_in_equality_operators linter rule

There is a linter rule which verifies that one don't check for null equality in the overridden == operator.
The rule is here.
I understand this rule but can't see how it is realized technically.
It seems that Dart itself makes some implicit check on other != null and == returns false in this case. Is this correct?
In other languages, e.g. Java, one needs to explicitly add this check in the overridden equals.
Second question is why then it does not check automatically on the type of other as well. Why it is ok to spare me as a programmer from checking on null, but I still need to check if other is Person? Are there cases when one overrides == and checks there for some other type then the type of that class?
The linter rule implementation is simple, it just checks whether you compare the argument of operator == to null.
The reason you don't need to is that e1 == e2 in Dart is defined to first evaluate e1 and e2 to a value, then give a result early if one or both of the values is null, and only otherwise it calls the operator== method on the value of e1.
So, when that method is called, you know for certain that the argument is not null.
The reason the == operator doesn't do more checks before calling the operator== method is that there are examples where that would be wrong.
In particular, int and double can be equal to each other. Having instances of different classes potentially being equal to each other is more common that you'd think (proxies, mocks, wrappers, Cartesian point vs polar point, int vs double).
The other check you could potentially do early is to say that an object is equal to itself, so if (identical(this, other)) return true;, but there is one counter-example forced upon the language: NaN, aka. double.nan. That particular "value" is not equal to itself (which breaks the reflexivity requirement for ==, but is specified that way by the IEEE-754 standard which is what the CPUs implement natively).
If not for NaN, the language would probably have checked for identity before calling operator== too.
It seems that Dart itself makes some implicit check on other != null and == returns false in this case. Is this correct?
Yes.
Second question is why then it does not check automatically on the type of other as well. Why it is ok to spare me as a programmer from checking on null, but I still need to check if other is Person? Are there cases when one overrides == and checks there for some other type then the type of that class?
It's less common, but there can be cases where you might want to allow a different type on the right-hand-side of the equality. For example, the left-hand-side and right-hand-side might be easily convertible to each other or to a common type. Imagine that you created, say, a Complex number class and that you wanted Complex(real: 4.0, imaginary: 0.0) == 4 to be true.
From the doc:
no class can be equivalent to [null]
Meaning, when other is Person is true, then other != null is also true. This is because:
The null object is the sole instance of the built-in class Null.
(https://dart.dev/guides/language/spec)
So every instance check against any type but Null will return false for null:
class A {}
void main() {
final x = null;
final a = A();
print(x is Null); // true
print(x is A); // false
print(a is Null); // false
print(a is A); // true
}

Creating variables, pairs, and sets in Z3Py

this is a three part question on the use of the Python API to Z3 (Z3Py).
I thought I knew the difference between a constant and a variable but apparently not. I was thinking I could declare a sort and instantiate a variable of that sort as follows:
Node, (a1,a2,a3) = EnumSort('Node', ['a1','a2','a3'])
n1 = Node('n1') # c.f. x = Int('x')
But python throws an exception saying that you can't "call Node". The only thing that seems to work is to declare n1 a constant
Node, (a1,a2,a3) = EnumSort('Node', ['a1','a2','a3'])
n1 = Const('n1',Node)
but I'm baffled at this since I would think that a1,a2,a3 are the constants. Perhaps n1 is a symbolic constant, but how would I declare an actual variable?
How to create a constant set? I tried starting with an empty set and adding to it but that doesn't work
Node, (a1,a2,a3) = EnumSort('Node', ['a1','a2','a3'])
n1 = Const('n1',Node)
nodes = EmptySet(Node)
SetAdd(nodes, a1) #<-- want to create a set {a1}
solve([IsMember(n1,nodes)])
But this doesn't work Z3 returns no solution. On the other hand replacing the 3rd line with
nodes = Const('nodes',SetSort(Node))
is now too permissive, allowing Z3 to interpret nodes as any set of nodes that's needed to satisfy the formula. How do I create just the set {a1}?
Is there an easy way to create pairs, other than having to go through the datatype declaration which seems a bit cumbersome? eg
Edge = Datatype('Edge')
Edge.declare('pr', ('fst', Node), ('snd',Node))
Edge.create()
edge1 = Edge.pr(a1,a2)
Declaring Enums
Const is the right way to declare as you found out. It's a bit misleading indeed, but it is actually how all symbolic variables are created. For instance, you can say:
a = Const('a', IntSort())
and that would be equivalent to saying
a = Int('a')
It's just that the latter looks nicer, but in fact it's merely a function z3 folks defined that sort of does what the former does. If you like that syntax, you can do the following:
NodeSort, (a1,a2,a3) = EnumSort('Node', ['a1','a2','a3'])
def Node(nm):
return Const(nm, NodeSort)
Now you can say:
n1 = Node ('n1')
which is what you intended I suppose.
Inserting to sets
You're on the right track; but keep in mind that the function SetAdd does not modify the set argument. It just creates a new one. So, simply give it a name and use it like this:
emptyNodes = EmptySet(Node)
myNodes = SetAdd(emptyNodes, a1)
solve([IsMember(n1,myNodes)])
Or, you can simply substitute:
mySet = SetAdd(SetAdd(EmptySet(Node), a1), a2)
which would create the set {a1, a2}.
As a rule of thumb, the API tries to be always functional, i.e., no destructive updates to existing variables, but you instead create new values out of old.
Working with pairs
That's the only way. But nothing is stopping you from defining your own functions to simplify this task, just like we did with the Node function in the first part. After all, z3py is essentially Python library and z3 folks did a lot of work to make it nicer, but you also have the entire power of Python to simplify your life. In fact, many other interfaces to z3 from other languages (Scala, Haskell, O'Caml etc.) precisely do that to provide a much easier to work with API using the features of their respective host languages.

Lua - Why don't Global variables need declarations?

According to Lua's manual
Global variables do not need declarations. You simply assign a value to a global variable to create it. It is not an error to access a non-initialized variable; you just get the special value nil as the result
I think declaration is good, it makes thing more manageable. Why did Lua skip declarations for Global variables? I guess they have a good reason but I don't know why.
What if I make this mistake
-- Activation Code
function TestLoco:OnActivate()
self.MyGlobal = "ABC"; --Init the global variable
end
-- Run every tick
function TestLoco:OnTick()
self.MyGIobaI = "BCD"; --Edit the global variable at every tick, but I mistake 'I' with 'l'
end
-- Call when I click the mouse
function TestLoco:OnClick()
Debug.Log(self.MyGlobal); --This print "ABC", but It should be "BCD", what if I don't notice this?
end
Because Lua has no classes. self.MyGlobal is not a global variable, it is a field in the table passed via the self parameter. The syntax is equivalent to self["MyGlobal"]. For a "true" global variable assignment (e.g. x = 0), it is equivalent to _G["x"] = 0, where _G is the global environment table.
Since Lua has no notion of classes, the type of self is simply a table. The syntax you use for specifying a "method" is just a syntactic shortcut to this:
TestLoco.OnActivate = function(self)
self["MyGlobal"] = "ABC";
end
It's just a function that assigns a field in a table. It could be called with potentially any table, hence it cannot verify the table actually should have that field.
However, Lua offers some pretty good run-time customisable checking via metatables. If you build a table specifying the "class" of a table, you can assign a metatable to every table that checks the assignment each time if it assigns to a field that you actually "declared".

In Z3: how if then else based conditions be formulated (based on evaluations of variables)?

I'm new to Z3 and still couldn't find how I can express conditional new assignments based on the different possible evaluations. In If-then-else example in
https://github.com/Z3Prover/z3/blob/master/examples/c/test_capi.c#L1846
I still need to make the assignment to true or false, and when I want to make it true or false based on possible evaluations of another variable. How can I do this?
In the evaluation example I want the value calculated to be used to affect the still not evaluated values that are going to be checked by assertion later. So if this is the way how I can return back the model UN-evaluated with the new (evaluation based) conditions to the context again? i.e. I want to do composite conditions without final evaluations. Is that possible?
The following line from ite_example():
ite = Z3_mk_ite(ctx, f, one, zero)
creates an expression that will evaluate to whatever the (symbolic) term one evaluates to, if f evaluates to true, or alternatively to whatever zero evaluates to, if f evalautes to false. In ite_example, f always evaluates to false, but it may be any other (symbolic) term of Boolean sort.
For example,
x = mk_int_var(ctx, "x");
y = mk_int_var(ctx, "y");
x_eq_y = Z3_mk_eq(ctx, x, y);
will create a term called x_eq_y, representing "x = y", which is of Boolean sort.

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