Predicate (Programming logic)

Originally published at derk-jan.com. I have recently taken up writing, again and am trying to commit to at least one helpful post each week for the next 49 weeks.

In university I had to study Prolog when using Goal, in order to create an agent (artificial intelligence) to play and win capture the flag in Unreal Tournament. This article is not about Prolog, or Goal, but it helps me to mentally model what predicates are.

Predicates in English

In English, a predicate is a verb phrase template that describes a property, or a relationship, represented by the variables in that template. For example, the phrases "Jessica is running", "The program is running" and "The machine that assembles the car parts is running" all come from the same template "x is running", where x is replaced by the appropriate noun or noun phrase. The phrase "is running" is a predicate, and it describe the property of 'being in a running state'.

This does not limit itself to properties, as "The function produces an error when it runs", "The operation produces a value when it compiles" and "The API produces a new model when it is deployed" are all created by substituting the a, b and c in the template "a produces b when c". The latter is a predicate and describes the relationship between two objects and a state. This could be represented as Produces(A, B, C) or even P(a, b, c).

Predicates in Programming

Now, in mathematical logic, predicates are usually Boolean-valued functions which isn't much more than a function that takes a set of inputs, and only outputs a boolean value.

For example:

number = 2

isEven(number)
// => true

The function isEven takes a set of inputs (all natural numbers) and returns true or false, based on the predicate. More concretely, it returns true if it satisfies the predicate, and false otherwise. The function isEven is therefore a predicate.

Apart from specifically creating functions that return true or false, predicates are used all over. For example, in many languages there is a filter() function on something that is enumerable, like a list-like data structure.

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.function.Predicate;

public class JavaExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Integer> numbers = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34);
        Predicate<Integer> isEven = n -> n % 2 == 0;

        numbers.stream()
               .filter(isEven)
               .forEach(System.out::println);
  }
}

// 2
// 8
// 34

In this Java example, the lambda (anonymous function, which we've named isEven) has the type Predicate<Integer>, which is a function that takes an Integer and returns true or false. The function is a predicate. The predicate is passed into the function .filter(), which will execute the predicate for each item in the list.

isEven(1)
// => false

isEven(2)
// => true

isEven(5)
// => false

isEven(8)
// => true

isEven(13)
// => false

isEven(21)
// => false

isEven(34)
// => false

The final "list" of items that makes it to the .forEach are those that evaluate to true, because that is what .filter() does: keep the items for which the predicate returns true.

A language doesn't need to be typed to support predicates. Here is the equivalent example in JavaScript:

const numbers = [
  1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
]

const isEven = (n) => n % 2 === 0

numbers
  .filter(isEven)
  .forEach((i) => console.log(i))

// 2
// 8
// 34

Again, each value in the numbers array is given to the isEven() predicate, and those that evaluate the predicate to true, will be kept (and are then logged in the .forEach). It doesn't really matter if you name the predicate, using an in-line, anonymous function doesn't change the fact that it's a predicate:

const numbers = [
  1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
]

numbers
  .filter((n) => n % 2 === 0)
  .forEach((i) => console.log(i))

// 2
// 8
// 34

Ruby has a language feature built-in to support predicates! Predicate methods in Ruby are those methods that end with a question mark ?; they return either true or false. The same example in Ruby looks a bit like this:

NUMBERS = [1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34]

NUMBERS.select { |i| i.even? }
       .each { |i| p i }

# Or alternatively
NUMBERS.select(&:even?)
       .each { |i| p i }

# 2
# 8
# 34
# => [2, 8, 34]

Conclusion

Predicates are used all over, and now you can name them as such. Each time a function (e.g. .filter()) takes an argument - an argument that must be a function itself; a function which returns true or false based on some input (e.g isEven) - you know you're dealing with a predicate.

Oh, and in Prolog? In Prolog define an even predicate like this:

even(X) :- 0 is mod(X, 2).

? even(1)
false

? even(2)
true

And then filter a list based on even items:

/** Predicates */

even(X) :- 0 is mod(X, 2).
odd(X)  :- 1 is mod(X, 2).

/**
 * Filter the list on even elements only
 * 1. true when empty
 * 2. otherwise, there are two options
 *    - if Element (first item) is odd, the Next list does not get Element
 *    - if Element is even, the Next list gets Element
 */
filter([], []).
filter([Element|Tail],        Next) :-  odd(Element), filter(Tail, Next).
filter([Element|Tail], [Element|T]) :- even(Element), filter(Tail, T).

/**
 * Prints a list by iteration through each element
 * 1. true when empty
 * 2. separate Element (first item) and the Tail (...rest)
 *    - write the element + new line
 *    - continue printlist with the tail of the list
 */
printlist([]).
printlist([Element|Tail]) :-
    write(Element),nl,
    printlist(Tail).


?- filter([1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34], NewList), printlist(NewList).

2
8
34

Want these short articles in your e-mail? 📧 Sign up for my newsletter.