Term comparison

6.3 | Term comparison

6.3.1 | Standard total ordering of terms

The built-in predicates described in this section allows the user to compare Prolog terms. Prolog terms are totally ordered according to the standard total ordering of terms which is as follows (from the smallest term to the greatest):

- variables, oldest first.
- finite domain variables (section 7.1.1), oldest first.
- floating point numbers, in numeric order.
- integers, in numeric order.
- atoms, in alphabetical (i.e. character code) order.
- compound terms, ordered first by arity, then by the name of the principal functor and by the arguments in left-to-right order.

A list is treated as a compound term (whose principal functor is `'.'/2`).
The portability of the order of variables is not guaranteed (in the ISO reference the oder of variables is system dependent).

6.3.2 | `(==)/2` - term identical, `(``\``==)/2` - term not identical, `(@``<``)/2` - term less than, `(@=``<``)/2` - term less than or equal to, `(@``>``)/2` - term greater than, `(@``>``=)/2` - term greater than or equal to

Templates

  `==(?term, ?term)
  ``\``==(?term, ?term)
  @``<``(?term, ?term)
  @=``<``(?term, ?term)
  @``>``(?term, ?term)
  @``>``=(?term, ?term)`

Description
These predicates compare two terms according to the standard total ordering of terms (section 6.3.1).
`Term1 == Term2` succeeds if `Term1` and `Term2` are equal.
`Term1` `\``== Term2` succeeds if `Term1` and `Term2` are different.
`Term1 @``<``Term2` succeeds if `Term1` is less than `Term2`.
`Term1 @=``<``Term2` succeeds if `Term1` is less than or equal to `Term2`.
`Term1 @``>``Term2` succeeds if `Term1` is greater than `Term2`.
`Term1 @``>``= Term2` succeeds if `Term1` is greater than or equal to `Term2`.
`==`, `\``==`, `@``<`, `@=``<`, `@``>` and `@``>``=` are predefined infix operators (section 6.14.10).
Errors
None.
Portability
ISO predicates.

6.3.3 | `compare/3`

Templates

  `compare(?atom, +term, +term)`

Description
`compare(Result, Term1, Term2)` compares `Term1` and `Term2` according to the standard (section 6.3.1) and unifies `Result` with:

- the atom `<` if `Term1` is less than `Term2`.
- the atom `=` if `Term1` and `Term2` are equal.
- the atom `>` if `Term1` is greater than `Term2`.

Errors

`Result` is neither a variable nor an atom |  | `type_error(atom, Result)`

Portability
GNU Prolog predicate.

Copyright (C) 1999,2000 Daniel Diaz
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