how can I make a datatype that contains a set of another objects. Basically, I am doing the following code:
(define-sort Set(T) (Array Int T))
(declare-datatypes () ((A f1 (cons (value Int) (b (Set B))))
(B f2 (cons (id Int) (a (Set A))))
))
But Z3 tells me unknown sort for A and B. If I remove “Set” it works just as the guide states.
I was trying to use List instead but it does not work. Anyone knows how to make it work?
You are addressing a question that comes up on a regular basis:
how can I mix data-types and arrays (as sets, multi-sets or
data-types in the range)?
As stated above Z3 does not support mixing data-types
and arrays in a single declaration.
A solution is to develop a custom solver for the
mixed datatype + array theory. Z3 contains programmatic
APIs for developing custom solvers.
It is still useful to develop this example
to illustrate the capabilities and limitations
of encoding theories with quantifiers and triggers.
Let me simplify your example by just using A.
As a work-around you can define an auxiliary sort.
The workaround is not ideal, though. It illustrates some
axiom ‘hacking’. It relies on the operational semantics
of how quantifiers are instantiated during search.
Then define bijections between (Set A), SetA.
This is almost what the data-type declaration states.
To enforce well-foundedness you can associate an ordinal with members of A
and enforce that members of SetA are smaller in the well-founded ordering:
With the axioms so far, a1 can be a member of itself.
We now associate an ordinal number with the members of A.
By default quantifier instantiation in Z3 is pattern-based.
The first quantified assert above will not be instantiated on all
relevant instances. One can instead assert:
Axioms like these, that use two patterns (called a multi-pattern)
are quite expensive. They produce instantiations for every pair
of (select x2 a) and (cons v x1)
The membership constraint from before is now unsatisfiable.
but models are not necessarily well formed yet.
the default value of the set is ‘true’, which
would mean that the model implies there is a membership cycle
when there isn’t one.
We can approximate more faithful models by using
the following approach to enforce that sets that are
used in data-types are finite.
For example, whenever there is a membership check on a set x2,
we enforce that the ‘default’ value of the set is ‘false’.
Alternatively, whenever a set occurs in a data-type constructor
it is finite
Throughout the inclusion of additional axioms,
Z3 produces the answer ‘unknown’ and furthermore
the model that is produced indicates that the domain SetA
is finite (a singleton). So while we could patch the defaults
this model still does not satisfy the axioms. It satisfies
the axioms modulo instantiation only.