Constraint satisfaction using constraint logic programming

Constraint logic programming (CLP) is a new class of declarative programming languages whose primitive operations are based on constraints (e.g. constraint solving and constraint entailment). CLP languages naturally combine constraint propagation with nondeterministic choices. As a consequence, they are particularly appropriate for solving a variety of combinatorial search problems, using the global search paradigm, with short development time and efficiency comparable to procedural tools based on the same approach. In this paper, we describe how the CLP language cc(FD), a successor of CHIP using consistency techniques over finite domains, can be used to solve two practical applications: test-pattern generation and car sequencing. For both applications, we present the cc(FD) program, describe how constraint solving is performed, report experimental results, and compare the approach with existing tools.