RabbitFarm

The examples used here are from the weekly challenge problem statement and demonstrate the working solution.

Part 1

You are given an array of words made up of alphabets only. Write a script to find the number of pairs of similar words. Two words are similar if they consist of the same characters.

Solution

similar(A, B, Similar):-
    atom_codes(A, ACodes),
    sort(ACodes, ASorted),
    atom_codes(B, BCodes),
    sort(BCodes, BSorted),
    (ASorted = BSorted, Similar = 1);
    Similar = 0.

count_similar_pairs([], 0).
count_similar_pairs([Word|Words], PairsSimilar):-
    count_similar_pairs(Words, P), 
    maplist(similar(Word), Words, Similar), !,
    sum_list(Similar, SimilarCount),
    PairsSimilar is P + SimilarCount.

Sample Run

$ gprolog --consult-file prolog/ch-1.p
| ?- count_similar_pairs([aba, aabb, abcd, bac, aabc], PairsSimilar).

PairsSimilar = 2

yes
| ?- count_similar_pairs([aabb, ab, ba], PairsSimilar).              

PairsSimilar = 3

(1 ms) yes
| ?- count_similar_pairs([nba, cba, dba], PairsSimilar).             

PairsSimilar = 0

yes
| ?- 

Notes

Similarity of words is determined by doing a pairwise comparison of the unique character codes. I've gotten into the habit of counting things by using maplist with a predicate that provides a list of 0 and 1 elements. The count is done by summing the list. Here the counting is done in this way by similar/3. count_similar_pairs/2 recursively considers all pairs.

Part 2

You are given an array of integers. Write a script to sort the given array in increasing order based on the frequency of the values. If multiple values have the same frequency then sort them in decreasing order.

Solution

kvf_insert_sort(List,Sorted):-
    i_sort(List,[],Sorted).

i_sort([],Acc,Acc).
i_sort([H|T],Acc,Sorted):-
    kvf_insert(H,Acc,NAcc),
    i_sort(T,NAcc,Sorted).

kvf_insert(K0-V0,[K1-V1|T],[K1-V1|NT]):-
    V0 > V1,
    kvf_insert(K0-V0,T,NT).
kvf_insert(K0-V0,[K1-V1|T],[K0-V0,K1-V1|T]):-
    V0 < V1.
kvf_insert(K0-V0,[K1-V1|T],[K1-V1|NT]):-
    V0 = V1,
    K0 < K1,
    kvf_insert(K0-V0,T,NT).
kvf_insert(K0-V0,[K1-V1|T],[K0-V0,K1-V1|T]):-
    V0 = V1,
    K0 > K1.    
kvf_insert(K0-V0, [], [K0-V0]).

frequency_writer(_-0).
frequency_writer(K-F):-
    write(K),
    write(', '),
    succ(X, F),
    frequency_writer(K-X).

write_frequencies([K-F|[]]):-
    succ(X, F),
    frequency_writer(K-X),
    write(K),
    nl.
write_frequencies([H|T]):-
    frequency_writer(H),
    write_frequencies(T).

frequency_counter(Numbers, Number, Number-Count):-
    length(Numbers, StartCount),
    delete(Numbers, Number, NumberDeleted),
    length(NumberDeleted, EndCount),
    Count is StartCount - EndCount.

frequency_sorter(Numbers, FrequencySorted):-
    sort(Numbers, UniqueNumbers),
    maplist(frequency_counter(Numbers), UniqueNumbers, Frequencies),
    kvf_insert_sort(Frequencies, FrequencySorted).

Sample Run

$ gprolog --consult-file prolog/ch-2.p
| ?- frequency_sorter([1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3], Sorted), write_frequencies(Sorted).
3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2

Sorted = [3-1,1-2,2-3] ? 

(1 ms) yes
| ?- frequency_sorter([2, 3, 1, 3, 2], Sorted), write_frequencies(Sorted).
1, 3, 3, 2, 2

Sorted = [1-1,3-2,2-2] ? 

(1 ms) yes
| ?- frequency_sorter([-1, 1, -6, 4, 5, -6, 1, 4, 1], Sorted), write_frequencies(Sorted).
5, -1, 4, 4, -6, -6, 1, 1, 1

Sorted = [5-1,-1-1,4-2,-6-2,1-3] ? 

(1 ms) yes
| ?- 

Notes

First off, we get a count of the frequencies of each number in the list, via a maplist with frequency_counter/3. After that is when we hit the real complexity of the problem. This problem requires a somewhat unique idea of sorting frequencies! The frequencies have been built as key-value pairs but an ordinary sort or key sort won't work here for these unique requirements. All the required unique sort logic is contained in the kvf_insert_sort/2 and related predicates. This is a modification of insertion sort found in Roman Barták's Guide to Prolog Programming.

With the list of frequencies sorted all that is left is to print the result as specified, which is the work of write_frequencies/1. Those somewhat lengthy looking predicates expand the key-value pairs from the sorted result and print them in the new order.

References

Sort Algorithms in Prolog

Challenge 233