Skip to main content

Improving ASP Instantiators by Join-Ordering Methods

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Logic Programming and Nonmotonic Reasoning (LPNMR 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2173))

Abstract

Most Answer Set Programming (ASP) systems, including DLV and Smodels, are endowed with an instantiation module. The instantiator generates a new program which is equivalent to the input program, but does not contain any variables (i.e., it is ground). Normal (i.e., disjunction-free) stratified programs are completely solved by the instantiator, which generates the output model directly.

The instantiation process may be computationally expensive in some cases, and the instantiator is crucial for the efficiency of the entire ASP system. In this paper, we propose to employ join-ordering techniques to improve the instantiation process.We design a new join-ordering method, and adapt a classical database method to this context. We implement these techniques in the ASP system DLV, and we carry out an experimentation activity on a collection of benchmark problems taken from different domains. The results of experiments are very positive, the new techniques improve sensibly the efficiency of the DLV system, whose instantiation module confirms to be a main strong point of DLV w.r.t. the other ASP systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. D. East and M. Truszczyński. dcs: An implementation of DATALOG with Constraints. In C. Baral and M. Truszczyński, editors, Proc. of NMR’2000, Colorado, USA, 2000. 280

    Google Scholar 

  2. U. Egly, T. Eiter, H. Tompits, and S. Woltran. Solving Advanced Reasoning Tasks using Quantified Boolean Formulas. In Proc. of AAAI’00, pp. 417–422. 280

    Google Scholar 

  3. T. Eiter, W. Faber, N. Leone, and G. Pfeifer. Declarative Problem-Solving Using the DLV System. In J. Minker, editor, Logic-Based Artificial Intelligence, pp. 79–103. Kluwer Academic Pub., 2000. 280, 282

    Google Scholar 

  4. T. Eiter, G. Gottlob, and H. Mannila. Disjunctive Datalog. ACM TODS, 22(3):364–418, 1997. 281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. T. Eiter, N. Leone, C. Mateis, G. Pfeifer, and F. Scarcello. A Deductive System for Nonmonotonic Reasoning. In Proc. of LPNMR’97, LNAI 1265, pp. 363–374, Berlin, 1997, Springer. 280, 281

    Google Scholar 

  6. W. Faber, N. Leone, C. Mateis, and G. Pfeifer. Using Database Optimization Techniques for Nonmonotonic Reasoning. In Proc. of DDLP’99, pp. 135–139. 1999. 281, 283

    Google Scholar 

  7. W. Faber, N. Leone, C. Mateis, and G. Pfeifer. Using Database Optimization Techniques for Nonmonotonic Reasoning. Technical Report DBAI-TR-99-33, Institut füsr Informationssysteme, Technische Universität Wien, Austria, May 1999. 283

    Google Scholar 

  8. W. Faber and G. Pfeifer. DLV homepage. http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/proj/dlv/ 286

  9. H. Garcia-Molina, J. D. Ullman, and J. Widom. Database System Implementation. Prentice Hall, 2000. 286, 287, 288 4 Note that each disjunctive rule with 2 head-atoms is rewritten in 2 or-free rules for lparse. Moreover, weight constraints-the higher level constructs of Smodels-could provide a more succint encoding in some cases including, e.g., TIMETABLING and BLOCKSWORLD, even if they do not appear helpful in RAMSEY, CRISTAL and HANOI.

    Google Scholar 

  10. M. Gelfond and V. Lifschitz. Classical Negation in Logic Programs and Disjunctive Databases. New Generation Computing, 9:365–385, 1991. 281, 282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. G. Gottlob, N. Leone, and F. Scarcello. Hypertree decompositions and tractable queries. In Proc. of PODS’99, pp. 21–32, May 1999. To appear in JCSS. 290

    Google Scholar 

  12. V. Lifschitz. Answer set planning. In D. D. Schreye, editor, Proc. of ICLP’99, pp. 23–37, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, Nov. 1999. The MIT Press. 281

    Google Scholar 

  13. N. McCain and H. Turner. Satisfiability planning with causal theories. Proc. of KR’98, pp. 212–223. Morgan Kaufmann Pub., 1998. 280

    Google Scholar 

  14. I. Niemelä and P. Simons. Smodels-an implementation of the stable model and well-founded semantics for normal logic programs. In Proc. of LPNMR’97, LNAI 1265, pp. 420–429, Dagstuhl, Germany, July 1997. Springer Verlag. 280, 291

    Google Scholar 

  15. T. C. Przymusinski. Stable Semantics for Disjunctive Programs. New Generation Computing, 9:401–424, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  16. S. Radziszowski. Small Ramsey Numbers. The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 1, 1999. 290

    Google Scholar 

  17. P. Rao, K. F. Sagonas, T. Swift, D. S. Warren, and J. Freire. XSB: A System for Efficiently Computing Well-Founded Semantics. In Proc. of LPNMR’97, LNAI 1265, pp. 2–17, Dagstuhl, Germany, July 1997. Springer Verlag. 280

    Google Scholar 

  18. P. Simons. Smodels homepage. http://<www.tcs.hut.fi/Software/smodels/. 291

  19. P. Simons. Extending and Implementing the Stable Model Semantics. PhD thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, 2000. 280

    Google Scholar 

  20. J. D. Ullman. Principles of Database and Knowledge Base Systems. Computer Science Press, 1989. 282

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Leone, N., Perri, S., Scarcello, F. (2001). Improving ASP Instantiators by Join-Ordering Methods. In: Eiter, T., Faber, W., Truszczyński, M.l. (eds) Logic Programming and Nonmotonic Reasoning. LPNMR 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2173. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45402-0_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45402-0_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42593-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45402-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics