Converting Constraint Handling Rules to Equivalent Transformation Rules

Abstract

We present a way to convert constraint handling rules (CHRs) to equivalent transformation rules (ETRs) and demonstrate the correctness of the conversion in equivalent transformation (ET) theory. In the ET computation model, computation is regarded as equivalent transformations of a description. A description is transformed successively by ETRs. Extensively used in the domain of first-order terms, the ET computation model has also been applied to knowledge processing in such data domains as RDF, UML, and XML. A CHR is a multiheaded guarded rule that rewrites constraints into simpler ones until they are solved. CHRs and ETRs are similar in syntax but they have completely different theoretical bases for the correctness of their computation. CHRs are based on the logical equivalence of logical formulas, while ETRs are based on the set equivalence of descriptions. We convert CHRs to rules used in the ET model and demonstrate converted rules to be correct ETRs, i.e., they preserve meanings of descriptions. We discuss correspondences and differences between CHRs and ETRs in theories, giving examples of correct ETRs that cannot be represented as CHRs.