Solving String Constraints: The Case for Constraint Programming

We improve an existing propagator for the context-free grammar constraint and demonstrate experimentally the practicality of the resulting propagator. The underlying technique could be applied to other existing propagators for this constraint. We argue that constraint programming solvers are more suitable than existing solvers for verification tools that have to solve string constraints, as they have a rich tradition of constraints for membership in formal languages.

[1]  Mats Carlsson,et al.  Deriving Filtering Algorithms from Constraint Checkers , 2004, CP.

[2]  Gilles Pesant,et al.  A Regular Language Membership Constraint for Finite Sequences of Variables , 2004, CP.

[3]  Serdar Kadioglu,et al.  Efficient Context-Free Grammar Constraints , 2008, AAAI.

[4]  Robin Milner,et al.  On Observing Nondeterminism and Concurrency , 1980, ICALP.

[5]  Serdar Kadioglu,et al.  Grammar constraints , 2009, Constraints.

[6]  Toby Walsh,et al.  Global Grammar Constraints , 2006, CP.

[7]  Steve Hanna,et al.  A Symbolic Execution Framework for JavaScript , 2010, 2010 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

[8]  Jeffrey D. Ullman,et al.  Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation , 1979 .

[9]  守屋 悦朗,et al.  J.E.Hopcroft, J.D. Ullman 著, "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", Addison-Wesley, A5変形版, X+418, \6,670, 1979 , 1980 .

[10]  Meinolf Sellmann.  The Theory of Grammar Constraints , 2006, CP.

[11]  Toby Walsh,et al.  Reformulating Global Grammar Constraints , 2009, CPAIOR.

[12]  Christian Bessière.  Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP 2007, 13th International Conference, CP 2007, Providence, RI, USA, September 23-27, 2007, Proceedings , 2007, CP.

[13]  Michael D. Ernst,et al.  HAMPI: a solver for string constraints , 2009, ISSTA.

[14]  Peter J. Stuckey,et al.  Explaining Propagators for s-DNNF Circuits , 2012, CPAIOR.

[15]  David L. Dill,et al.  A Decision Procedure for Bit-Vectors and Arrays , 2007, CAV.

[16]  Xiang Fu,et al.  Simple linear string constraints , 2013, Formal Aspects of Computing.

[17]  Jun He,et al.  Constraints for membership in formal languages under systematic search and stochastic local search , 2015, Constraints.

[18]  Christian Bessiere,et al.  Arc-Consistency and Arc-Consistency Again , 1993, Artif. Intell..

[19]  Martin Lange,et al.  Analyzing Context-Free Grammars Using an Incremental SAT Solver , 2008, ICALP.

[20]  Gilles Pesant,et al.  A Cost-Regular Based Hybrid Column Generation Approach , 2006, Constraints.

[21]  Laurence A. Wolsey,et al.  Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, 4th International Conference, CPAIOR 2007, Brussels, Belgium, May 23-26, 2007, Proceedings , 2007, CPAIOR.

[22]  Mark Wallace,et al.  Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming – CP 2004 , 2004, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[23]  Frédéric Benhamou.  Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming - CP 2006, 12th International Conference, CP 2006, Nantes, France, September 25-29, 2006, Proceedings , 2006, CP.

[24]  Nicolas Beldiceanu,et al.  9th International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (CPAIOR'12) , 2012 .

[25]  Thomas C. Henderson,et al.  Arc and Path Consistency Revisited , 1986, Artif. Intell..

[26]  Toby Walsh,et al.  The weighted Grammar constraint , 2011, Ann. Oper. Res..

[27]  Toby Walsh,et al.  Decomposing Global Grammar Constraints , 2007, CP.