Revision as of 22:26, 16 February 2014

This page is about strings in CVC4

Syntax

The Theory of Strings (Quantifier-Free) logic symbol:

 (set-logic QF_S)

The logic symbol is IMPORTANT to the Theory of String, and it has to be set up. The default symbol (no symbol), or ALL_SUPPORTED symbol, does NOT work for Strings.

If the constraints contain more theories, please add them accordingly, e.g. if it contains BitVector, the symbol should be QF_SBV.

Options

To use finite model finding mode (false by default):

 (set-option :strings-fmf true)

To set up depth of unrolling regular expression used by the theory of strings (10 by default):

 (set-option :strings-regexp-depth 20)

To select the strategy of LB rule application: 0-lazy, 1-eager, 2-no (0 by default):

 (set-option :strings-lb 1)

To use the experimental functions (disabled by default):

 (set-option :strings-exp true)

To set up string alphabet cardinality (256 by default, in progress):

 (set-option :strings-alphabet-card n)

Escaped Character Literals

The backslash character (\) : when followed by a character that is not recognized as an escaped character, matches that character. For example, \" matches a double quote(").

In CVC4 string literal output, a non-printable character is printed in the format \xNN, where NN matches its ASCII character, except for \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, which are printed directly.

Strings

To define a string variable:

 (def-fun x () String)

String Concatenation:

 (str.++ s t)

where s, t are string terms.

String Length:

 (str.len s)

where s is a string term.

Regular Expression

Membership Constraint:

 (str.in.re s r)

where s is a string term and r is a regular expression.

String to Regular Expression Conversion:

 (str.to.re s)

where s is a string term. The statement turns a regular expression that only contains a string s.

Regular Expression Concatenation:

 (re.++ r_1 r_2 ... r_n)

where r_1, r_2, ..., r_n are regular expressions.

Regular Expression Alternation:

 (re.or r_1 r_2 ... r_n)

where r_1, r_2, ..., r_n are regular expressions.

Regular Expression Intersection:

 (re.itr r_1 r_2 ... r_n)

where r_1, r_2, ..., r_n are regular expressions.

Regular Expression Kleene-Star:

 (re.* r)

where r is a regular expression.

Regular Expression Kleene-Cross:

 (re.+ r)

where r is a regular expression.

Regular Expression Option:

 (re.opt r)

where r is a regular expression.

Regular Expression Range:

 (re.range s t)

where s, t are single characters in double quotes, e.g. "a", "b". It returns a regular expression that contains any character between s and t.

Partial Functions

By the definition of partial functions in SMT-Lib Document, the following constraint is satisfiable:

 (assert (= (str.substr "a" 2 1) "b"))

However, the following constraints are unsatisfiable:

 (assert (= (str.substr "a" 2 1) "b"))
 (assert (= (str.substr "a" 2 1) "c"))

To achieve a desirable goal, it requires users to guard proper conditions. For example,

 (assert (= (str.at x j) "b"))
 (assert (> j 0))
 (assert (> (str.len x) j))

Extension

Together with other engine in CVC4, we can extend new functionality in the theory of strings. For example,

 (define-fun fun1 ((?x String) (?s String)) Bool
   (or (= ?x ?s)
       (> (str.len ?x) (str.len ?s))
    ))

Quantifiers over bounded Integers (with string variables) are supported in the experimental mode; however, quantifiers over strings are still under development.

Limitation

The decidability of this theory is unknown. For satisfiable problems (without extensions), our solver is sound, complete and terminating in the FMF mode. For unsatisfiable problems, the termination is not guaranteed; however, user can tune the options for termination.

Example

Find an assignment for x, where x."ab"="ba".x and the length of x equals to 7.

 (set-logic QF_S)
 
 (declare-fun x () String)
 
 (assert (= (str.++ x "ab") (str.++ "ba" x)))
 (assert (= (str.len x) 7))
 
 (check-sat)

Find assignments for x and y, where x and y are distinct and their lengths are equal.

 (set-logic QF_S)
 
 (declare-fun x () String)
 (declare-fun y () String)
 
 (assert (not (=  x y)))
 (assert (= (str.len x) (str.len y)))
 
 (check-sat)

Find assignments for x and y, where x.y != y.x.

 (set-logic QF_S)
 
 (declare-fun x () String)
 (declare-fun y () String)
 (assert (not (= (str.++ x y) (str.++ y x))))
 
 (check-sat)

Find a model for x, y and z, where x."ab".y=y."ba".z and z=x.y and x."a"!="a".x.

 (set-logic QF_S)
 
 (declare-fun x () String)
 (declare-fun y () String)
 (declare-fun z () String)
 
 (assert (= (str.++ x "ab" y) (str.++ y "ba" z)))
 (assert (= z (str.++ x y)))
 (assert (not (= (str.++ x "a") (str.++ "a" x))))
 
 (check-sat)

Find a model for x and y, where both x and y are in the RegEx (a*b)* and they are different but have the same length.

 (set-logic QF_S)
 (set-option :strings-fmf true)
 
 (declare-fun x () String)
 (declare-fun y () String)
 
 (assert
   (str.in.re x
      (re.* (re.++ (re.* (str.to.re "a") ) (str.to.re "b") ))))
 (assert (str.in.re y
      (re.* (re.++ (re.* (str.to.re "a") ) (str.to.re "b") ))))
 
 (assert (not (= x y)))
 (assert (= (str.len x) (str.len y)))
 
 (check-sat)