Data Type Inference for Logic Programming

Abstract: In this paper we present a new static data type inference algorithm for logic programming. Without the need of declaring types for predicates, our algorithm is able to automatically assign types to predicates which, in most cases, correspond to the data types processed by their intended meaning. The algorithm is also able to infer types given data type definitions similar to data definitions in Haskell and, in this case, the inferred types are more informative in general. We present the type inference algorithm, prove some properties and finally, we evaluate our approach on example programs that deal with different data structures.