On the Reification of Global Constraints

Nicolas Beldiceanu (1) , Mats Carlsson (2) , Pierre Flener (3) , Justin Pearson (3)

1 TASC - Theory, Algorithms and Systems for Constraints
2 SICS
3 DIT-UPPSALA - Department of Information Technology

We introduce a simple idea for deriving reified global constraints in a systematic way. It is based on the observation that most global constraints can be reformulated as a conjunction of pure functional dependency constraints together with a constraint that can be easily reified. We first show how the core constraints of the Global Constraint Catalogue can be reified and we then identify several reification categories that apply to at least 82% of the constraints in the Global Constraint Catalogue.

Domaines: Mathématique discrète [cs.DM]

Nicolas Beldiceanu, Mats Carlsson, Pierre Flener, Justin Pearson. On the Reification of Global Constraints. 2012. ⟨hal-00754039⟩