Integrating Complex Data Structures in Prolog

.Computer Science has produced several data structures and algorithms on them to efficiently solve computational problems. Some algorithms require destructive operations for their efficient implementation or have other properties which make them difficult to implement efficiently in Prolog. If they are to be introduced in Prolog, these data structures and algorithms must be implemented at a lower level. We investigate how such data structures, possibly with a complicated internal representation, can be naturally incorporated as first class terms in Prolog. Implementation problems are discussed for a number of alternative solutions. Four examples of data structures: (hash) tables, arrays, characters, and strings are examined individually. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1987 Symposium on Logic Programming in San Francisco. The research reported herein was supported by the National Swedish Board for Technical Development (STU). 1. PROBLEM Edinburgh Prolog is a sm..