Skip to main content
Log in

Global Constraint Catalogue: Past, Present and Future

  • Published:
Constraints Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The catalogue of global constraints is reviewed, focusing on the graph-based description of global constraints. A number of possible enhancements are proposed as well as several research paths for the development of the area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Aggoun, A.,  & Beldiceanu, N. (1993). Extending CHIP in order to solve complex scheduling and placement problems. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 17(7), 57–73.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Baptiste, P.,  & Le Pape, C. (2000). Constraint propagation and decomposition techniques for highly disjunctive and highly cumulative project scheduling problems. Constraints, 5(1/2), 119–139.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Baptiste, P.,  & Demassey, S. (2004). Tight LP bounds for resource constrained project scheduling. OR-Spektrum, 26, 251–262.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Beldiceanu, N. (1990). An example of introduction of global constraints in CHIP: Application to block theory problems. Technical report TR-LP-49, ECRC, Munich.

  5. Beldiceanu, N. (2000). Global constraints as graph properties on a structured network of elementary constraints of the same type. In R. Dechter (Ed.), Principles and practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2000), volume 1894 of LNCS (pp. 52–66). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer. Preprint available as SICS Tech Report T2000-01.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Beldiceanu, N.,  & Contejean, E. (1994). Introducing global constraints in CHIP. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 20(12), 97–123.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Beldiceanu, N.,  & Petit, T. (2004). Cost evaluation of soft global constraints. In J.-C. Régin  & M. Rueher (Eds.), Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems, volume 3011 of LNCS (pp. 80–95). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M.,  & Petit, T. (2004). Deriving filtering algorithms from constraint checkers. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp 107–122). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer. Preprint available as SICS Tech Report T2004-08.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Beldiceanu, N., Katriel, I.,  & Thiel, S. (2004). Filtering algorithms for the same constraint. In J.-C. Régin  & M. Rueher (Eds.), Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimisation Problems (CP-AI-OR 2004), volume 3011 of LNCS (pp 65–79). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M., Debruyne, R.,  & Petit, T. (2005). Reformulation of global constraints based on constraint checkers. Constraints, 10(3), 339–362.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M.,  & Rampon, J.-X. (2005). Global constraint catalog. Technical Report T2005-06, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista.

  12. Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M., Rampon, J.-X.,  & Truchet, C. (2005). Graph invariants as necessary conditions for global constraints. In P. van Beek (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2005), volume 3709 of LNCS (pp 92–106). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer. Preprint available as SICS Tech Report T2005-07.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Beldiceanu, N., Flener, P.,  & Lorca, X. (May 2005) The tree constraint. In R. Barták  & M. Milano (Eds.), International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (CP-AI-OR’05), volume 3524 of LNCS (pp. 64–78). Prague, Czech Republic. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

  14. Beldiceanu, N., Katriel, I.,  & Thiel, S. (2005). GCC-like restrictions on the same constraint. In B. Faltings, A. Petcu, F. Fages,  & F. Rossi (Eds.), Springer LNAI volume based on the 2004 edition of the ERCIM/Colognet workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming (CSCLP04), volume 3419 of LNAI (pp. 1–11). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Beldiceanu, N., Petit, T.,  & Rochart, G. (2005). Bounds of graph characteristics. In P. van Beek (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2005), volume 3709 of LNCS (pp. 742–746). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Beldiceanu, N., Petit, T.,  & Rochart, G. (2005). Bounds of graph characteristics. Technical Report 05/2/INFO. Ecole des Mines, Paris.

  17. Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M., Demassey, S.,  & Petit, T. (2006). Graph properties based filtering. Technical Report T2006-10, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista, Sweden.

  18. Beldiceanu, N., Katriel, I.,  & Lorca, X. (2006). Undirected forest constraints. In CP-AI-OR’06, volume 3990 of LNCS. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Berge, C. (1970). Graphes. Dunod (in French).

  20. Bessière, C.,  & Van Hentenryck, P. (2003). To be or not to be... a global constraint. In F. Rossi (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2003), volume 2833 of LNCS (pp. 789–794). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Bessière, C., Coletta, R.,  & Petit, T. (2005). Acquiring parameters of implied global constraints. In P. van Beek (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2005), volume 3709 of LNCS (pp. 747–751). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Bessière, C., Hebrard, E., Hnich, B., Kızıltan, Z.,  & Walsh, T. (2005). Among, common and disjoint constraints. In CSCLP 2005, pp. 223–235. Uppsala, Sweden. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Bessière, C., Hebrard, E., Hnich, B., Kızıltan, Z.,  & Walsh, T. (May 2005). Filtering algorithms for the nvalue constraint. In R. Barták  & M. Milano (Eds.), International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (CP-AI-OR’05), volume 3524 of LNCS, (pp. 79–93). Prague, Czech Republic. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

  24. Bleuzen-Guernalec, N.,  & Colmerauer, A. (1997). Narrowing a block of sortings in quadratic time. In G. Smolka (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’97), volume 1330 of LNCS (pp. 2–16). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  25. Card, S. K., Mackinlay, J. D.,  & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Readings in information visualization using vision to think. Morgan Kaufmann.

  26. Carlsson, M.,  & Beldiceanu, N. (2002). Arc-consistency for a chain of lexicographic ordering constraints. Technical Report T2002-18, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista, Sweden.

  27. Caseau, Y.,  & Laburthe, F. (1996). Cumulative scheduling with task intervals. In Joint International Conference and Symposium on Logic Programming (JICSLP’96). MIT Press.

  28. Colton, S.,  & Miguel, I. (2001). Constraint generation via automated theory formation. In T. Walsh (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2001), volume 2239 of LNCS (pp. 575–579). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Costa, M.-C. (1994). Persistency in maximum cardinality bipartite matchings. Operation Research Letters, 15, 143–149.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  30. Deransart, P., Hermenegildo, M. V.,  & Maluszynski, J. (Eds.) (2000). Analysis and Visualization Tools for Constraint Programming, Constraint Debugging (DiSCiPl project), volume 1870 of LNCS. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Dincbas, M., Van Hentenryck, P., Simonis, H., Graf, T., Aggoun, A.,  & Berthier, F. (1988). The constraint logic programming language CHIP. In International Conference on Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS’88) (pp. 693–702). Tokyo, Japan: ICOT.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Dooms, G., Deville, Y.,  & Dupont, P. (2005). CP(Graph): Introducing a graph computation domain in constraint. In P. van Beek (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2005), volume 3709 of LNCS (pp. 211–225). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  33. Dudeney, H. E. (1919). The Canterbury puzzles. Nelson.

  34. Elbassioni, K. M., Katriel, I., Kutz, M.,  & Mahajan, M. (2005). Simultaneous matchings. In Algorithms and Computation, 16th International Symposium (ISAAC 2005), volume 3827 of LNCS (pp. 106–115). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Erschler, J.,  & Lopez, P. (June 1990). Energy-based approach for task scheduling under time and resources constraints. In 2nd International Workshop on Project Management and Scheduling (pp. 115–121). France: Compiégne.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Euler, L. (1759). Solution d’une question curieuse qui ne parait soumise à aucune analyse. Mm. Acad. Sci. Berlin, 15, 310–337.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Flener, P., Frisch, A. M., Hnich, B., Kızıltan, Z., Miguel, I.,  & Walsh, T. (2002). Matrix modelling: Exploiting common patterns in constraint programming. In A. M. Frisch (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Workshop on Reformulating CSPs, held at CP’02.

  38. Freuder, E. C. (1997). In pursuit of the holy grail. Constraints, 2(1), 57–61.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  39. Frisch, A. M., Jefferson, C., Martinez-Hernandez, B.,  & Miguel, I. (2005). The rules of constraint modelling. In 19th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-05) (pp. 109–116).

  40. Garey, M. R.,  & Johnson, D. S. (1979). Computers and intractability. A guide to the theory of NP-completeness. Freeman.

  41. Guéret, C., Jussien, N., Boizumault, P.,  & Prins, C. (August 1995). Building university timetables using constraint logic programming. In ICPTAT’95: First International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Time Tabling (pp. 393–408). Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

  42. Hansen, P. (2005). How far is, should and could be conjecture-making in graph theory an automated process? In S. Fajtlowicz, P. W. Fowler, P. Hansen, M. F. Janowitz,  & F. S. Roberts (Eds.), Graphs and Discovery, volume 69 of DIMACS: Series in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science (pp. 189–230). American Mathematical Society, DIMACS.

  43. Henriksen, J. G., Jensen, J. L., Jørgensen, M. E., Klarlund, N., Paige, R., Rauhe, T.,  & Sandholm, A. (May 1995). Mona: Monadic second-order logic in practice. In E. Brinksma, R. Cleaveland, K. G. Larsen, T. Margaria,  & B. Steffen (Eds.), Tools and Algorithms for Construction and Analysis of Systems, First International Workshop, TACAS’95, Aarhus, Denmark, volume 1019 of LNCS (pp. 89–110). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Hnich, B. (January 2003). Function variables for constraint programming. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.

  45. Hooker, J. (October 2005). Past and future of CP. Panel, “The Past and Future of Constraint Programming” at the Eleventh International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. Available at http://www.iiia.csic.es/cp2005/CP05-panel-hooker.pdf.

  46. Hooker, J. N.,  & Yan, H. (2002). A relaxation for the cumulative constraint. In P. Van Hentenryck (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2002), volume 2470 of LNCS (pp. 686–690). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Katriel, I.,  & Thiel, S. (2003). Fast bound consistency for the global cardinality constraint. In F. Rossi (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2003), volume 2833 of LNCS (pp. 437–451). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Katriel, I.,  & Thiel, S. (2005). Complete bound consistency for the global cardinality constraint. Constraints, 10(3), 191–217.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  49. Kirkman, T. P. (1847). On a problem in combinatorics. Cambridge and Dublin Math. J., 2, 191–204.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Lahrichi, A. (February 1982). Scheduling: The notions of hump, compulsory parts and their use in cumulative poblems. C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris 294: 209–211.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  51. Laurière, J.-L. (1996). Constraint propagation or automatic programming? Technical Report Laforia, number 19, Institut Blaise Pascal (in French).

  52. Leconte, M. (1996). A bounds-based reduction scheme for constraints of difference. In CP’96, Second International Workshop on Constraint-based Reasoning (pp. 19–28). Key West, FL.

  53. Lopez-Ortiz, A., Quimper, C.-G., Tromp, J.,  & van Beek, P. (2003). A fast and simple algorithm for bounds consistency of the alldifferent constraint. In Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI’2003) (pp. 245–250).

  54. Lucas, E. (1882). Récréations Mathématiques, volume 1-2. Gauthier-Villars.

  55. Mehlhorn, K. (2000). Constraint programming and graph algorithms. In U. Montanari, J. D. P. Rolim,  & E. Welzl (Eds.), 27th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP’2000), volume 1853 of LNCS (pp. 571–575). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Mehlhorn, K.,  & Thiel, S. (2000). Faster algorithms for bound-consistency of the sortedness and the alldifferent constraint. In Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2000), volume 1894 of LNCS (pp. 306–319). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Milano, M., Ottoson, G., Refalo, P.,  & Thorsteinsson, E. (2002). The role of integer programming techniques in constraint programming’s global constraints. INFORMS Journal on Computing, 14(4), 387–402.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  58. Pachet, F.,  & Roy, P. (1999). Automatic generation of music programs. In Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’99), volume 1713 of LNCS (pp. 331–345). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Pesant, G. (2004). A regular language membership constraint for finite sequences of variables. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp. 482–495). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Petit, T., Régin, J.-C.,  & Bessière, C. (2001). Specific filtering algorithms for over-constrained problems. In T. Walsh (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2001), volume 2239 of LNCS (pp. 451–463). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Pitrat, J. (September 2001). MALICE, notre collègue. In Colloque Métaconnaissance de Berder (pp. 4–19). In French.

  62. Puget, J.-F. (November 1994). A C++ implementation of CLP. In Second Singapore International Conference on Intelligent Systems (SPICIS), pp. 256–261. Singapore.

  63. Puget, J.-F. (1998). A fast algorithm for the bound consistency of alldiff constraints. In 15th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-98) (pp. 359–366). AAAI Press.

  64. Puget, J.-F. (2004). Constraint programming next challenge: Simplicity of use. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp. 5–8). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Puget, J.-F. (2005). Automatic detection of variable and value symmetries. In P. van Beek (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2005), volume 3709 of LNCS (pp. 475–489). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  66. Quimper, C.-G., van Beek, P., López-Ortiz, A., Golynski, A.,  & Sadjad, S. B. (2003). An efficient bounds consistency algorithm for the global cardinality constraint. In F. Rossi (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2003), volume 2833 of LNCS (pp. 600–614). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Quimper, C.-G., López-Ortiz, A., van Beek, P.,  & Golynski, A. (2004). Improved algorithms for the global cardinality constraint. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp. 542–556). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Régin, J.-C. (1994). A filtering algorithm for constraints of difference in CSP. In 12th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94), pp. 362–367.

  69. Régin, J.-C. (1996). Generalized arc consistency for global cardinality constraint. In 14th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-96), pp. 209–215.

  70. Régin, J.-C. (1999). The symmetric alldiff constraint. In 16th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99), pp. 420–425.

  71. Régin, J.-C.,  & Gomes, C. (2004). The cardinality matrix constraint. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp. 572–587). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Régin, J.-C.,  & Rueher, M. (1999). A global constraint combining a sum constraint and binary inequalities. In IJCAI-99 Workshop on Non Binary Constraints.

  73. Rochart, G.,  & Jussien, N. (2003). Explanations for Global Constraints: Instrumenting the Stretch Constraint. Technical report 03-01-INFO, École des Mines de Nantes.

  74. Simonis, H., Aggoun, A., Beldiceanu, N.,  & Bourreau, E. (2000). Complex constraint abstraction: Global constraint visualization. In P. Deransart, M. V. Hermenegildo,  & J. Małuszyński (Eds.), Analysis and Vizualisation Tools for Constraint Programming, volume 1870 of LNCS (pp. 299–317). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  75. Turán, P. (1941). On an extremal problem in graph theory. Matematikai es’ Fizikai Lapok, 48, 436–452. In Hungarian.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  76. Van Hentenryck, P. (1997). Constraint programming for combinatorial search problems. Constraints, 2(1), 99–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Van Hentenryck, P. (1999). The OPL optimization programming language. MIT Press.

  78. Van Hentenryck, P.,  & Michel, L. (2005). Constraint-based local search. MIT Press.

  79. van Hoeve, W.-J. (2004). A hyper-arc consistency algorithm for the soft alldifferent constraint. In M. Wallace (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP’2004), volume 3258 of LNCS (pp. 679–689). Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  80. van Hoeve, W.-J., Pesant, G.,  & Rousseau, L.-M. (September 2004). On global warming (softening global constraints). In Workshop on soft constraints. Toronto, Canada.

  81. Voigt, K. (1988). Incorporating global constraints. Technical Report LCSR-TR-114, Laboratory for Computer Science Research, Hill Center for the Mathematical Sciences, Busch Campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Beldiceanu.

Additional information

Part of this article joins and extends the results from two publications [12, 15].

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Beldiceanu, N., Carlsson, M., Demassey, S. et al. Global Constraint Catalogue: Past, Present and Future. Constraints 12, 21–62 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-006-9010-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-006-9010-8

Keywords

Navigation