When attempting to formalize the class which corresponds to an algebraic structure (for example the class of all monoids), a natural design is to create a type monoid (a:Type) as a product type which models all the required fields (an element e:a, an operator app : a -> a -> a, proofs that the monoid laws are satisfied etc.). In doing so, we are creating a map monoid: Type -> Type. A possible drawback of this approach is that given a monoid m:monoid a (a monoid with support type a) and m':monoid b (a monoid wih support type b), we cannot even write the equality m = m' (let alone prove it) because it is ill-typed. An alternative design would be to create a type monoid where the support type is just another field a:Type, so that given m m':monoid, it is always meaningful to ask whether m = m'. Somehow, one would like to argue that if m and m' have the same supports (a m = a m) and the operators are equals (app m = app m', which may be achieved thanks to some extensional equality axiom), and that the proof fields do not matter (because we have some proof irrelevance axiom) etc. , then m = m'. Unfortunately, we can't event express the equality app m = app m' because it is ill-typed...
To simplify the problem, suppose we have:
Inductive myType : Type :=
| make : forall (a:Type), a -> myType.
.
I would like to have results of the form:
forall (a b:Type) (x:a) (y:b), a = b -> x = y -> make a x = make b y.
This statement is ill-typed so we can't have it.
I may have axioms allowing me to prove that two types a and b are same, and I may be able to show that x and y are indeed the same too, but I want to have a tool allowing me to conclude that make a x = make b y. Any suggestion is welcome.
A low-tech way to prove this is to insert a manual type-cast, using the provided equality. That is, instead of having an assumption x = y, you have an assumption (CAST q x) = y. Below I explicitly write the cast as a match, but you could also make it look nicer by defining a function to do it.
Inductive myType : Type :=
| make : forall (a:Type), a -> myType.
Lemma ex : forall (a b:Type) (x:a) (y:b) (q: a = b), (match q in _ = T return T with eq_refl => x end) = y -> make a x = make b y.
Proof.
destruct q.
intros q.
congruence.
Qed.
There is a nicer way to hide most of this machinery by using "heterogenous equality", also known as JMeq. I recommend the Equality chapter of CPDT for a detailed introduction. Your example becomes
Require Import Coq.Logic.JMeq.
Infix "==" := JMeq (at level 70, no associativity).
Inductive myType : Type :=
| make : forall (a:Type), a -> myType.
Lemma ex : forall (a b:Type) (x:a) (y:b), a = b -> x == y -> make a x = make b y.
Proof.
intros.
rewrite H0.
reflexivity.
Qed.
In general, although this particular theorem can be proved without axioms, if you do the formalization in this style you are likely to encounter goals that can not be proven in Coq without axioms about equality. In particular, injectivity for this kind of dependent records is not provable. The JMEq library will automatically use an axiom JMeq_eq about heterogeneous equality, which makes it quite convenient.
Related
Given a type (like List) in Coq, how do I figure out what the equality symbol "=" mean in that type? What commands should I type to figure out the definition?
The equality symbol is just special infix syntax for the eq predicate. Perhaps surprisingly, it is defined the same way for every type, and we can even ask Coq to print it for us:
Print eq.
(* Answer: *)
Inductive eq (A : Type) (x : A) : Prop :=
| eq_refl : eq x x.
This definition is so minimal that it might be hard to understand what is going on. Roughly speaking, it says that the most basic way to show that two expressions are equal is by reflexivity -- that is, when they are exactly the same. For instance, we can use eq_refl to prove that 5 = 5 or [4] = [4]:
Check eq_refl : 5 = 5.
Check eq_refl : [4] = [4].
There is more to this definition than meets the eye. First, Coq considers any two expressions that are equalivalent up to simplification to be equal. In these cases, we can use eq_refl to show that they are equal as well. For instance:
Check eq_refl : 2 + 2 = 4.
This works because Coq knows the definition of addition on the natural numbers and is able to mechanically simplify the expression 2 + 2 until it arrives at 4.
Furthermore, the above definition tells us how to use an equality to prove other facts. Because of the way inductive types work in Coq, we can show the following result:
eq_elim :
forall (A : Type) (x y : A),
x = y ->
forall (P : A -> Prop), P x -> P y
Paraphrasing, when two things are equal, any fact that holds of the first one also holds of the second one. This principle is roughly what Coq uses under the hood when you invoke the rewrite tactic.
Finally, equality interacts with other types in interesting ways. You asked what the definition of equality for list was. We can show that the following lemmas are valid:
forall A (x1 x2 : A) (l1 l2 : list A),
x1 :: l1 = x2 :: l2 -> x1 = x2 /\ l1 = l2
forall A (x : A) (l : list A),
x :: l <> nil.
In words:
if two nonempty lists are equal, then their heads and tails are equal;
a nonempty list is different from nil.
More generally, if T is an inductive type, we can show that:
if two expressions starting with the same constructor are equal, then their arguments are equal (that is, constructors are injective); and
two expressions starting with different constructors are always different (that is, different constructors are disjoint).
These facts are not, strictly speaking, part of the definition of equality, but rather consequences of the way inductive types work in Coq. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well for other kinds of types in Coq; in particular, the notion of equality for functions in Coq is not very useful, unless you are willing to add extra axioms into the theory.
I understood destruct as it breaks an inductive definition into its constructors. I recently saw case_eq and I couldn't understand what it does differently?
1 subgoals
n : nat
k : nat
m : M.t nat
H : match M.find (elt:=nat) n m with
| Some _ => true
| None => false
end = true
______________________________________(1/1)
cc n (M.add k k m) = true
In the above context, if I do destruct M.find n m it breaks H into true and false whereas case_eq (M.find n m) leaves H intact and adds separate proposition M.find (elt:=nat) n m = Some v, which I can rewrite to get same effect as destruct.
Can someone please explain me the difference between the two tactics and when which one should be used?
The first basic tactic in the family of destruct and case_eq is called case. This tactic modifies only the conclusion. When you type case A and A has a type T which is inductive, the system replaces A in the goal's conclusion by instances of all the constructors of type T, adding universal quantifications for the arguments of these constructors, if needed. This creates as many goals as there are constructors in type T. The formula A disappears from the goal and if there is any information about A in an hypothesis, the link between this information and all the new constructors that replace it in the conclusion gets lost. In spite of this, case is an important primitive tactic.
Loosing the link between information in the hypotheses and instances of A in the conclusion is a big problem in practice, so developers came up with two solutions: case_eq and destruct.
Personnally, when writing the Coq'Art book, I proposed that we write a simple tactic on top of case that keeps a link between A and the various constructor instances in the form of an equality. This is the tactic now called case_eq. It does the same thing as case but adds an extra implication in the goal, where the premise of the implication is an equality of the form A = ... and where ... is an instance of each constructor.
At about the same time, the tactic destruct was proposed. Instead of limiting the effect of replacement in the goal's conclusion, destruct replaces all instances of A appearing in the hypotheses with instances of constructors of type T. In a sense, this is cleaner because it avoids relying on the extra concept of equality, but it is still incomplete because the expression A may be a compound expression f B, and if B appears in the hypothesis but not f B the link between A and B will still be lost.
Illustration
Definition my_pred (n : nat) := match n with 0 => 0 | S p => p end.
Lemma example n : n <= 1 -> my_pred n <= 0.
Proof.
case_eq (my_pred n).
Gives the two goals
------------------
n <= 1 -> my_pred n = 0 -> 0 <= 0
and
------------------
forall p, my_pred n = S p -> n <= 1 -> S p <= 0
the extra equality is very useful here.
In this question I suggested that the developer use case_eq (a == b) when (a == b) has type bool because this type is inductive and not very informative (constructors have no argument). But when (a == b) has type {a = b}+{a <> b} (which is the case for the string_dec function) the constructors have arguments that are proofs of interesting properties and the extra universal quantification for the arguments of the constructors are enough to give the relevant information, in this case a = b in a first goal and a <> b in a second goal.
In Coq Tutorial, section 1.3.1 and 1.3.2, there are two elim applications:
The first one:
1 subgoal
A : Prop
B : Prop
C : Prop
H : A /\ B
============================
B /\ A
after applying elim H,
Coq < elim H.
1 subgoal
A : Prop
B : Prop
C : Prop
H : A /\ B
============================
A -> B -> B /\ A
The second one:
1 subgoal
H : A \/ B
============================
B \/ A
After applying elim H,
Coq < elim H.
2 subgoals
H : A \/ B
============================
A -> B \/ A
subgoal 2 is:
B -> B \/ A
There are three questions. First, in the second example, I don't understand what inference rule (or, logical identity) is applied to the goal to generate the two subgoals. It is clear to me for the first example, though.
The second question, according to the manual of Coq, elim is related to inductive types. Therefore, it appears that elim cannot be applied here at all, because I feel that there are no inductive types in the two examples (forgive me for not knowing the definition of inductive types). Why can elim be applied here?
Third, what does elim do in general? The two examples here don't show a common pattern for elim. The official manual seems to be designed for very advanced users, since they define a term upon several other terms that are defined by even more terms, and their language is ambiguous.
Thank you so much for answering!
Jian, first let me note that the manual is open source and available at https://github.com/coq/coq ; if you feel that the wording / definition order could be improved please open an issue there or feel free to submit a pull request.
Regarding your questions, I think you would benefit from reading some more comprehensive introduction to Coq such as "Coq'art", "Software Foundations" or "Programs and Proofs" among others.
In particular, the elim tactic tries to apply the so called "elimination principle" for a particular type. It is called elimination because in a sense, the rule allows you to "get rid" of that particular object, allowing you to continue on the proof [I recommend reading Dummett for a more throughout discussion of the origins of logical connectives]
In particular, the elimination rule for the ∨ connective is usually written by logicians as follows:
A B
⋮ ⋮
A ∨ B C C
────────────────
C
that is to say, if we can derive C independently from A and B, then we can derive it from A ∨ B. This looks obvious, doesn't it?
Going back to Coq, it turns out that this rule has a computational interpretation thanks to the "Curry-Howard-Kolmogorov" equivalence. In fact, Coq doesn't provide most of the standard logical connectives as a built in, but it allow us to define them by means of "Inductive" datatypes, similar to those in Haskell or OCaml.
In particular, the definition of ∨ is:
Inductive or (A B : Prop) : Prop :=
| or_introl : A -> A \/ B
| or_intror : B -> A \/ B
that is to say, or A B is the piece of data that either contains an A or a B, together with a "tag", that allows us to "match" to know which one do we really have.
Now, the "elimination principle for or" has type:
or_ind : forall A B P : Prop, (A -> P) -> (B -> P) -> A \/ B -> P
The great thing of Coq is that such principle is not a "built-in", just a regular program! Think, could you write the code of the or_ind function? I'll give you a hint:
Definition or_ind A B P (hA : A -> P) (hB : B -> P) (orW : A \/ B) :=
match orW with
| or_introl aW => ?
| or_intror bW => ?
end.
Once this function is defined, all that elim does, is to apply it, properly instantiating the variable P.
Exercise: solve your second example using apply and ord_ind instead of elim. Good luck!
I have been struggling on this for a while now. I have an inductive type:
Definition char := nat.
Definition string := list char.
Inductive Exp : Set :=
| Lit : char -> Exp
| And : Exp -> Exp -> Exp
| Or : Exp -> Exp -> Exp
| Many: Exp -> Exp
from which I define a family of types inductively:
Inductive Language : Exp -> Set :=
| LangLit : forall c:char, Language (Lit c)
| LangAnd : forall r1 r2: Exp, Language(r1) -> Language(r2) -> Language(And r1 r2)
| LangOrLeft : forall r1 r2: Exp, Language(r1) -> Language(Or r1 r2)
| LangOrRight : forall r1 r2: Exp, Language(r2) -> Language(Or r1 r2)
| LangEmpty : forall r: Exp, Language (Many r)
| LangMany : forall r: Exp, Language (Many r) -> Language r -> Language (Many r).
The rational here is that given a regular expression r:Exp I am attempting to represent the language associated with r as a type Language r, and I am doing so with a single inductive definition.
I would like to prove:
Lemma L1 : forall (c:char)(x:Language (Lit c)),
x = LangLit c.
(In other words, the type Language (Lit c) has only one element, i.e. the language of the regular expression 'c' is made of the single string "c". Of course I need to define some semantics converting elements of Language r to string)
Now the specifics of this problem are not important and simply serve to motivate my question: let us use nat instead of Exp and let us define a type List n which represents the lists of length n:
Parameter A:Set.
Inductive List : nat -> Set :=
| ListNil : List 0
| ListCons : forall (n:nat), A -> List n -> List (S n).
Here again I am using a single inductive definition to define a family of types List n.
I would like to prove:
Lemma L2: forall (x: List 0),
x = ListNil.
(in other words, the type List 0 has only one element).
I have run out of ideas on this one.
Normally when attempting to prove (negative) results with inductive types (or predicates), I would use the elim tactic (having made sure all the relevant hypothesis are inside my goal (generalize) and only variables occur in the type constructors). But elim is no good in this case.
If you are willing to accept more than just the basic logic of Coq, you can just use the dependent destruction tactic, available in the Program library (I've taken the liberty of rephrasing your last example in terms of standard-library vectors):
Require Coq.Vectors.Vector.
Require Import Program.
Lemma l0 A (v : Vector.t A 0) : v = #Vector.nil A.
Proof.
now dependent destruction v.
Qed.
If you inspect the term, you'll see that this tactic relied on the JMeq_eq axiom to get the proof to go through:
Print Assumptions l0.
Axioms:
JMeq_eq : forall (A : Type) (x y : A), x ~= y -> x = y
Fortunately, it is possible to prove l0 without having to resort to features outside of Coq's basic logic, by making a small change to the statement of the previous lemma.
Lemma l0_gen A n (v : Vector.t A n) :
match n return Vector.t A n -> Prop with
| 0 => fun v => v = #Vector.nil A
| _ => fun _ => True
end v.
Proof.
now destruct v.
Qed.
Lemma l0' A (v : Vector.t A 0) : v = #Vector.nil A.
Proof.
exact (l0_gen A 0 v).
Qed.
We can see that this new proof does not require any additional axioms:
Print Assumptions l0'.
Closed under the global context
What happened here? The problem, roughly speaking, is that in Coq we cannot perform case analysis on terms of dependent types whose indices have a specific shape (such as 0, in your case) directly. Instead, we must prove a more general statement where the problematic indices are replaced by variables. This is exactly what the l0_gen lemma is doing. Notice how we had to make the match on n return a function that abstracts on v. This is another instance of what is known as "convoy pattern". Had we written
match n with
| 0 => v = #Vector.nil A
| _ => True
end.
Coq would see the v in the 0 branch as having type Vector.t A n, making that branch ill-typed.
Coming up with such generalizations is one of the big pains of doing dependently typed programming in Coq. Other systems, such as Agda, make it possible to write this kind of code with much less effort, but it was only recently shown that this can be done without relying on the extra axioms that Coq wanted to avoid including in its basic theory. We can only hope that this will be simplified in future versions.
I'm trying to prove that a proposition P holds for every element of a type A. Unfortunately, I only know how to prove P for a given a:A if I have access to proofs of P for all a' less than a.
This should be provable by induction on a list containing all elements of A, starting with the smallest element in A and then incrementally proving that P holds for all other elements, but I just can't get it to work.
Formally, the problem is the following:
Parameter A : Type.
Parameter lt : A -> A -> Prop.
Notation "a < b" := (lt a b).
Parameter P : A -> Prop.
Parameter lma : forall a, (forall a', a' < a -> P a') -> P a.
Goal forall a, P a.
I may have made a mistake formalizing this problem. Feel free to assume reasonable constraints on the inputs, e.g. A can be assumed to be enumerable, lt can be transitive, decidable ...
This looks at lot like well founded induction. If you can prove that your lt function is well-founded, then your goal becomes trivial. You can find example of such proofs on naturals here
You also have to prove that the relation is well-founded. There's a relevant standard library module. From there, you should prove well_founded A for your A type, and then you can use well_founded_ind to prove P for all values.