Variable Predicates

One rule that renames many fields at once, driven by a small mapping table.

variable-predicates.js · output · proof · check · try it in the playground

The question

Data often arrives with someone else’s field names. A source system calls them source_name and source_age; we want name and age.

Can we translate the field names with a lookup table, instead of writing one rule per field? And can we see where each translated value came from?

Facts as triples

Here every fact is a triple: a subject, a relation, and a value.

fact(t('alice', 'source_name', 'Alice'))

reads alice has source_name ‘Alice’.

The trick is that the relation in the middle is just data — so a rule can use a variable there and treat the relation name like any other value.

What we tell eyecode

// t(Subject, Property, Value) statements, and the source-to-target mapping.
fact(t('alice', 'source_name', 'Alice'))
fact(t('alice', 'source_age', 30))
fact(maps('source_name', 'name'))
fact(maps('source_age', 'age'))
implies([t(S, Source, O), maps(Source, Target)], t(S, Target, O))
query(t('alice', 'name', Name))
query(t('alice', 'age', Age))

The rule reads: if S has value O under the Source name, and Source maps to Target, then S has value O under the Target name. One rule covers every row of the mapping table.

What eyecode concludes

t('alice', 'name', 'Alice')
t('alice', 'age', 30)

Alice’s name and age, now under the field names we wanted. The original facts are left as they were.

Why: the proof in plain words

For the name:

1. alice has source_name ‘Alice’ — a fact we gave (fact 1).
2. source_name maps to name — a fact we gave (fact 3).
3. So alice has name ‘Alice’ — rule 5, with Source = ‘source_name’ and Target = ‘name’.

The age is the same rule again, with facts 2 and 4. The proof shows which mapping row produced each value.

Checked, not just claimed

A separate checker read all 6 steps of the proof against the program and confirmed that:

• every step is an exact instance of the line it cites (6 of 6);
• nothing is assumed beyond the four facts and the one rule;
• every step serves one of the 2 answers.

Verdict: checked. Nothing taken on trust.

Try it

eyecode examples/variable-predicates.js            # the answers
eyecode --proof examples/variable-predicates.js    # answers with their proof

Or open it in the playground. Add a new field and a mapping row — fact(t('alice', 'source_city', 'Gent')) and fact(maps('source_city', 'city')) — plus the question query(t('alice', 'city', _)). The same rule answers t('alice', 'city', 'Gent').

Takeaway

When relation names are data, one general rule plus a table can replace a pile of special cases — and the proof still tells you exactly which table row was used.