Idris2/docs/source/tutorial/theorems.rst

.. _sect-theorems:

***************
Theorem Proving
***************

Equality
========

Idris allows propositional equalities to be declared, allowing theorems about
programs to be stated and proved. An equality type is defined as follows in the
Prelude:

.. code-block:: idris

    data Equal : a -> b -> Type where
         Refl : Equal x x

As a notational convenience, ``Equal x y`` can be written as ``x = y``.
Equalities can be proposed between any values of any types, but the only
way to construct a proof of equality is if values actually are equal.
For example:

.. code-block:: idris

    fiveIsFive : 5 = 5
    fiveIsFive = Refl

    twoPlusTwo : 2 + 2 = 4
    twoPlusTwo = Refl

If we try...

.. code-block:: idris

    twoPlusTwoBad : 2 + 2 = 5
    twoPlusTwoBad = Refl

...then we'll get an error:

::

    Proofs.idr:8:17--10:1:While processing right hand side of Main.twoPlusTwoBad at Proofs.idr:8:1--10:1:
    When unifying 4 = 4 and (fromInteger 2 + fromInteger 2) = (fromInteger 5)
    Mismatch between:
            4
    and
            5

.. _sect-empty:

The Empty Type
==============

There is an empty type, ``Void``, which has no constructors. It is therefore
impossible to construct a canonical element of the empty type. We can therefore
use the empty type to prove that something is impossible, for example zero is
never equal to a successor:

.. code-block:: idris

    disjoint : (n : Nat) -> Z = S n -> Void
    disjoint n prf = replace {p = disjointTy} prf ()
      where
        disjointTy : Nat -> Type
        disjointTy Z = ()
        disjointTy (S k) = Void

Don't worry if you don't get all the details of how this works just yet -
essentially, it applies the library function ``replace``, which uses an
equality proof to transform a predicate. Here we use it to transform a
value of a type which can exist, the empty tuple, to a value of a type
which can’t, by using a proof of something which can’t exist.

Once we have an element of the empty type, we can prove anything.
``void`` is defined in the library, to assist with proofs by
contradiction.

.. code-block:: idris

    void : Void -> a

Proving Theorems
================

When type checking dependent types, the type itself gets *normalised*.
So imagine we want to prove the following theorem about the reduction
behaviour of ``plus``:

.. code-block:: idris

    plusReduces : (n:Nat) -> plus Z n = n

We’ve written down the statement of the theorem as a type, in just the
same way as we would write the type of a program. In fact there is no
real distinction between proofs and programs. A proof, as far as we are
concerned here, is merely a program with a precise enough type to
guarantee a particular property of interest.

We won’t go into details here, but the Curry-Howard correspondence [#Timothy]_
explains this relationship. The proof itself is immediate, because
``plus Z n`` normalises to ``n`` by the definition of ``plus``:

.. code-block:: idris

    plusReduces n = Refl

It is slightly harder if we try the arguments the other way, because
plus is defined by recursion on its first argument. The proof also works
by recursion on the first argument to ``plus``, namely ``n``.

.. code-block:: idris

    plusReducesZ : (n:Nat) -> n = plus n Z
    plusReducesZ Z = Refl
    plusReducesZ (S k) = cong S (plusReducesZ k)

``cong`` is a function defined in the library which states that equality
respects function application:

.. code-block:: idris

    cong : (f : t -> u) -> a = b -> f a = f b

To see more detail on what's going on, we can replace the recursive call to
``plusReducesZ`` with a hole:

.. code-block:: idris
    
    plusReducesZ (S k) = cong S ?help

Then inspecting the type of the hole at the REPL shows us:

::

    Main> :t help
       k : Nat
    -------------------------------------
    help : k = (plus k Z)

We can do the same for the reduction behaviour of plus on successors:

.. code-block:: idris

    plusReducesS : (n:Nat) -> (m:Nat) -> S (plus n m) = plus n (S m)
    plusReducesS Z m = Refl
    plusReducesS (S k) m = cong S (plusReducesS k m)

Even for small theorems like these, the proofs are a little tricky to
construct in one go. When things get even slightly more complicated, it
becomes too much to think about to construct proofs in this “batch
mode”.

Idris provides interactive editing capabilities, which can help with
building proofs. For more details on building proofs interactively in
an editor, see :ref:`proofs-index`.

.. _sect-parity:

Theorems in Practice
====================

The need to prove theorems can arise naturally in practice. For example,
previously (:ref:`sec-views`) we implemented ``natToBin`` using a function
``parity``:

.. code-block:: idris

    parity : (n:Nat) -> Parity n

We provided a definition for ``parity``, but without explanation.  We might
have hoped that it would look something like the following:

.. code-block:: idris

    parity : (n:Nat) -> Parity n
    parity Z     = Even {n=Z}
    parity (S Z) = Odd {n=Z}
    parity (S (S k)) with (parity k)
      parity (S (S (j + j)))     | Even = Even {n=S j}
      parity (S (S (S (j + j)))) | Odd  = Odd {n=S j}

Unfortunately, this fails with a type error:

::

    With.idr:26:17--27:3:While processing right hand side of Main.with block in 2419 at With.idr:24:3--27:3:
    Can't solve constraint between:
            plus j (S j)
    and
            S (plus j j)

The problem is that normalising ``S j + S j``, in the type of ``Even``
doesn't result in what we need for the type of the right hand side of
``Parity``. We know that ``S (S (plus j j))`` is going to be equal to
``S j + S j``, but we need to explain it to Idris with a proof. We can
begin by adding some *holes* (see :ref:`sect-holes`) to the definition:

.. code-block:: idris

    parity : (n:Nat) -> Parity n
    parity Z     = Even {n=Z}
    parity (S Z) = Odd {n=Z}
    parity (S (S k)) with (parity k)
      parity (S (S (j + j)))     | Even = let result = Even {n=S j} in
                                              ?helpEven
      parity (S (S (S (j + j)))) | Odd  = let result = Odd {n=S j} in
                                              ?helpOdd

Checking the type of ``helpEven`` shows us what we need to prove for the
``Even`` case:

::

      j : Nat
      result : Parity (S (plus j (S j)))
    --------------------------------------
    helpEven : Parity (S (S (plus j j)))

We can therefore write a helper function to *rewrite* the type to the form
we need:

.. code-block:: idris

    helpEven : (j : Nat) -> Parity (S j + S j) -> Parity (S (S (plus j j)))
    helpEven j p = rewrite plusSuccRightSucc j j in p

The ``rewrite ... in`` syntax allows you to change the required type of an
expression by rewriting it according to an equality proof. Here, we have
used ``plusSuccRightSucc``, which has the following type:

.. code-block:: idris

    plusSuccRightSucc : (left : Nat) -> (right : Nat) -> S (left + right) = left + S right

We can see the effect of ``rewrite`` by replacing the right hand side of
``helpEven`` with a hole, and working step by step. Beginning with the following:

.. code-block:: idris

    helpEven : (j : Nat) -> Parity (S j + S j) -> Parity (S (S (plus j j)))
    helpEven j p = ?helpEven_rhs

We can look at the type of ``helpEven_rhs``:

.. code-block:: idris

      j : Nat
      p : Parity (S (plus j (S j)))
    --------------------------------------
    helpEven_rhs : Parity (S (S (plus j j)))

Then we can ``rewrite`` by applying ``plusSuccRightSucc j j``, which gives
an equation ``S (j + j) = j + S j``, thus replacing ``S (j + j)`` (or,
in this case, ``S (plus j j)`` since ``S (j + j)`` reduces to that) in the
type with ``j + S j``:

.. code-block:: idris

    helpEven : (j : Nat) -> Parity (S j + S j) -> Parity (S (S (plus j j)))
    helpEven j p = rewrite plusSuccRightSucc j j in ?helpEven_rhs

Checking the type of ``helpEven_rhs`` now shows what has happened, including
the type of the equation we just used (as the type of ``_rewrite_rule``):

.. code-block:: idris

    Main> :t helpEven_rhs
       j : Nat
       p : Parity (S (plus j (S j)))
    -------------------------------------
    helpEven_rhs : Parity (S (plus j (S j)))

Using ``rewrite`` and another helper for the ``Odd`` case, we can complete
``parity`` as follows:

.. code-block:: idris

    helpEven : (j : Nat) -> Parity (S j + S j) -> Parity (S (S (plus j j)))
    helpEven j p = rewrite plusSuccRightSucc j j in p

    helpOdd : (j : Nat) -> Parity (S (S (j + S j))) -> Parity (S (S (S (j + j))))
    helpOdd j p = rewrite plusSuccRightSucc j j in p

    parity : (n:Nat) -> Parity n
    parity Z     = Even {n=Z}
    parity (S Z) = Odd {n=Z}
    parity (S (S k)) with (parity k)
      parity (S (S (j + j)))     | Even = helpEven j (Even {n = S j})
      parity (S (S (S (j + j)))) | Odd  = helpOdd j (Odd {n = S j})

Full details of ``rewrite`` are beyond the scope of this introductory tutorial,
but it is covered in the theorem proving tutorial (see :ref:`proofs-index`).

.. _sect-totality:

Totality Checking
=================

If we really want to trust our proofs, it is important that they are
defined by *total* functions — that is, a function which is defined for
all possible inputs and is guaranteed to terminate. Otherwise we could
construct an element of the empty type, from which we could prove
anything:

.. code-block:: idris

    -- making use of 'hd' being partially defined
    empty1 : Void
    empty1 = hd [] where
        hd : List a -> a
        hd (x :: xs) = x

    -- not terminating
    empty2 : Void
    empty2 = empty2

Internally, Idris checks every definition for totality, and we can check at
the prompt with the ``:total`` command. We see that neither of the above
definitions is total:

::

    Void> :total empty1
    Void.empty1 is not covering due to call to function empty1:hd
    Void> :total empty2
    Void.empty2 is possibly not terminating due to recursive path Void.empty2

Note the use of the word “possibly” — a totality check can never be certain due
to the undecidability of the halting problem. The check is, therefore,
conservative. It is also possible (and indeed advisable, in the case of proofs)
to mark functions as total so that it will be a compile time error for the
totality check to fail:

.. code-block:: idris

    total empty2 : Void
    empty2 = empty2

Reassuringly, our proof in Section :ref:`sect-empty` that the zero and
successor constructors are disjoint is total:

.. code-block:: idris

    Main> :total disjoint
    Main.disjoint is Total

The totality check is, necessarily, conservative. To be recorded as
total, a function ``f`` must:

-  Cover all possible inputs

-  Be *well-founded* — i.e. by the time a sequence of (possibly
   mutually) recursive calls reaches ``f`` again, it must be possible to
   show that one of its arguments has decreased.

-  Not use any data types which are not *strictly positive*

-  Not call any non-total functions

Directives and Compiler Flags for Totality
------------------------------------------

[NOTE: Not all of this is implemented yet for Idris 2]

By default, Idris allows all well-typed definitions, whether total or not.
However, it is desirable for functions to be total as far as possible, as this
provides a guarantee that they provide a result for all possible inputs, in
finite time. It is possible to make total functions a requirement, either:

-  By using the ``--total`` compiler flag.

-  By adding a ``%default total`` directive to a source file. All
   definitions after this will be required to be total, unless
   explicitly flagged as ``partial``.

All functions *after* a ``%default total`` declaration are required to
be total. Correspondingly, after a ``%default partial`` declaration, the
requirement is relaxed.

Finally, the compiler flag ``--warnpartial`` causes to print a warning
for any undeclared partial function.

Totality checking issues
------------------------

Please note that the totality checker is not perfect! Firstly, it is
necessarily conservative due to the undecidability of the halting
problem, so many programs which *are* total will not be detected as
such. Secondly, the current implementation has had limited effort put
into it so far, so there may still be cases where it believes a function
is total which is not. Do not rely on it for your proofs yet!

Hints for totality
------------------

In cases where you believe a program is total, but Idris does not agree, it is
possible to give hints to the checker to give more detail for a termination
argument. The checker works by ensuring that all chains of recursive calls
eventually lead to one of the arguments decreasing towards a base case, but
sometimes this is hard to spot. For example, the following definition cannot be
checked as ``total`` because the checker cannot decide that ``filter (< x) xs``
will always be smaller than ``(x :: xs)``:

.. code-block:: idris

    qsort : Ord a => List a -> List a
    qsort [] = []
    qsort (x :: xs)
       = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++
          (x :: qsort (filter (>= x) xs))

The function ``assert_smaller``, defined in the prelude, is intended to
address this problem:

.. code-block:: idris

    assert_smaller : a -> a -> a
    assert_smaller x y = y

It simply evaluates to its second argument, but also asserts to the
totality checker that ``y`` is structurally smaller than ``x``. This can
be used to explain the reasoning for totality if the checker cannot work
it out itself. The above example can now be written as:

.. code-block:: idris

    total
    qsort : Ord a => List a -> List a
    qsort [] = []
    qsort (x :: xs)
       = qsort (assert_smaller (x :: xs) (filter (< x) xs)) ++
          (x :: qsort (assert_smaller (x :: xs) (filter (>= x) xs)))

The expression ``assert_smaller (x :: xs) (filter (<= x) xs)`` asserts
that the result of the filter will always be smaller than the pattern
``(x :: xs)``.

In more extreme cases, the function ``assert_total`` marks a
subexpression as always being total:

.. code-block:: idris

    assert_total : a -> a
    assert_total x = x

In general, this function should be avoided, but it can be very useful
when reasoning about primitives or externally defined functions (for
example from a C library) where totality can be shown by an external
argument.


.. [#Timothy] Timothy G. Griffin. 1989. A formulae-as-type notion of
       control. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT
       symposium on Principles of programming languages (POPL
       '90). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 47-58. DOI=10.1145/96709.96714
       http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/96709.96714