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Intentional Logic in C#

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7 Oct 200310 min read 104.4K   910   45   21
Allow your programs to reason with incomplete data.

Introduction

In the company I work for, we receive an electronic invoice for our mobile phone communications, and we are allowed to claim expenses for business calls. I wanted to write a program that automates producing the expense claim. In order to do that, the program needs to be able to decide which call was a business call (as opposed to a private call). This decision depends on a number of factors, such as:

  • Was it a call to a business contact?
  • Was it a call I placed while being abroad for work?
  • Was it a call I received while being abroad for work?
  • Was the call made during normal office hours?

Clearly, the program needs to know the telephone numbers of my business contacts, or doesn't it?

Sure, the program can maintain a database with known telephone numbers, and store which of them are business contacts. But inevitably, invoices will contain telephone numbers that do not appear in the database. So, does it need to ask the user whether the unknown telephone number is a business contact or not? Not necessarily. For example, if the call was received while I was abroad for work, the expenses can be claimed, no matter who called me. I would like to be able to write a program that has a line such as the following (somewhat simplified), in which each of the variables are boolean variables of some sort.

C#
bool canClaim = receivedAbroad |  
          (calledAbroad | calledDuringOfficeHours) & businessContact;

The type IntentionalBool presented in this article allows exactly that, even though some of these variables may have a value "Unknown".

Background

The bool type has two possible values: true and false. It essentially implements extensional propositional logic. In this logic, propositions (statements) are either true or false, irrespective of the observer who wonders whether they are true or false. In fact, the concept of an observer doesn't even exist in extensional logic. A telephone number belongs to a business contact or not.

In intentional logic, the subject plays an important role. Propositions don’t have an intrinsic value, but rather a value attributed to them by an observer. Different observers may attribute different values. Also, it is possible that an observer can’t attribute any of the traditional values of true or false, since information needed to make that decision is lacking. In intentional logic, we describe the belief of an observer or subject. It reasons about statements such as "I believe this telephone number belongs to a business contact", but also "I don't know whether this telephone number belongs to a business contact".

Why a three-valued DBBool is no good

Many people have proposed extensions to bool. For example, Microsoft describes a struct called DBBool in the C# Language Specification. Like most extensions, this type has three values, True, False and Null. It seems Null is the value that means "I don't know", right?

In databases, it is common practice to use a special value, null, for unknown values. Indeed, say we have an entity type called Person, with properties Name and IsMale. If we don’t know the name of a person, we store the value null. This value is distinct from any other value, including from the empty name. Likewise, if we don’t know a person’s sex, we store the value null. This value is distinct from all other values, being true and false. If (and only if) the person is male, we store the value true. If (and only if) the person is female, we store the value false. If we don’t know, we store the value null.

The DBBool type allows for a direct mapping to and from boolean database columns that are nullable. But there is a problem with this type: it doesn't behave logically. For example, !p != p is not always true, as it would be with traditional logic. Because !Null == Null, even p | !p will not always be true for variables of this type.

I want p | !p to be true. Any phone number belongs to a business contact or not. The fact that I don't know this particular phone number shouldn't change that fact.

IntentionalBool

A type in which !p != p for any value, all other properties being equal, needs an even number of values. True and False are clearly needed, as well as Unknown. For lack of a better name, the value of !Unknown is called NotUnknown.

The type IntentionalBool has these four values:

C#
public struct IntentionalBool
{
    public static IntentionalBool True
    { get { ... } }

    public static IntentionalBool False
    { get { ... } }

    public static IntentionalBool Unknown
    { get { ... } }

    public static IntentionalBool NotUnknown
    { get { ... } }

    ...
}

Variable of this type has all the usual characteristics. For example, the following are always true for all values of IntentionalBool p:

  • p != !p
  • p == !!p
  • p | !p
  • !(p & !p)

IntentionalBool defines all the usual operators. The behavior of these operators where only the values True and False are concerned, is identical to the behavior of the operators for type bool.

Feel free to skip the next section and jump straight to Using the code, if you're not interested in the details of the operator definitions.

All operators are tested using NUnit 2.1. In fact, these unit tests serve as formal definitions (test first!) for the operators.

The tests for the ! operator:

C#
Assert.IsTrue(!IntentionalBool.True == IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue(!IntentionalBool.Unknown == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue(!IntentionalBool.NotUnknown == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue(!IntentionalBool.False == IntentionalBool.True);

The tests for the & operator:

C#
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True & IntentionalBool.True) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True & IntentionalBool.Unknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True & IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True & IntentionalBool.False) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown & IntentionalBool.True) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown & IntentionalBool.Unknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown & IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown & IntentionalBool.False) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown & IntentionalBool.True) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown & IntentionalBool.Unknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown & IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown & IntentionalBool.False) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False & IntentionalBool.True) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False & IntentionalBool.Unknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False & IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False & IntentionalBool.False) == 
                                            IntentionalBool.False);

The tests for the | operator:

C#
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True | IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True | IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True | IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True | IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown | IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown | IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown | IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown | IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown | IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown | IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown | IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown | IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False | IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False | IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False | IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False | IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.False);

The tests for the ^ operator:

C#
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True ^ IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True ^ IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True ^ IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.True ^ IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown ^ IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown ^ IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown ^ IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.Unknown ^ IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown ^ IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown ^ IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown ^ IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.False);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.NotUnknown ^ IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);

Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False ^ IntentionalBool.True) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False ^ IntentionalBool.Unknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False ^ IntentionalBool.NotUnknown) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsTrue((IntentionalBool.False ^ IntentionalBool.False) 
                                   == IntentionalBool.False);

IntentionalBool also defines the "definitely true" and "definitely false" operators, such that the short circuit && and || operators can be used. We will not list the full tests of their definitions here (they are as good as equal to the & and | tests), but the following is tested for any combination of IntentionalBool p and q values as well:

C#
Assert.IsTrue( (p && q) == (p & q) );
Assert.IsTrue( (p || q) == (p | q) );

The && and || operators can be used to optimize code, if the right operand of the expression is a complex formula. You don't need them to protect your code against exceptions, because IntentionalBool will never throw exceptions.

Because of the definition of these operators, you can use IntentionalBool variables in if statements as well:

C#
bool success = false;
if (IntentionalBool.True)
{
    success = true;
}
Assert.IsTrue(success);

if (IntentionalBool.False)
{
    Assert.Fail();
}

if (IntentionalBool.Unknown)
{
    Assert.Fail();
}

if (IntentionalBool.NotUnknown)
{
    Assert.Fail();
}

In typical formulas, IntentionalBool operands will be mixed with traditional bool operands. For example, in the statement in the introduction, receivedAbroad and calledAbroad might be simple bool variables. To make this work, an implicit conversion from bool to IntentionalBool is defined.

C#
// implicit cast of true to IntentionalBool.True
Assert.IsTrue(IntentionalBool.True == true); 
// implicit cast of false to IntentionalBool.False
Assert.IsTrue(IntentionalBool.False == false); 

The reverse conversion is possible as well, using an explicit conversion operator, but this operator does lose information:

C#
Assert.IsTrue((bool) IntentionalBool.True);
Assert.IsFalse((bool) IntentionalBool.Unknown);
Assert.IsFalse((bool) IntentionalBool.NotUnknown);
Assert.IsFalse((bool) IntentionalBool.False);

To complete the implementation, the == and != operators are defined, all object methods are overridden, and the type is serializable. For additional convenience, a Parse(string) method is defined, and an IsKnown property, which returns true if (and only if) the IntentionalBool is True or False.

C#
[Serializable]
public struct IntentionalBool
{
    ...

    public static bool operator == (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    { ... }

    public static bool operator != (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    { ... }

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    { ... }

    public override int GetHashCode()
    { ... }

    public override string ToString()
    { ... }

    public static IntentionalBool Parse(string value)
    { ... }

    public bool IsKnown
    { ... }

    ...
}

Implementing IntentionalBool

IntentionalBool has four possible values, so all we need is two bits to store it. You could imagine using two bool variables to store it, and the first question that then comes to mind is: what do these booleans mean? I like to think of these hypothetical booleans as specifying a range, such that a value p is known to be between a and b, where p is an IntentionalBool, and a and b are the boolean values:

  • True is a value between true and true
  • False is a value between false and false
  • Unknown is a value between false and true
  • NotUnknown is a value between true and false

Such an implementation would allow us to define all operators in terms of the same operators on the two booleans.

But in reality, we don't need two bool variables, all we need is two bits, stored in a byte. The enum construct of C# allows us to define symbolic names for the four variables:

C#
[Flags] 
private enum State : byte 
{ False, Unknown, NotUnknown, True };

Using this definition, all operators can be defined in terms of the corresponding bitwise operators on type State. This leads to a very elegant and efficient implementation. In fact, all IntentionalBool methods are implemented as a single statement. All these methods can be easily inlined by the JIT compiler. As a result, the performance of IntentionalBool is very good. In fact, it is almost as good as the performance of the bool type.

A few examples:

C#
public struct IntentionalBool
{
    [Flags] 
    private enum State : byte 
    { False, Unknown, NotUnknown, True };

    private State state;

    ...

    public static bool operator == 
           (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    {
        return p.state == q.state;
    }

    ...

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        return obj is IntentionalBool && 
             ((IntentionalBool) obj).state == state;
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return state.ToString();
    }

    ...

    public static IntentionalBool operator & 
           (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    {
        return new IntentionalBool(p.state & q.state);
    }

    public static IntentionalBool operator | 
           (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    {
        return new IntentionalBool(p.state | q.state);
    }

    public static IntentionalBool operator ^ 
           (IntentionalBool p, IntentionalBool q)
    {
        return new IntentionalBool(p.state ^ q.state);
    }

    public static IntentionalBool operator ! 
           (IntentionalBool p)
    {
        return new IntentionalBool(p.state ^ State.True);
    }

    ...

    public static implicit operator IntentionalBool (bool b)
    {
        return b ? True : False;
    }

    public static explicit operator bool (IntentionalBool p)
    {
        return p.state == State.True;
    }
}

Using the code

IntentionalBool can be used in much the same way you would normally use bool. Let's go back to the example from the introduction:

C#
IntentionalBool businessContact = ...;
IntentionalBool calledDuringOfficeHours = ...;

bool receivedAbroad = ...;
bool calledAbroad = ...;

IntentionalBool canClaim = receivedAbroad | 
    (calledAbroad | calledDuringOfficeHours) & businessContact;

if (!canClaim.IsKnown)
{
    ... // ask more information from user
}

...

if (canClaim)
{
    ... // make the claim
}

Of course, all variables could be functions or properties as well, and the || and && operators could be used to avoid evaluating the functions:

C#
Call call = ...;

IntentionalBool canClaim = call.IsReceivedAbroad || 
    (call.IsCalledAbroad || OfficeHours.IsDuring(call.Time)) &&
    BusinessContacts.IsBusinessContact(call.Number);

if (!canClaim.IsKnown)
{
    ... // ask more information from user
}

...

if (canClaim)
{
    ... // make the claim
}

Compare this to the same logic, using only bool variables. Try to rewrite the above for yourself. Not only you will find out that you need more than four variables (or functions), but also that the logic will become much more complex and far less readable. You might end up nesting if statements and so on. Also, if your application needs high performance, bear in mind that IntentionalBool is quite efficient, because it essentially performs two boolean operations in a single bitwise operation on two bits. Also, it effectively stores two booleans in a single byte. The bool type cannot do that.

As you can see, you can use IntentionalBool pretty much everywhere where you can use a bool, including in if statements and the like. But that in itself won’t make your programs smarter. Consider using it if you are working on a program that could benefit from dealing with the unknown. It might be a business application, or it might be a game of some sort, that needs to keep track of what it knows about the other player(s). Maybe this can be used for optimization purposes. Indeed, the value of any boolean expression is basically unknown until it is evaluated. Programs that do lazy evaluation of complex boolean functions might be easier to write with this type.

Points of interest

IntentionalBool is a typical example of a .NET ValueType. As per the standard Design Guidelines, it is immutable. It also follows all other guidelines, where applicable.

Other extensions to traditional logic have been proposed. Fuzzy logic is a well known one. In fuzzy logic, statements are not necessarily true of false, they can be "somewhat true" or "more true than" other statements. For an excellent introduction to the theory of fuzzy logic, see the Tutorial On Fuzzy Logic by Jan Jantzen, or have a look at the articles by pseudonym67 here on CP.

IntentionalBool is not fuzzy. All propositions still have an intrinsic value of true or false, it's just that we may not know it. Not knowing the intrinsic value (the "extensional" value) does not imply that the value is fuzzy though. Likewise, the assumption that a variable has an intrinsic value, even though it might be fuzzy, does not imply that it is known. In other words, typical fuzzy logic is extensional.

It is possible to implement an intentional fuzzy type as well. Even though calledDuringOfficeHours might be considered a fuzzy variable, I didn't need fuzzy logic for my purposes, so I leave the implementation of an intentional fuzzy type as "an exercise for the reader" ;-).

There is a lot of (mostly philosophical) literature on intentional logic. I you're interested, do a search on Google or Amazon, and you'll find more than enough to read. If you do, you'll find out that this implementation only touches the surface, but that applies to bool and extensional logic as well. Neither implements predicate logic or inference engines. Again, I didn't need these to solve my specific problem. I hope IntentionalBool can help you solve yours as well.

License

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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionIntentional confused? Pin
Marco Ensing14-Oct-03 16:22
Marco Ensing14-Oct-03 16:22 
AnswerRe: Intentional confused? Pin
estyles3-Mar-04 10:42
estyles3-Mar-04 10:42 
GeneralRe: Intentional confused? Pin
Marco Ensing3-Mar-04 12:13
Marco Ensing3-Mar-04 12:13 
GeneralRe: Intentional confused? Pin
estyles4-Mar-04 9:11
estyles4-Mar-04 9:11 
Generalanother use case Pin
Don Kackman8-Oct-03 9:39
Don Kackman8-Oct-03 9:39 
GeneralRe: another use case Pin
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 10:03
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 10:03 
Don Kackman wrote:
Like your business phone call example, it seems to me that a Spam filter would be the perfect opportunity to use Intentional logic.

In fact, many Spam filters use fuzzy logic, which I believe works better for them than the simple IntentionalBool I describe. Variables like "containsAdultLanguage" really are fuzzy variables.

On the other hand, all these filters keep black lists (always spam) and white lists (never spam) of email addresses, and an IntentionalBool could be used for those I guess. There is indeed a clear analogy with the business contact in my example.

Thanks for your feedback.

Kris.
GeneralAnother life changing article for me Pin
User 913737-Oct-03 14:46
User 913737-Oct-03 14:46 
GeneralRe: Another life changing article for me Pin
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 2:48
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 2:48 
GeneralRe: Another life changing article for me Pin
User 913738-Oct-03 13:20
User 913738-Oct-03 13:20 
GeneralRe: Another life changing article for me Pin
Kris Vandermotten9-Oct-03 1:54
Kris Vandermotten9-Oct-03 1:54 
GeneralIntensional Logic Pin
stnap7-Oct-03 9:54
stnap7-Oct-03 9:54 
GeneralRe: Intensional Logic Pin
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 2:32
Kris Vandermotten8-Oct-03 2:32 
GeneralRe: Intensional Logic Pin
stnap8-Oct-03 9:59
stnap8-Oct-03 9:59 
GeneralYou got my 5! Pin
Daniel Turini6-Oct-03 10:45
Daniel Turini6-Oct-03 10:45 
GeneralNew to me Pin
pseudonym676-Oct-03 10:08
pseudonym676-Oct-03 10:08 
GeneralRe: New to me Pin
Kris Vandermotten7-Oct-03 2:12
Kris Vandermotten7-Oct-03 2:12 
GeneralRe: New to me Pin
pseudonym677-Oct-03 6:18
pseudonym677-Oct-03 6:18 
GeneralRe: New to me Pin
Kris Vandermotten7-Oct-03 8:08
Kris Vandermotten7-Oct-03 8:08 
GeneralRe: New to me Pin
pseudonym677-Oct-03 12:47
pseudonym677-Oct-03 12:47 

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