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readvar(+Stream, ?Term, -VarList)

Succeeds if the next Prolog term from the input stream Stream is successfully read and unified with Term, and any variables in Term are collected in the list VarList, together with their names.
+Stream
Integer (stream number) or Atom (reserved or user-defined symbolic stream name).
?Term
Prolog term.
-VarList
A Variable.

Description

Used to read the next term from the input stream Stream, unify it with Term and store any variables in Term to the list VarList. This is a list of pairs in the format [VarName|Var].

VarName is the literal input variable name expressed as an atom; Var is the variable. The first element of the pair Varname is the atom corresponding to the variable name, and the second element Var is the corresponding variable.

If there is more than one Prolog term in the file, the term must be in Prolog term format i.e. terminated by a period and a blank space character, neither of which are retained by Prolog.

Fail Conditions

Fails if a syntax error was detected and no term could be read

Resatisfiable

No.

Exceptions

(4) instantiation fault
Stream is not instantiated.
(5) type error
Stream is not an atom or an integer, Varlist is not a variable.
(190) end of file reached
End of file was encountered before reading any character.
(192) illegal stream mode
Stream is not an input stream.
(193) illegal stream specification
Stream is an illegal stream specification.
(198) reading past the file end
Trying to read even after the error 190 was raised.

Examples

Success:
      [eclipse]: readvar(input,Term,VarList).
      > atom.
      Term = atom
      VarList = []
      yes.

      [eclipse]: readvar(input,T,L).
      > X.
      T = _50
      L = [['X'|_50]]
      yes.

      [eclipse]: system('cat file1').
      f(X,Y).
      g(1,X).
      yes.
      [eclipse]: open(file1,update,r), readvar(r,T1,V1),
      > readvar(r, T2,V2).
      T1 = f(_120, _122)
      V1 = [['X'|_120], ['Y'|_122]]
      T2 = g(1, _146)              % the clauses are separate,
      V2 = [['X'|_146]]            % so the X's are different.
      yes.

Fail:
      [eclipse]: readvar(input, X + 2,V).
      > X + 1.
      no.

Error:
      readvar(S,a(b,c),V).          (Error 4).
      readvar("string",a(b,c),V,).  (Error 5).
      readvar(output,X + 2,V).      (Error 192).
      readvar(atom,X + 2,V).        (Error 193).

See Also

read / 1, read / 2