CLP

Clp is an acronym used in several fields, notably in computer science and optimization. The two most common meanings are Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) and COIN-OR CLP, the open-source linear programming solver.

Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) combines logic programming with constraint solving. It extends Prolog-style languages by attaching constraint solvers to rules and queries, enabling declarative problem solving with domain-specific constraints. CLP supports constraints over real numbers, rationals, or finite domains, and has variants such as CLP(R), CLP(Q), and CLP(FD). The paradigm is used in scheduling, verification, resource allocation, and other combinatorial problems. Implementations exist in several Prolog systems and often integrate with external solvers, emphasizing declarative problem specification and local consistency checking.

COIN-OR CLP is an open-source linear programming solver that is part of the COIN-OR project. Implemented in C++, it provides a backend for solving standard LP problems and can be used directly or via modeling tools and wrappers such as PuLP or Pyomo. As an alternative to commercial solvers, CLP is used in education, research, and industry to prototype optimization workflows and to explore algorithmic approaches to linear programming.

The acronym Clp can also appear in other fields as an abbreviation for different terms, but CLP and COIN-OR CLP are the primary computing-related meanings.