Constraintfor

Constraintfor is a term used primarily in discussions of constraint programming to describe an operator or notation that attaches a constraint to each element of a given domain, effectively parameterizing a constraint over that domain. In its typical, universal reading, constraintfor(x in X) C(x) asserts that C(x) must hold for every x in X in the resulting model. The construct helps express families of related constraints without repetition and can model quantified constraints, depending on solver support.

The precise syntax and semantics of constraintfor vary by language and author, and it is not a universally standardized operator. Some sources implement similar ideas with forall or parameterized constraints rather than a dedicated constraintfor form. The concept is often used to describe scalable constraint specification rather than to prescribe a concrete language feature.

Example uses include scheduling, resource allocation, and data validation. In a scheduling problem with a set of workers W, constraintfor(w in W) can be described as enforcing that each worker’s assigned hours respect their availability and weekly limit. Another common use is to enforce that a property holds for all elements of a domain, such as for all items i in I, value(i) remains within allowed bounds.

Origin and status: constraintfor appears mainly in academic discussions, model transformations, and expressive constraint syntax debates as a way to articulate universal, parameterized constraints. It is not a widely adopted feature across major constraint programming languages.

See also: Constraint programming, forall, quantified constraints, parameterized constraints.