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   Copyright 1998-2020 Paulo Moura <pmoura@logtalk.org>

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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.. index:: pair: meta_predicate/1; Directive
.. _directives_meta_predicate_1:

meta_predicate/1
================

Description
-----------

::

   meta_predicate(Template)
   meta_predicate((Template, ...))
   meta_predicate([Template, ...])

   meta_predicate(Entity::Template)
   meta_predicate((Entity::Template, ...))
   meta_predicate([Entity::Template, ...])

   meta_predicate(Module:Template)
   meta_predicate((Module:Template, ...))
   meta_predicate([Module:Template, ...])

Declares meta-predicates, i.e., predicates that have arguments that will
be called as goals. An argument may also be a :term:`closure` instead of a
goal if the meta-predicate uses the :ref:`methods_call_N` Logtalk built-in
methods to construct and call the actual goal from the closure and the
additional arguments.

Meta-arguments which are goals are represented by the integer ``0``.
Meta-arguments which are closures are represented by a positive integer,
``N``, representing the number of additional arguments that will be
appended to the closure in order to construct the corresponding meta-call.
Meta-arguments that will be called using the ``bagof/3`` or ``setof/3``
predicates and that can thus be existentially-qualified are represented
by the atom ``^``. Normal arguments are represented by the atom ``*``.
Meta-arguments are always called in the meta-predicate *calling context*,
not in the meta-predicate *definition context*.

Logtalk allows the use of this directive to override the original
meta-predicate directive. This is sometimes necessary when calling
Prolog built-in meta-predicates or Prolog module meta-predicates due
to the lack of standardization of the syntax of the meta-predicate
templates.

.. warning::

   Some backend Prolog compilers declare ``meta_predicate`` as an operator
   for a lighter syntax. But this makes the code non-portable and is
   a practice best avoided.

Template and modes
------------------

::

   meta_predicate(+meta_predicate_template_term)

   meta_predicate(+object_identifier::+meta_predicate_template_term)
   meta_predicate(+category_identifier::+meta_predicate_template_term)

   meta_predicate(+module_identifier:+meta_predicate_template_term)

Examples
--------

::

   % findall/3 second argument is interpreted as a goal:
   :- meta_predicate(findall(*, 0, *)).

   % both forall/2 arguments are interpreted as goals:
   :- meta_predicate(forall(0, 0)).

   % maplist/3 first argument is interpreted as a closure
   % that will be expanded to a goal by appending two
   % arguments:
   :- meta_predicate(maplist(2, *, *)).

.. seealso::

   :ref:`directives_meta_non_terminal_1`,
   :ref:`methods_predicate_property_2`
