---
title: "Structuring Techniques for Constraint Satisfaction Problems"
authors:
  - "Rainer Weigel"
  - "Boi Faltings"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1997/62"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1997/0062.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1997
pages: "418-422"
track: "Constraint Satisfaction"
keywords:
---

# Structuring Techniques for Constraint Satisfaction Problems

Rainer Weigel, Boi Faltings

*Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 418-422.

## Abstract

We present a structuring method for discrete constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). It takes advantage of interchangeabilities to represent sets of equivalent values by meta-values and thus obtain more compact representations. Strongly related variables are clustered into meta-variables to create occurrences of interchangeabilities. By iterative application, a CSP can be transformed into an hierarchy of equivalent CSPs, where each problem is significantly simpler than the original one. This structure is particularly advantageous when a large set of possible solutions must be inspected.