Probabilistic Inference for Datalog with Correlated Inputs

Probabilistic extensions of logic programming languages, such as ProbLog, integrate logical reasoning with probabilistic inference to evaluate probabilities of output relations; however, prior work does not account for potential statistical correlations among input facts. This paper introduces Praline, a new extension to Datalog designed for precise probabilistic inference in the presence of (partially known) input correlations. We formulate the inference task as a constrained optimization problem, where the solution yields sound and precise probability bounds for output facts. However, due to the complexity of the resulting optimization problem, this approach alone often does not scale to large programs. To address scalability, we propose a more efficient δ-exact inference algorithm that leverages constraint solving, static analysis, and iterative refinement. Our empirical evaluation on challenging real-world benchmarks, including side-channel analysis, demonstrates that our method not only scales effectively but also delivers tight probability bounds.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages
Published
2025-10-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3763058
Primary Topic
Formal Methods in Verification
Type
article
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article

Probabilistic Inference for Datalog with Correlated Inputs

Işıl Dillig, Wenzhuo Chen, Jingbo Wang, Chao Wang et al.
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages
Formal Methods in Verification
article

Probabilistic Inference for Datalog with Correlated Inputs

Işıl Dillig, Wenzhuo Chen, Jingbo Wang, Chao Wang, Shashin Halalingaiah
article en

Abstract

Probabilistic extensions of logic programming languages, such as ProbLog, integrate logical reasoning with probabilistic inference to evaluate probabilities of output relations; however, prior work does not account for potential statistical correlations among input facts. This paper introduces Praline, a new extension to Datalog designed for precise probabilistic inference in the presence of (partially known) input correlations. We formulate the inference task as a constrained optimization problem, where the solution yields sound and precise probability bounds for output facts. However, due to the complexity of the resulting optimization problem, this approach alone often does not scale to large programs. To address scalability, we propose a more efficient δ-exact inference algorithm that leverages constraint solving, static analysis, and iterative refinement. Our empirical evaluation on challenging real-world benchmarks, including side-channel analysis, demonstrates that our method not only scales effectively but also delivers tight probability bounds.

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming LanguagesVol. 9(OOPSLA2)
University of Southern California (US), Purdue University West Lafayette (US), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 70%
Formal Methods in Verification
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