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Conditionals and loops

Loops​

Use standard for loops inside a circuit definition.

note

The for loop impact on the constraint system is identical to unrolling its content.

check that X*X*X*X*X... == Y
func (circuit *Circuit) Define(api frontend.API) error {
    for i := 0; i < n; i++ {
        circuit.X = api.Mul(circuit.X, circuit.X)
    }
    api.AssertIsEqual(circuit.X, circuit.Y)
    return nil
}

Conditionals statements​

In an imperative programming language, conditionals would use if and else statements. However, this doesn't translate well in a declarative API to define the circuit, because the output of the frontend.Compile method is an arithmetic representation that must encode the various branches.

gnark offers api.Select(...) API, which is similar to Prolog-like languages.

// Select if b is true, yields i1 else yields i2
func (cs *ConstraintSystem) Select(b Variable, i1, i2 interface{}) Variable {
note

Work is ongoing to provide a if like statement. Github issue.