Prolog - The funky functor

From a List to a Function with arguments

I always wondering if I can dynamically call prolog function. It turns out that there is a way to do that. Its form is as follow:

  ?Term =.. ?List

For example, let say that I have the following predicates:

  isa(router, equipment).
  isa(routing_engine, fru).
  isa(fpc, fru).

  partof(routing_engine, router).

I can do:

  Term =.. [isa, router, X], Term, write(X).

This is the equivalent of:

  isa(router,X), write(X).

Which gives us the following printout:

  equipment

#prolog #programming