$$ \newcommand{\setmin}{\mathbin{\backslash}} \newcommand{\symmdiff}{\mathbin{∆}} $$

Introduction to Lean

If you are reading this book in conjunction with How To Prove It, you should complete Section 3.2 of HTPI before reading this chapter. Once you have reached that point in HTPI, you are ready to start learning about Lean. In this chapter we’ll explain the basics of writing proofs in Lean and getting feedback from Lean.

A First Example

We’ll start with Example 3.2.4 in How To Prove It. Here is how the theorem and proof in that example appear in HTPI (HTPI p. 110; consult HTPI if you want to see how this proof was constructed):

Suppose \(P \to (Q \to R)\). Then \(\neg R \to (P \to \neg Q)\).

Proof. Suppose \(\neg R\). Suppose \(P\). Since \(P\) and \(P \to (Q \to R)\), it follows that \(Q \to R\). But then, since \(\neg R\), we can conclude \(\neg Q\). Thus, \(P \to \neg Q\). Therefore \(\neg R \to (P \to \neg Q)\).  □

And here is how we would write the proof in Lean.¹ (If you are reading this book online, then Lean examples like the one below will appear in gray boxes. You can copy the example to your clipboard by clicking in the upper-right corner of the box, and then you can paste it into a file in VS Code to try it out.)

theorem Example_3_2_4
    (P Q R : Prop) (h : P → (Q → R)) : ¬R → (P → ¬Q) := by
  assume h2 : ¬R
  assume h3 : P
  have h4 : Q → R := h h3
  contrapos at h4            --Now h4 : ¬R → ¬Q
  show ¬Q from h4 h2
  done

Let’s go through this Lean proof line-by-line and see what it means. The first line tells Lean that we are going to prove a theorem, and it gives the theorem a name, Example_3_2_4. The next line states the theorem. In the theorem as stated in HTPI, the letters \(P\), \(Q\), and \(R\) are used to stand for statements that are either true or false. In logic, such statements are often called propositions. The expression (P Q R : Prop) on the second line tells Lean that P, Q, and R will be used in this theorem to stand for propositions. The next parenthetical expression, (h : P → (Q → R)), states the hypothesis of the theorem and gives it the name h; the technical term that Lean uses is that h is an identifier for the hypothesis. Assigning an identifier to the hypothesis gives us a way to refer to it when it is used later in the proof. Almost any string of characters that doesn’t begin with a digit can be used as an identifier, but it is traditional to use identifiers beginning with the letter h for hypotheses. After the statement of the hypothesis there is a colon followed by the conclusion of the theorem, ¬R → (P → ¬Q). Finally, at the end of the second line, the expression := by signals the beginning of the proof.

Each of the remaining lines is a step in the proof. The first line of the proof introduces the assumption ¬R and gives it the identifier h2. Of course, this corresponds precisely to the first sentence of the proof in HTPI. Similarly, the second line, corresponding to the second sentence of the HTPI proof, assigns the identifier h3 to the assumption P. The next line makes the inference Q → R, giving it the identifier h4. The inference is justified by combining statements h and h3—that is, the statements P → (Q → R) and P—exactly as in the third sentence of the proof in HTPI.

The next step of the proof in HTPI combines the statements \(Q \to R\) and \(\neg R\) to draw the inference \(\neg Q\). This reasoning is justified by the contrapositive law, which says that \(Q \to R\) is equivalent to its contrapositive, \(\neg R \to \neg Q\). In the Lean proof, this inference is broken up into two steps. In the fourth line of the proof, we ask Lean to rewrite statement h4—that is, Q → R—using the contrapositive law. Two hyphens in a row tell Lean that the rest of the line is a comment. Lean ignores comments and displays them in green. The comment on line four serves as a reminder that h4 now stands for the statement ¬R → ¬Q. Finally, in the last step of the proof, we combine the new h4 with h2 to infer ¬Q. There is no need to give this statement an identifier, because it completes the proof. In the proof in HTPI, there are a couple of final sentences explaining why this completes the proof, but Lean doesn’t require this explanation.

Term Mode

Now that you have seen an example of a proof in Lean, it is time for you to write your first proof. Lean has two modes for writing proofs, called term mode and tactic mode. The example above was written in tactic mode, and that is the mode we will use for most proofs in this book. But before we study the construction of proofs in tactic mode, it will be helpful to learn a bit about term mode. Term mode is best for simple proofs, so we begin with a few very short proofs.

If you have not yet installed Lean on your computer, go back and follow the instructions for installing it now. Then in VS Code, open the folder containing the HTPI Lean Package that you downloaded, and click on the file Blank.lean. The file starts with the line import HTPILib.HTPIDefs. Click on the blank line at the end of the file; this is where you will be typing your first proofs.

Now type in the following theorem and proof:

theorem extremely_easy (P : Prop) (h : P) : P := h

This theorem and proof are so short we have put everything on one line. In this theorem, the letter P is used to stand for a proposition. The theorem has one hypothesis, P, which has been given the identifier h, and the conclusion of the theorem is also P. The notation := indicates that what follows will be a proof in term mode.

Of course, the proof of the theorem is extremely easy: to prove P, we just have to point out that it is given as the hypothesis h. And so the proof in Lean consists of just one letter: h.

Even though this example is a triviality, there are some things to be learned from it. First of all, although we have been describing the letter h as an identifier for the hypothesis P, this example illustrates that Lean also considers h to be a proof of P. In general, when we see h : P in a Lean proof, where P is a proposition, we can think of it as meaning, not just that h is an identifier for the statement P, but also that h is a proof of P.

We can learn something else from this example by changing it slightly. If you change the final h to a different letter—say, f—you will see that Lean puts a red squiggly line under the f, like this:

theorem extremely_easy (P : Prop) (h : P) : P := **f::

This indicates that Lean has detected an error in the proof. Lean always indicates errors by putting a red squiggle under the offending text. Lean also puts a message in the Lean Infoview pane explaining what the error is. (If you don’t see the Infoview pane on the right side of the window, click on the “\(\forall\)” icon near the top of the window and select “Infoview: Toggle Infoview” from the popup menu to make the Infoview pane appear.) In this case, the message is unknown identifier 'f'. The message is introduced by a heading, in red, that identifies the file, the line number, and the character position on that line where the error appears. If you change f back to h, the red squiggle and error message go away.

Let’s try a slightly less trivial example. You can type the next theorem below the previous one, leaving a blank line between them to keep them visually separate. To type the → symbol in the next example, type \to and then hit either the space bar or the tab key; when you type either space or tab, the \to will change to →. Alternatively, you can type \r (short for “right arrow”) or \imp (short for “implies”), again followed by either space or tab. Or, you can type ->, and Lean will interpret it as →. (There is a list in the appendix showing how to type all of the symbols used in this book.)

theorem very_easy
    (P Q : Prop) (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : P) : Q := h1 h2

Indenting the second line is not necessary, but it is traditional. When stating a theorem, we will generally indent all lines after the first with two tabs in VS Code. Once you indent a line, VS Code will maintain that same indenting in subsequent lines until you delete tabs at the beginning of a line to reduce or eliminate indenting.

This time there are two hypotheses, h1 : P → Q and h2 : P. As explained in Section 3.2 of HTPI, the conclusion Q follows from these hypotheses by the logical rule modus ponens. To use modus ponens to complete this proof in term mode, we simply write the identifiers of the two hypotheses—which, as we have just seen, can also be thought of as proofs of the two hypotheses—one after the other, with a space between them. It is important to write the proof of the conditional hypothesis first, so the proof is written h1 h2; if you try writing this proof as h2 h1, you will get a red squiggle. In general, if a is a proof of any conditional statement X → Y, and b is a proof of the antecedent X, then a b is a proof of the consequent Y. The proofs a and b need not be simply identifiers; any proofs of a conditional statement and its antecedent can be combined in this way.

We’ll try one more proof in term mode:

theorem easy (P Q R : Prop) (h1 : P → Q)
    (h2 : Q → R) (h3 : P) : R :=

Note that in the statement of the theorem, you can break the lines however you please; this time we have put the declaration of P, Q, and R and the first hypothesis on the first line and the other two hypotheses on the second line. How can we prove the conclusion R? Well, we have h2 : Q → R, so if we could prove Q then we could use modus ponens to reach the desired conclusion. In other words, h2 _ will be a proof of R, if we can fill in the blank with a proof of Q. Can we prove Q? Yes, Q follows from P → Q and P by modus ponens, so h1 h3 is a proof of Q. Filling in the blank, we conclude that h2 (h1 h3) is a proof of R. Type it in, and you’ll see that Lean will accept it. Note that the parentheses are important; if you write h2 h1 h3 then Lean will interpret it as (h2 h1) h3, which doesn’t make sense, and you’ll get an error.

Tactic Mode

For more complicated proofs, it is easier to use tactic mode. Type the following theorem into Lean; to type the symbol ¬, type \not, followed again by either space or tab. Alternatively, if you type Not P, Lean will interpret it as meaning ¬P.

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P :=

Lean is now waiting for you to type a proof in term mode. To switch to tactic mode, type by after :=. We find it helpful to set off a tactic proof from the surrounding text by indenting it with one tab, and also by marking where the proof ends. To do this, leave a blank line after the statement of the theorem, adjust the indenting to one tab, and type done. You will type your proof between the statement of the theorem and the line containing done, so click on the blank line between them to position the cursor there. Lean can be fussy about indenting; it will be important to indent all steps of the proof by the same amount.

One of the advantages of tactic mode is that Lean displays, in the Lean Infoview pane, information about the status of the proof as your write it. As soon as you position your cursor on the blank line, Lean displays what it calls the “tactic state” in the Infoview pane. Your screen should look like this:

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P := by

  **done::

P Q R : Prop
h1 : P → Q
h2 : Q → ¬R
⊢ R → ¬P

The red squiggle under done indicates that Lean knows that the proof isn’t done. The tactic state in the Infoview pane is very similar to the lists of givens and goals that are used in HTPI. The hypotheses h1 : P → Q and h2 : Q → ¬R are examples of what are called givens in HTPI. The tactic state above says that P, Q, and R stand for propositions, and then it lists the two givens h1 and h2. The symbol ⊢ in the last line labels the goal, R → ¬P. The tactic state is a valuable tool for guiding you as you are figuring out a proof; whenever you are trying to decide on the next step of a proof, you should look at the tactic state to see what givens you have to work with and what goal you need to prove.

From the givens h1 and h2 it shouldn’t be hard to prove P → ¬R, but the goal is R → ¬P. This suggests that we should prove the contrapositive of the goal. Type contrapos (indented by one tab, to match the indenting of done) to tell Lean that you want to replace the goal with its contrapositive. As soon as you type contrapos, Lean will update the tactic state to reflect the change in the goal. You should now see this:

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P := by
  contrapos
  **done::

P Q R : Prop
h1 : P → Q
h2 : Q → ¬R
⊢ P → ¬R

If you want to make your proof a little more readable, you could add a comment saying that the goal has been changed to P → ¬R. To prove the new goal, we will assume P and prove ¬R. So type assume h3 : P on a new line (after contrapos, but before done). Once again, the tactic state is immediately updated. Lean adds h3 : P as a new given, and it knows, without having to be told, that the goal should now be ¬R:

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P := by
  contrapos           --Goal is now P → ¬R
  assume h3 : P
  **done::

P Q R : Prop
h1 : P → Q
h2 : Q → ¬R
h3 : P
⊢ ¬R

We can now use modus ponens to infer Q from h1 : P → Q and h3 : P. As we saw earlier, this means that h1 h3 is a term-mode proof of Q. So on the next line, type have h4 : Q := h1 h3. To make an inference, you need to provide a justification, so := here is followed by the term-mode proof of Q. Usually we will use have to make easy inferences for which we can give simple term-mode proofs. (We’ll see later that it is also possible to use have to make an inference justified by a tactic-mode proof.) Of course, Lean updates the tactic state by adding the new given h4 : Q:

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P := by
  contrapos           --Goal is now P → ¬R
  assume h3 : P
  have h4 : Q := h1 h3
  **done::

P Q R : Prop
h1 : P → Q
h2 : Q → ¬R
h3 : P
h4 : Q
⊢ ¬R

Finally, to complete the proof, we can infer the goal ¬R from h2 : Q → ¬R and h4 : Q, using the term-mode proof h2 h4. Type show ¬R from h2 h4 to complete the proof. You’ll notice two changes in the display: the red squiggle will disappear from the word done, and the tactic state will say “No goals” to indicate that there is nothing left to prove:

theorem two_imp (P Q R : Prop)
    (h1 : P → Q) (h2 : Q → ¬R) : R → ¬P := by
  contrapos           --Goal is now P → ¬R
  assume h3 : P
  have h4 : Q := h1 h3
  show ¬R from h2 h4
  done

No goals

Congratulations! You’ve written your first proof in tactic mode. If you move your cursor around in the proof, you will see that Lean always displays in the Infoview the tactic state at the point in the proof where the cursor is located. Try clicking on different lines of the proof to see how the tactic state changes over the course of the proof. If you want to try another example, you could try typing in the first example in this chapter. You will learn the most from this book if you continue to type the examples into Lean and see for yourself how the tactic state gets updated as the proof is written.

In each step of a tactic-mode proof, we invoke a tactic. In the proofs above, we have used four tactics: contrapos, assume, have, and show. If the goal is a conditional statement, the contrapos tactic replaces it with its contrapositive. If h is a given that is a conditional statement, then contrapos at h will replace h with its contrapositive. If the goal is a conditional statement P → Q, you can use the assume tactic to assume the antecedent P, and Lean will set the goal to be the consequent Q. You can use the have tactic to make an inference from your givens, as long as you can justify the inference with a proof. The show tactic is similar, but it is used to infer the goal, thus completing the proof. And we have learned how to use one rule of inference in term mode: modus ponens. In the rest of this book we will learn about other tactics and other term-mode rules.

Before continuing, it might be useful to summarize how you type statements into Lean. We have already told you how to type the symbols → and ¬, but you will want to know how to type all of the logical connectives. In each case, the command to produce the symbol must be followed by space or tab, but there is also a plain text alternative:

Symbol	How To Type It	Plain Text Alternative
¬	\not or \n	Not
∧	\and	/\
∨	\or or \v	\/
→	\to or \r or \imp	->
↔︎	\iff or \lr	<->

Lean has conventions that it follows to interpret a logical statement when there are not enough parentheses to indicate how terms are grouped in the statement. For our purposes, the most important of these conventions is that P → Q → R is interpreted as P → (Q → R), not (P → Q) → R. The reason for this is simply that statements of the form P → (Q → R) come up much more often in proofs than statements of the form (P → Q) → R. (Lean also follows this “grouping-to-the-right” convention for ∧ and ∨, although this makes less of a difference, since these connectives are associative.) Of course, when in doubt about how to type a statement, you can always put in extra parentheses to avoid confusion.

We will be using tactics to apply several logical equivalences. Here are tactics corresponding to all of the logical laws listed in Chapter 1, as well as one additional law:

Logical Law	Tactic		Transformation
Contrapositive Law	contrapos	P → Q	is changed to	¬Q → ¬P
De Morgan’s Laws	demorgan	¬(P ∧ Q)	is changed to	¬P ∨ ¬Q
		¬(P ∨ Q)	is changed to	¬P ∧ ¬Q
		P ∧ Q	is changed to	¬(¬P ∨ ¬Q)
		P ∨ Q	is changed to	¬(¬P ∧ ¬Q)
Conditional Laws	conditional	P → Q	is changed to	¬P ∨ Q
		¬(P → Q)	is changed to	P ∧ ¬Q
		P ∨ Q	is changed to	¬P → Q
		P ∧ Q	is changed to	¬(P → ¬Q)
Double Negation Law	double_neg	¬¬P	is changed to	P
Biconditional Negation Law	bicond_neg	¬(P ↔︎ Q)	is changed to	¬P ↔︎ Q
		P ↔︎ Q	is changed to	¬(¬P ↔︎ Q)

All of these tactics work the same way as the contrapos tactic: by default, the transformation is applied to the goal; to apply it to a given h, add at h after the tactic name.

Types

All of our examples so far have just used letters to stand for propositions. To prove theorems with mathematical content, we will need to introduce one more idea.

The underlying theory on which Lean is based is called type theory. We won’t go very deeply into type theory, but we will need to make use of the central idea of the theory: every variable in Lean must have a type. What this means is that, when you introduce a variable to stand for a mathematical object in a theorem or proof, you must specify what type of object the variable stands for. We have already seen this idea in action: in our first example, the expression (P Q R : Prop) told Lean that the variables P, Q, and R have type Prop, which means they stand for propositions. There are types for many kinds of mathematical objects. For example, Nat is the type of natural numbers, and Real is the type of real numbers. So if you want to state a theorem about real numbers x and y, the statement of your theorem might start with (x y : Real). You must include such a type declaration before you can use the variables x and y as free variables in the hypotheses or conclusion of your theorem.

What about sets? If you want to prove a theorem about a set A, can you say that A has type Set? No, Lean is fussier than that. Lean wants to know, not only that A is a set, but also what the type of the elements of A is. So you can say that A has type Set Nat if A is a set whose elements are natural numbers, or Set Real if it is a set of real numbers, or even Set (Set Nat) if it is a set whose elements are sets of natural numbers. Here is an example of a simple theorem about sets; it is a simplified version of Example 3.2.5 in HTPI. To type the symbols ∈, ∉, and \ in this theorem, type \in, \notin, and \\, respectively.

theorem Example_3_2_5_simple
    (B C : Set Nat) (a : Nat)
    (h1 : a ∈ B) (h2 : a ∉ B \ C) : a ∈ C := by

  **done::

B C : Set ℕ
a : ℕ
h1 : a ∈ B
h2 : a ∉ B \ C
⊢ a ∈ C

The second line of this theorem statement declares that the variables B and C stand for sets of natural numbers, and a stands for a natural number. The third line states the two hypotheses of the theorem, a ∈ B and a ∉ B \ C, and the conclusion, a ∈ C. (Note that Lean occasionally writes things slightly differently in the tactic state. In this case, Lean has written ℕ instead of Nat.)

To figure out this proof, we’ll imitate the reasoning in Example 3.2.5 in HTPI. We begin by writing out the meaning of the given h2. Fortunately, we have a tactic for that. The tactic define writes out the definition of the goal, and as usual we can add at to apply the tactic to a given rather than the goal. Here’s the situation after using the tactic define at h2:

theorem Example_3_2_5_simple
    (B C : Set Nat) (a : Nat)
    (h1 : a ∈ B) (h2 : a ∉ B \ C) : a ∈ C := by
  define at h2       --Now h2 : ¬(a ∈ B ∧ a ∉ C)
  **done::

B C : Set ℕ
a : ℕ
h1 : a ∈ B
h2 : ¬(a ∈ B ∧ a ∉ C)
⊢ a ∈ C

Looking at the tactic state, we see that Lean has written out the meaning of set difference in h2. And now we can see that, as in Example 3.2.5 in HTPI, we can put h2 into a more useful form by applying first one of De Morgan’s laws to rewrite it as a ∉ B ∨ a ∈ C and then a conditional law to change it to a ∈ B → a ∈ C:

theorem Example_3_2_5_simple
    (B C : Set Nat) (a : Nat)
    (h1 : a ∈ B) (h2 : a ∉ B \ C) : a ∈ C := by
  define at h2       --Now h2 : ¬(a ∈ B ∧ a ∉ C)
  demorgan at h2     --Now h2 : a ∉ B ∨ a ∈ C
  conditional at h2  --Now h2 : a ∈ B → a ∈ C
  **done::

B C : Set ℕ
a : ℕ
h1 : a ∈ B
h2 : a ∈ B → a ∈ C
⊢ a ∈ C

Occasionally, you may feel that the application of two tactics one after the other should be thought of as a single step. To allow for this, Lean lets you put two tactics on the same line, separated by a semicolon. For example, in this proof you could write the use of De Morgan’s law and the conditional law as a single step by writing demorgan at h2; conditional at h2. Now the rest is easy: we can apply modus ponens to reach the goal:

theorem Example_3_2_5_simple
    (B C : Set Nat) (a : Nat)
    (h1 : a ∈ B) (h2 : a ∉ B \ C) : a ∈ C := by
  define at h2       --Now h2 : ¬(a ∈ B ∧ a ∉ C)
  demorgan at h2; conditional at h2
                     --Now h2 : a ∈ B → a ∈ C
  show a ∈ C from h2 h1
  done

No goals

There is one unfortunate feature of this theorem: We have stated it as a theorem about sets of natural numbers, but the proof has nothing to do with natural numbers. Exactly the same reasoning would prove a similar theorem about sets of real numbers, or sets of objects of any other type. Do we need to write a different theorem for each of these cases? No, fortunately there is a way to write one theorem that covers all the cases:

theorem Example_3_2_5_simple_general
    (U : Type) (B C : Set U) (a : U)
    (h1 : a ∈ B) (h2 : a ∉ B \ C) : a ∈ C := by

In this version of the theorem, we have introduced a new variable U, whose type is … Type! So U can stand for any type. You can think of the variable U as playing the role of the universe of discourse, an idea that was introduced in Section 1.3 of HTPI. The sets B and C contain elements from that universe of discourse, and a belongs to the universe. You can prove the new version of the theorem by using exactly the same sequence of tactics as before.

---

1. Experienced Lean users will notice that the Lean proofs in this book look somewhat different from standard Lean proofs. This is because our proofs use a number of custom tactics. These tactics are designed to make our Lean proofs more readable and to bring Lean into closer agreement with HTPI. The custom tactics are defined in the file “HTPIDefs.lean”, which is in the folder “HTPILib” in the Lean package that accompanies this book. The appendix of this book includes advice about transitioning from the Lean in this book to standard Lean.