In mathematics, especially in set theory, a set A is a subset of a set B, or equivalently B is a superset of A, if A is "contained" inside B, that is, all elements of A are also elements of B. A and B may coincide. The relationship of one set being a subset of another is called inclusion or sometimes containment.
The subset relation defines a partial order on sets.
The algebra of subsets forms a Boolean algebra in which the subset relation is called inclusion.
Definitions
If
A and
B are sets and every
element of
A is also an element of
B, then:
- * A is a subset of (or is included in) B, denoted by ,
- or equivalently
- * B is a superset of (or includes) A, denoted by
If A is a subset of B, but A is not equal to B (i.e. there exists at least one element of B which is not an element of A), then
- * A is also a proper (or strict) subset of B; this is written as
- or equivalently
- * B is a proper superset of A; this is written as
For any set S, the inclusion relation ⊆ is a partial order on the set of all subsets of S (the power set of S).
The symbols ⊂ and ⊃
Some authors
use the symbols ⊂ and ⊃ to indicate "subset" and "superset" respectively, instead of the symbols ⊆ and ⊇, but with the same meaning. So for example, for these authors, it is true of every set
A that
A ⊂
A.
Other authors prefer to use the symbols ⊂ and ⊃ to indicate proper subset and superset, respectively, in place of ⊊ and ⊋. This usage makes ⊆ and ⊂ analogous to the inequality symbols ≤ and <. For example, if x ≤ y then x may be equal to y, or maybe not, but if x < y, then x definitely does not equal y, and is strictly less than y. Similarly, using the "⊂ means proper subset" convention, if A ⊆ B, then A may or may not be equal to B, but if A ⊂ B, then A is definitely not equal to B.
Examples
-
The set {1, 2} is a proper subset of {1, 2, 3}.
-
Any set is a subset of itself, but not a proper subset.
-
The empty set { }, denoted by ∅, is also a subset of any given set X. It is also always a proper subset of any set except itself.
-
The set { x: x is a prime number greater than 10} is a proper subset of { x: x is an odd number greater than 10}
-
The set of is a proper subset of the set of , and the set of points in a line segment is a proper subset of the set of points in a line. These are examples in which both the part and the whole are infinite, and the part has the same cardinality (number of elements) as the whole; such cases can tax one's intuition.
Other properties of inclusion
Inclusion is the canonical
partial order in the sense that every partially ordered set (
X,
) is
isomorphic to some collection of sets ordered by inclusion. The
are a simple example—if each ordinal
n is identified with the set
n of all ordinals less than or equal to
n, then
a ≤
b if and only if
a ⊆
b.
For the power set of a set S, the inclusion partial order is (up to an order isomorphism) the Cartesian product of k = | S| (the cardinality of S) copies of the partial order on {0,1} for which 0 < 1. This can be illustrated by enumerating S = { s1, s2, …, s k} and associating with each subset T ⊆ S (which is to say with each element of 2 S) the k-tuple from {0,1} k of which the ith coordinate is 1 if and only if s i is a member of T.
See also
External links
References