(definition)
Definition: A computation which takes some inputs and yields an output. Any particular input may yield different outputs at different times. Formally, a mapping from each element in the domain to one or more elements in the range.
Specialization (... is a kind of me.)
function, binary relation.
Note: Cosine is a function, since every angle has a specific cosine. Its inverse cos-1(x) is a relation, since a cosine value maps to many (for this relation, infinitely many) angles.
Author: PEB
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.
Entry modified 18 December 2003.
HTML page formatted Fri Mar 25 16:20:35 2011.
Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "relation", in
Dictionary of Algorithms and Data
Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed.,
U.S. National Institute of
Standards and Technology. 18 December 2003. (accessed TODAY)
Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/relation.html
