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DefinitionDefinition: Literature-sourcedProof: Not applicableSession-authored (Fable 5 assisted)verified 2026-08-06 (claude-opus-5)
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced — the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted — a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated — a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

A function is a relation ff with (a,b)f(a,b) \in f and (a,c)f(a,c) \in f implying b=cb = c; f:ABf : A \to B, the value f(a)f(a), domain and codomain

Definition

A function is a relation ff such that (a,b)f(a,b) \in f and (a,c)f(a,c) \in f imply b=cb = c; "relation" is as in Relation, domR\operatorname{dom} R, ranR\operatorname{ran} R, fldR\operatorname{fld} R, and the specialisations "relation from AA to BB" and "relation on AA".

For adomfa \in \operatorname{dom} f there is such a bb, and by the condition just stated there is only one; f(a)f(a) denotes that unique bb, so that (a,b)f(a,b) \in f holds if and only if adomfa \in \operatorname{dom} f and b=f(a)b = f(a) ((a,b)=(c,d)(a,b) = (c,d) if and only if a=ca = c and b=db = d).

We write f:ABf : A \to B, and say ff is a function from AA to BB, when ff is a function with domf=A\operatorname{dom} f = A and ranfB\operatorname{ran} f \subseteq B (Subset xyx \subseteq y, proper subset xyx \subsetneq y, and the separation notation {zx:φ(z)}\{\, z \in x : \varphi(z) \,\}); AA is the domain of ff and BB is a codomain for ff. Equivalently fA×Bf \subseteq A \times B with domf=A\operatorname{dom} f = A (The Cartesian product A×B:={zP(P(AB)):aA bB z=(a,b)}A \times B := \{\, z \in \mathcal{P}(\mathcal{P}(A \cup B)) : \exists a \in A\ \exists b \in B\ z = (a,b) \,\}, The Kuratowski ordered pair (a,b):={{a},{a,b}}(a,b) := \{\{a\},\{a,b\}\}).

Remarks

  • The codomain belongs to the declaration, not to the set. A function is a set of ordered pairs, and that set determines its domain and its range but not a codomain: the same ff satisfies f:ABf : A \to B for every BB containing ranf\operatorname{ran} f. So being onto is a property of the declaration f:ABf : A \to B rather than of ff, while being one-to-one is a property of ff alone. This convention is what makes \varnothing a function B\varnothing \to B for every BB at once.

  • Total on its domain by construction. There is no partial function here: if adomfa \notin \operatorname{dom} f then f(a)f(a) is not defined, and a function f:ABf : A \to B has domf\operatorname{dom} f equal to AA exactly, not merely included in it.

Depends on

Used by

Dependency tree · next 3 levels

Direct dependencies and their dependencies through the next three levels: 18 results over 8 levels. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, and this result sits at the bottom with a heavier outline. Click the chart to enlarge it.

Sources