(definition)
Definition: A relation between exactly two items at a time, such as "greater than" (>), "not equal to" (≠), "proper subset of" (⊂), or "is connected to" (has an edge to) for vertices of a graph.
Generalization (I am a kind of ...)
relation.
Specialization (... is a kind of me.)
dictionary.
See also binary function, reflexive, symmetric, transitive, antisymmetric, irreflexive.
Note: One may think of a binary relation as a binary function whose range is {true, false}. For example since 3 > 2, GreaterThan(3, 2) = true.
Author: PEB
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.
Entry modified Fri Oct 15 16:45:15 2004.
HTML page formatted Wed Oct 26 09:47:14 2005.
Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "binary relation", from
Dictionary of Algorithms and Data
Structures, Paul E. Black, ed.,
NIST.
http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/binaryRelation.html
