NIST

proper

(definition)

Definition: (1) A subunit of a unit is not equal to the unit itself. For instance, a proper substring is not the whole string, a proper subset is not the whole set, a proper subgraph is not the whole graph, etc. (2) According to a rule, as in proper coloring.

Author: PEB


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Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:40 2015.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "proper", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/proper.html