Function (mathematics)

In mathematics, a function[1] is a relation between sets that associates to every element of a first set exactly one
element of the second set. Typical examples are functions from integers to integers or from the real numbers to real
numbers.

Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity. For example, the
position of a planet is a function of time. Historically, the concept was elaborated with the infinitesimal calculus at the
end of the 17th century, and, until the 19th century, the functions that were considered were differentiable (that is,
they had a high degree of regularity). The concept of function was formalized at the end of the 19th century in terms of
set theory, and this greatly enlarged the domains of application of the concept.

A function is a process or a relation that associates each element x of a set X, the domain of the function, to a single
element y of another set Y (possibly the same set), the codomain of the function. If the function is called f, this relation
is denoted y = f (x) (read f of x), the element x is the argument or input of the function, and y is the value of the
function, the output, or the image of x by f.[2] The symbol that is used for representing the input is the variable of the
function (one often says that f is a function of the variable x).

A function is uniquely represented by the set of all pairs (x, f (x)), called the graph of the function.[3] When the domain
and the codomain are sets of numbers, each such pair may be considered as the Cartesian coordinates of a point in the
plane. In general, these points form a curve, which is also called the graph of the function. This is a useful
representation of the function, which is commonly used everywhere.

Functions are widely used in science, and in most fields of mathematics. Their role is so important that it has been said
that they are "the central objects of investigation" in most fields of mathematics.[4]

Contents
Definition
Relational approach
As an element of a Cartesian product over a domain
Notation
Functional notation
Arrow notation
Index notation
Dot notation
Specialized notations
Schematic depiction of a function
Other terms described metaphorically as a
Map "machine" or "black box" that for
Morphism each input yields a corresponding
Specifying a function output
By listing function values
By a formula
Inverse and implicit functions
Using differential calculus
By recurrence
Representing a function
Graphs and plots
Tables
Bar chart
General properties
Standard functions
Function composition
Image and preimage
Injective, surjective and bijective functions
Restriction and extension
Multivariate function
In calculus
Real function
Vector-valued function
Function space
The red curve is the graph of a
Multi-valued functions function, because any vertical line
In the foundations of mathematics and set theory has exactly one crossing point with
the curve.
In computer science
See also
Subpages
Generalizations
Related topics
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Definition
Intuitively, a function is a process that associates to each element of a set X
a single element of a set Y. A function that associates any of the
four colored shapes to its color.
Formally, a function f from a set X to a set Y is defined by a set G of
ordered pairs (x, y) such that x ∈ X, y ∈ Y, and every element of X is the
first component of exactly one ordered pair in G.[5][note 1] In other words, for every x in X, there is exactly one element
y such that the ordered pair (x, y) belongs to the set of pairs defining the function f. The set G is called the graph of the
function. Formally speaking, it may be identified with the function, but this hides the usual interpretation of a function
as a process. Therefore, in common usage, the function is generally distinguished from its graph. Functions are also
called maps or mappings, though some authors make some distinction between "maps" and "functions" (see section
#Map).

In the definition of function, X and Y are respectively called the domain and the codomain of the function f. If (x, y)
belongs to the set defining f, then y is the image of x under f, or the value of f applied to the argument x. Especially in
the context of numbers, one says also that y is the value of f for the value x of its variable, or, still shorter, y is the
value of f of x, denoted as y = f(x).

Two functions f and g are equal if their domain and codomain sets are the same and their output values agree on the
whole domain. Formally, f = g if f(x) = g(x) for all x ∈ X, where f:X → Y and g:X → Y.[6][7][note 2]

The domain and codomain are not always explicitly given when a function is defined, and, without some (possibly
difficult) computation, one knows only that the domain is contained in a larger set. Typically, this occurs in
mathematical analysis, where "a function from X to Y " often refers to a function that may have a proper subset of X as
domain. For example, a "function from the reals to the reals" may refer to a real-valued function of a real variable, and
this phrase does not mean that the domain of the function is the whole set
of the real numbers, but only that the domain is a set of real numbers that
contains a non-empty open interval; such a function is then called a partial
function. For example, if f is a function that has the real numbers as
domain and codomain, then a function mapping the value x to the value
is a function g from the reals to the reals, whose domain is the

set of the reals x, such that f(x) ≠ 0.

The range of a function is the set of the images of all elements in the
domain. However, range is sometimes used as a synonym of codomain,
generally in old textbooks.

Diagram of a function, with domain

X={1, 2, 3} and codomain Y={A, B,
Relational approach C, D}, which is defined by the set of
Any subset of the Cartesian product of two sets and defines a binary ordered pairs {(1,D), (2,C), (3,C)}.
relation between these two sets. It is immediate that an The image/range is the set {C,D}.
arbitrary relation may contain pairs that violate the necessary conditions
for a function, given above.

A univalent or functional relation is a relation such that

for all in and in . Univalent relations may be identified with

functions with codomain whose domain is a subset of X.

A left-total relation is a relation such that

Formally, functions may be identified with relations that are both

This diagram, representing the set
univalent and left-total. Violating left-totality is similar to giving a
of pairs {(1,D), (2,B), (2,C)}, does
convenient encompassing set instead of the true domain, as explained
not define a function. One reason is
above. that 2 is the first element in more
than one ordered pair, (2, B) and
Various properties of functions and function composition may be
(2, C), of this set. Two other
reformulated in the language of relations. For example, a function is reasons, also sufficient by
injective if the converse relation is univalent, where the themselves, is that neither 3 nor 4
converse relation is defined as [8] are first elements (input) of any
ordered pair therein.

As an element of a Cartesian product over a domain

The set of all functions from some given domain to a codomain is sometimes identified with the Cartesian product of
copies of the codomain, indexed by the domain. Namely, given sets and any function is an element
of the Cartesian product of copies of s over the index set

Viewing as tuple with coordinates, then for each , the th coordinate of this tuple is the value This
reflects the intuition that for each the function picks some element namely, .(This point of view is
used for example in the discussion of a choice function.)
Note: infinite Cartesian products are often simply "defined" as sets of functions.[9]

Notation
There are various standard ways for denoting functions. The most commonly used notation is functional notation,
which defines the function using an equation that gives the names of the function and the argument explicitly. This
gives rise to a subtle point, often glossed over in elementary treatments of functions: functions are distinct from their
values. Thus, a function f should be distinguished from its value f(x0) at the value x0 in its domain. To some extent,
even working mathematicians will conflate the two in informal settings for convenience, and to avoid appearing
pedantic. However, strictly speaking, it is an abuse of notation to write "let be the function f(x) = x2 ", since
f(x) and x2 should both be understood as the value of f at x, rather than the function itself. Instead, it is correct,
though long-winded, to write "let be the function defined by the equation f(x) = x2, valid for all real values
of x ". A compact phrasing is "let with f(x) = x2," where the redundant "be the function" is omitted and, by
convention, "for all in the domain of " is understood.

This distinction in language and notation becomes important in cases where functions themselves serve as inputs for
other functions. (A function taking another function as an input is termed a functional.) Other approaches to denoting
functions, detailed below, avoid this problem but are less commonly used.

Functional notation
As first used by Leonhard Euler in 1734,[10] functions are denoted by a symbol consisting generally of a single letter in
italic font, most often the lower-case letters f, g, h. Some widely used functions are represented by a symbol consisting
of several letters (usually two or three, generally an abbreviation of their name). By convention, in this case, a roman
type is used, such as "sin" for the sine function, in contrast to italic font for single-letter symbols.

The notation (read: "y equals f of x")

means that the pair (x, y) belongs to the set of pairs defining the function f. If X is the domain of f, the set of pairs
defining the function is thus, using set-builder notation,

Often, a definition of the function is given by what f does to the explicit argument x. For example, a function f can be
defined by the equation

for all real numbers x. In this example, f can be thought of as the composite of several simpler functions: squaring,
adding 1, and taking the sine. However, only the sine function has a common explicit symbol (sin), while the
combination of squaring and then adding 1 is described by the polynomial expression . In order to explicitly
reference functions such as squaring or adding 1 without introducing new function names (e.g., by defining function g
and h by and ), one of the methods below (arrow notation or dot notation) could be used.

Sometimes the parentheses of functional notation are omitted when the symbol denoting the function consists of
several characters and no ambiguity may arise. For example, can be written instead of

Arrow notation
For explicitly expressing domain X and the codomain Y of a function f, the arrow notation is often used (read:
"the function f from X to Y" or "the function f mapping elements of X to elements of Y"):

or

This is often used in relation with the arrow notation for elements (read: "f maps x to f (x)"), often stacked immediately
below the arrow notation giving the function symbol, domain, and codomain:

For example, if a multiplication is defined on a set X, then the square function on X is unambiguously defined by
(read: "the function from X to X that maps x to x ⋅ x")

the latter line being more commonly written

Often, the expression giving the function symbol, domain and codomain is omitted. Thus, the arrow notation is useful
for avoiding introducing a symbol for a function that is defined, as it is often the case, by a formula expressing the
value of the function in terms of its argument. As a common application of the arrow notation, suppose
is a two-argument function, and we want to refer to a partially applied function
produced by fixing the second argument to the value t0 without introducing a new function name. The map in
question could be denoted using the arrow notation for elements. Note that the expression
(read: "the map taking x to ") represents this new function with just one argument, whereas the expression
refers to the value of the function f at the point .

Index notation
Index notation is often used instead of functional notation. That is, instead of writing f (x), one writes

This is typically the case for functions whose domain is the set of the natural numbers. Such a function is called a
sequence, and, in this case the element is called the nth element of sequence.

The index notation is also often used for distinguishing some variables called parameters from the "true variables". In
fact, parameters are specific variables that are considered as being fixed during the study of a problem. For example,
the map (see above) would be denoted using index notation, if we define the collection of maps by
the formula for all .

Dot notation
In the notation the symbol x does not represent any value, it is simply a placeholder meaning that, if x is
replaced by any value on the left of the arrow, it should be replaced by the same value on the right of the arrow.
Therefore, x may be replaced by any symbol, often an interpunct " ⋅ ". This may be useful for distinguishing the
function f (⋅) from its value f (x) at x.
For example, may stand for the function , and may stand for a function defined by an
integral with variable upper bound: .

Specialized notations
There are other, specialized notations for functions in sub-disciplines of mathematics. For example, in linear algebra
and functional analysis, linear forms and the vectors they act upon are denoted using a dual pair to show the
underlying duality. This is similar to the use of bra–ket notation in quantum mechanics. In logic and the theory of
computation, the function notation of lambda calculus is used to explicitly express the basic notions of function
abstraction and application. In category theory and homological algebra, networks of functions are described in terms
of how they and their compositions commute with each other using commutative diagrams that extend and generalize
the arrow notation for functions described above.

Other terms
Term Distinction from "function"
Map None; the terms are synonymous.[11]
A function is often also called a map or a mapping, but A map can have any set as its
some authors make a distinction between the term "map" codomain, while, in some contexts,
typically in older books, the
and "function". For example, the term "map" is often codomain of a function is specifically
reserved for a "function" with some sort of special the set of real or complex
Map/Mapping
structure (e.g. maps of manifolds). In particular map is numbers.[12]
often used in place of homomorphism for the sake of Alternatively, a map is associated
succinctness (e.g., linear map or map from G to H instead with a special structure (e.g. by
explicitly specifying a structured
of group homomorphism from G to H). Some authors[18] codomain in its definition). For
reserve the word mapping for the case where the example, a linear map.[13]
structure of the codomain belongs explicitly to the A function between two structures of
definition of the function. the same type that preserves the
Homomorphism
operations of the structure (e.g. a
Some authors, such as Serge Lang,[19] use "function" only group homomorphism).[14][15]
to refer to maps for which the codomain is a subset of the A generalisation of homomorphisms
real or complex numbers, and use the term mapping for to any category, even when the
objects of the category are not sets
more general functions. (for example, a group defines a
category with only one object, which
Morphism
In the theory of dynamical systems, a map denotes an has the elements of the group as
morphisms; see Category
evolution function used to create discrete dynamical
(mathematics) § Examples for this
systems. See also Poincaré map. example and other similar
ones).[16][14][17]
Whichever definition of map is used, related terms like
domain, codomain, injective, continuous have the same meaning as for a function.

Morphism
Because the term "map" is synonymous with "morphism" in category theory, the term "map" can in particular
emphasize the aspect that a function is a morphism in the category of sets: in the informal definition of a function
, is a subset of consisting of all the pairs for . In this sense, the function doesn't
capture the information that is the codomain; only the range is determined by the function.

Specifying a function
Given a function , by definition, to each element of the domain of the function , there is a unique element
associated to it, the value of at . There are several ways to specify or describe how is related to , both
explicitly and implicitly. Sometimes, a theorem or an axiom asserts the existence of a function having some properties,
without describing it more precisely. Often, the specification or description is referred to as the definition of the
function .

By listing function values

On a finite set, a function may be defined by listing the elements of the codomain that are associated to the elements of
the domain. E.g., if , then one can define a function by

By a formula
Functions are often defined by a formula that describes a combination of arithmetic operations and previously defined
functions; such a formula allows computing the value of the function from the value of any element of the domain. For
example, in the above example, can be defined by the formula , for .

When a function is defined this way, the determination of its domain is sometimes difficult. If the formula that defines
the function contains divisions, the values of the variable for which a denominator is zero must be excluded from the
domain; thus, for a complicated function, the determination of the domain passes through the computation of the
zeros of auxiliary functions. Similarly, if square roots occur in the definition of a function from to the domain is
included in the set of the values of the variable for which the arguments of the square roots are nonnegative.

For example, defines a function whose domain is because is always positive if

x is a real number. On the other hand, defines a function from the reals to the reals whose domain is
reduced to the interval [–1, 1]. (In old texts, such a domain was called the domain of definition of the function.)

Functions are often classified by the nature of formulas that can that define them:

A quadratic function is a function that may be written where a, b, c are constants.

More generally, a polynomial function is a function that can be defined by a formula involving only additions,
subtractions, multiplications, and exponentiation to nonnegative integers. For example, and

A rational function is the same, with divisions also allowed, such as and

An algebraic function is the same, with nth roots and roots of polynomials also allowed.
An elementary function[note 3] is the same, with logarithms and exponential functions allowed.

Inverse and implicit functions

A function with domain X and codomain Y, is bijective, if for every y in Y, there is one and only one
element x in Y such that y = f(x). In this case, the inverse function of f is the function that maps
to the element such that y = f(x). For example, the natural logarithm is a bijective function from the positive
real numbers to the real numbers. It has these an inverse, called the exponential function that maps the real numbers
onto the positive numbers.

If a function is not bijective, it may occur that one can select subsets and such that the
restriction of f to E is a bijection from E to F, and has thus an inverse. The inverse trigonometric functions are defined
this way. For example, the cosine function induces, by restriction, a bijection from the interval [0, π] onto the interval
[–1, 1], and its inverse function, called arccosine, maps [–1, 1] onto [0, π]. The other inverse trigonometric functions
are defined similarly.

More generally, given a binary relation R between two sets X and Y, let E be a subset of X such that, for every
there is some such that x R y. If one has a criterion allowing selecting such an y for every this defines a
function called an implicit function, because it is implicitly defined by the relation R.

For example, the equation of the unit circle defines a relation on real numbers. If –1 < x < 1 there are
two possible values of y, one positive and one negative. For x = ± 1, these two values become both equal to 0.
Otherwise, there is no possible value of y. This means that the equation defines two implicit functions with domain
[–1, 1] and respective codomains [0, +∞) and (–∞, 0].

In this example, the equation can be solved in y, giving but, in more complicated examples, this is
impossible. For example, the relation defines y as an implicit function of x, called the Bring radical,
which has as domain and range. The Bring radical cannot be expressed in terms of the four arithmetic operations
and nth roots.

The implicit function theorem provides mild differentiability conditions for existence and uniqueness of an implicit
function in the neighborhood of a point.

Using differential calculus

Many functions can be defined as the antiderivative of another function. This is the case of the natural logarithm,
which is the antiderivative of 1/x that is 0 for x = 1. Another common example is the error function.

More generally, many functions, including most special functions, can be defined as solutions of differential equations.
The simplest example is probably the exponential function, which can be defined as the unique function that is equal
to its derivative and takes the value 1 for x = 0.

Power series can be used to define functions on the domain in which they converge. For example, the exponential

function is given by . However, as the coefficients of a series are quite arbitrary, a function that is the

sum of a convergent series is generally defined otherwise, and the sequence of the coefficients is the result of some
computation based on another definition. Then, the power series can be used to enlarge the domain of the function.
Typically, if a function for a real variable is the sum of its Taylor series in some interval, this power series allows
immediately enlarging the domain to a subset of the complex numbers, the disc of convergence of the series. Then
analytic continuation allows enlarging further the domain for including almost the whole complex plane. This process
is the method that is generally used for defining the logarithm, the exponential and the trigonometric functions of a
complex number.

By recurrence
Functions whose domain are the nonnegative integers, known as sequences, are often defined by recurrence relations.

The factorial function on the nonnegative integers ( ) is a basic example, as it can be defined by the recurrence
relation

and the initial condition

Representing a function
A graph is commonly used to give an intuitive picture of a function. As an example of how a graph helps to understand
a function, it is easy to see from its graph whether a function is increasing or decreasing. Some functions may also be
represented by bar charts.

Graphs and plots

Given a function its graph is, formally, the set

In the frequent case where X and Y are subsets of the real numbers (or may
be identified with such subsets, e.g. intervals), an element may
be identified with a point having coordinates x, y in a 2-dimensional
coordinate system, e.g. the Cartesian plane. Parts of this may create a plot The function mapping each year to
that represents (parts of) the function. The use of plots is so ubiquitous its US motor vehicle death count,
shown as a line chart
that they too are called the graph of the function. Graphic representations
of functions are also possible in other coordinate systems. For example, the
graph of the square function

consisting of all points with coordinates for yields, when

depicted in Cartesian coordinates, the well known parabola. If the same
quadratic function with the same formal graph, consisting of pairs
of numbers, is plotted instead in polar coordinates the The same function, shown as a bar
plot obtained is Fermat's spiral. chart

Tables
A function can be represented as a table of values. If the domain of a function is finite, then the function can be
completely specified in this way. For example, the multiplication function defined as
can be represented by the familiar multiplication table

y 1 2 3 4 5
x
1 1 2 3 4 5
2 2 4 6 8 10
3 3 6 9 12 15
4 4 8 12 16 20
5 5 10 15 20 25

On the other hand, if a function's domain is continuous, a table can give the values of the function at specific values of
the domain. If an intermediate value is needed, interpolation can be used to estimate the value of the function. For
example, a portion of a table for the sine function might be given as follows, with values rounded to 6 decimal places:
x sin x
1.289 0.960557
1.290 0.960835
1.291 0.961112
1.292 0.961387
1.293 0.961662

Before the advent of handheld calculators and personal computers, such tables were often compiled and published for
functions such as logarithms and trigonometric functions.

Bar chart
Bar charts are often used for representing functions whose domain is a finite set, the natural numbers, or the integers.
In this case, an element x of the domain is represented by an interval of the x-axis, and the corresponding value of the
function, f(x), is represented by a rectangle whose base is the interval corresponding to x and whose height is f(x)
(possibly negative, in which case the bar extends below the x-axis).

General properties
This section describes general properties of functions, that are independent of specific properties of the domain and
the codomain.

Standard functions
There are a number of standard functions that occur frequently:

For every set X, there is a unique function, called the empty function from the empty set to X. The existence of
the empty function from the empty set to itself is required for the category of sets to be a category – in a category,
each object must have an "identity morphism", and the empty function serves as the identity for the empty set.
The existence of a unique empty function from the empty set to every set A means that the empty set is an initial
object in the category of sets. In terms of cardinal arithmetic, it means that k0 = 1 for every cardinal number k.
For every set X and every singleton set {s}, there is a unique function from X to {s}, which maps every element
of X to s. This is a surjection (see below) unless X is the empty set.
Given a function the canonical surjection of f onto its image is the function
from X to f(X) that maps x to f(x).
For every subset A of a set X, the inclusion map of A into X is the injective (see below) function that maps every
element of A to itself.
The identity function on a set X, often denoted by idX, is the inclusion of X into itself.

Function composition
Given two functions and such that the domain of g is the codomain of f, their composition is the
function defined by

That is, the value of is obtained by first applying f to x to obtain y =f(x) and then applying g to the result y to
obtain g(y) = g(f(x)). In the notation the function that is applied first is always written on the right.
The composition is an operation on functions that is defined only if the codomain of the first function is the
domain of the second one. Even when both and satisfy these conditions, the composition is not necessarily
commutative, that is, the functions and need not be equal, but may deliver different values for the same
argument. For example, let f(x) = x2 and g(x) = x + 1, then and agree just for

The function composition is associative in the sense that, if one of and is defined, then the other
is also defined, and they are equal. Thus, one writes

The identity functions and are respectively a right identity and a left identity for functions from X to Y. That
is, if f is a function with domain X, and codomain Y, one has
A composite function g(f(x)) can be visualized A simple example of a function composition
as the combination of two "machines".

Another composition. In this example,

(g ∘ f )(c) = #.

Image and preimage

Let The image by f of an element x of the domain X is f(x). If A is any subset of X, then the image of A by f,
denoted f(A) is the subset of the codomain Y consisting of all images of elements of A, that is,

The image of f is the image of the whole domain, that is f(X). It is also called the range of f, although the term may also
refer to the codomain.[20]
On the other hand, the inverse image, or preimage by f of a subset B of the codomain Y is the subset of the domain X
consisting of all elements of X whose images belong to B. It is denoted by That is

For example, the preimage of {4, 9} under the square function is the set {−3,−2,2,3}.

By definition of a function, the image of an element x of the domain is always a single element of the codomain.
However, the preimage of a single element y, denoted may be empty or contain any number of elements. For
example, if f is the function from the integers to themselves that maps every integer to 0, then .

If is a function, A and B are subsets of X, and C and D are subsets of Y, then one has the following
properties:

The preimage by f of an element y of the codomain is sometimes called, in some contexts, the fiber of y under f.

If a function f has an inverse (see below), this inverse is denoted In this case may denote either the image
by or the preimage by f of C. This is not a problem, as these sets are equal. The notation and may be
ambiguous in the case of sets that contain some subsets as elements, such as In this case, some care may be
needed, for example, by using square brackets for images and preimages of subsets, and ordinary
parentheses for images and preimages of elements.

Injective, surjective and bijective functions

Let be a function.

The function f is injective (or one-to-one, or is an injection) if f(a) ≠ f(b) for any two different elements a and b of X.
Equivalently, f is injective if, for any the preimage contains at most one element. An empty function is
always injective. If X is not the empty set, and if, as usual, the axiom of choice is assumed, then f is injective if and only
if there exists a function such that that is, if f has a left inverse. The axiom of choice is needed,
because, if f is injective, one defines g by if and by , if where is an
arbitrarily chosen element of X.

The function f is surjective (or onto, or is a surjection) if the range equals the codomain, that is, if f(X) = Y. In other
words, the preimage of every is nonempty. If, as usual, the axiom of choice is assumed, then f is
surjective if and only if there exists a function such that that is, if f has a right inverse. The
axiom of choice is needed, because, if f is injective, one defines g by where is an arbitrarily chosen
element of

The function f is bijective (or is bijection or a one-to-one correspondence) if it is both injective and surjective. That is f
is bijective if, for any the preimage contains exactly one element. The function f is bijective if and only if
it admits an inverse function, that is a function such that and (Contrarily to the
case of injections and surjections, this does not require the axiom of choice.)
Every function may be factorized as the composition i ∘ s of a surjection followed by an injection, where s is
the canonical surjection of X onto f(X), and i is the canonical injection of f(X) into Y. This is the canonical
factorization of f.

"One-to-one" and "onto" are terms that were more common in the older English language literature; "injective",
"surjective", and "bijective" were originally coined as French words in the second quarter of the 20th century by the
Bourbaki group and imported into English. As a word of caution, "a one-to-one function" is one that is injective, while
a "one-to-one correspondence" refers to a bijective function. Also, the statement "f maps X onto Y" differs from "f
maps X into B" in that the former implies that f is surjective, while the latter makes no assertion about the nature of f
the mapping. In a complicated reasoning, the one letter difference can easily be missed. Due to the confusing nature of
this older terminology, these terms have declined in popularity relative to the Bourbakian terms, which have also the
advantage to be more symmetrical.

Restriction and extension

If is a function and S is a subset of X, then the restriction of to S, denoted , is the function from S to Y
defined by

for all x in S. Restrictions can be used to define partial inverse functions: if there is a subset S of the domain of a
function such that is injective, then the canonical surjection of onto its image is a bijection,
and thus has an inverse function from to S. This is in this way that inverse trigonometric functions are defined.
For example, the cosine function is injective when restricted to the interval (0, π). The image of this restriction is the
interval (–1, 1), and thus the restriction has an inverse function from (–1, 1) to (0, π), which is called arccosine and is
denoted arccos.

Function restriction may also be used for "gluing" functions together. Let be the decomposition of X as a
union of subsets, and suppose that a function is defined on each such that for each pair of indices,
the restrictions of and to are equal. Then this defines a unique function such that
for all i. This is the way that functions on manifolds are defined.

An extension of a function f is a function g such that f is a restriction of g. A typical use of this concept is the process of
analytic continuation, that allows extending functions whose domain is a small part of the complex plane to functions
whose domain is almost the whole complex plane.

Here is another classical example of a function extension that is encountered when studying homographies of the real

line. A homography is a function such that ad – bc ≠ 0. Its domain is the set of all real numbers

different from and its image is the set of all real numbers different from If one extends the real line to the
projectively extended real line by including ∞, one may extend h to a bijection from the extended real line to itself by
setting and .

Multivariate function
A multivariate function, or function of several variables is a function that depends on several arguments. Such
functions are commonly encountered. For example, the position of a car on a road is a function of the time and its
speed.

More formally, a function of n variables is a function whose domain is a set of n-tuples. For example, multiplication of
integers is a function of two variables, or bivariate function, whose domain is the set of all pairs (2-tuples) of
integers, and whose codomain is the set of integers. The same is true for every binary operation. More generally, every
mathematical operation is defined as a multivariate function.

The Cartesian product of n sets is the set of all

n-tuples such that for every i with .
Therefore, a function of n variables is a function

where the domain U has the form

When using function notation, one usually omits the parentheses

A binary operation is a typical
surrounding tuples, writing instead of
example of a bivariate, function
In the case where all the are equal to the set of real numbers, one has which assigns to each pair
the result .
a function of several real variables. If the are equal to the set of
complex numbers, one has a function of several complex variables.

It is common to also consider functions whose codomain is a product of sets. For example, Euclidean division maps
every pair (a, b) of integers with b ≠ 0 to a pair of integers called the quotient and the remainder:

The codomain may also be a vector space. In this case, one talks of a vector-valued function. If the domain is contained
in a Euclidean space, or more generally a manifold, a vector-valued function is often called a vector field.

In calculus
The idea of function, starting in the 17th century, was fundamental to the new infinitesimal calculus (see History of the
function concept). At that time, only real-valued functions of a real variable were considered, and all functions were
assumed to be smooth. But the definition was soon extended to functions of several variables and to functions of a
complex variable. In the second half of the 19th century, the mathematically rigorous definition of a function was
introduced, and functions with arbitrary domains and codomains were defined.

Functions are now used throughout all areas of mathematics. In introductory calculus, when the word function is used
without qualification, it means a real-valued function of a single real variable. The more general definition of a
function is usually introduced to second or third year college students with STEM majors, and in their senior year they
are introduced to calculus in a larger, more rigorous setting in courses such as real analysis and complex analysis.

Real function
A real function is a real-valued function of a real variable, that is, a function whose codomain is the field of real
numbers and whose domain is a set of real numbers that contains an interval. In this section, these functions are
simply called functions.

The functions that are most commonly considered in mathematics and its applications have some regularity, that is
they are continuous, differentiable, and even analytic. This regularity insures that these functions can be visualized by
their graphs. In this section, all functions are differentiable in some interval.

Functions enjoy pointwise operations, that is, if f and g are functions, their sum, difference and product are functions
defined by
The domains of the resulting functions are the intersection of the domains
of f and g. The quotient of two functions is defined similarly by

but the domain of the resulting function is obtained by removing the zeros
of g from the intersection of the domains of f and g. Graph of a linear function

The polynomial functions are defined by polynomials, and their domain is

the whole set of real numbers. They include constant functions, linear
functions and quadratic functions. Rational functions are quotients of two
polynomial functions, and their domain is the real numbers with a finite
number of them removed to avoid division by zero. The simplest rational

function is the function whose graph is a hyperbola, and whose

domain is the whole real line except for 0.

The derivative of a real differentiable function is a real function. An

antiderivative of a continuous real function is a real function that is
differentiable in any open interval in which the original function is

continuous. For example, the function is continuous, and even

Graph of a polynomial function, here
differentiable, on the positive real numbers. Thus one antiderivative, which a quadratic function.
takes the value zero for x = 1, is a differentiable function called the natural
logarithm.

A real function f is monotonic in an interval if the sign of

does not depend of the choice of x and y in the interval. If the function is
differentiable in the interval, it is monotonic if the sign of the derivative is
Graph of two trigonometric
constant in the interval. If a real function f is monotonic in an interval I, it
functions: sine and cosine.
has an inverse function, which is a real function with domain f(I) and
image I. This is how inverse trigonometric functions are defined in terms of
trigonometric functions, where the trigonometric functions are monotonic. Another example: the natural logarithm is
monotonic on the positive real numbers, and its image is the whole real line; therefore it has an inverse function that is
a bijection between the real numbers and the positive real numbers. This inverse is the exponential function.

Many other real functions are defined either by the implicit function theorem (the inverse function is a particular
instance) or as solutions of differential equations. For example, the sine and the cosine functions are the solutions of
the linear differential equation

such that
Vector-valued function
When the elements of the codomain of a function are vectors, the function is said to be a vector-valued function. These
functions are particularly useful in applications, for example modeling physical properties. For example, the function
that associates to each point of a fluid its velocity vector is a vector-valued function.

Some vector-valued functions are defined on a subset of or other spaces that share geometric or topological
properties of , such as manifolds. These vector-valued functions are given the name vector fields.

Function space
In mathematical analysis, and more specifically in functional analysis, a function space is a set of scalar-valued or
vector-valued functions, which share a specific property and form a topological vector space. For example, the real
smooth functions with a compact support (that is, they are zero outside some compact set) form a function space that
is at the basis of the theory of distributions.

Function spaces play a fundamental role in advanced mathematical analysis, by allowing the use of their algebraic and
topological properties for studying properties of functions. For example, all theorems of existence and uniqueness of
solutions of ordinary or partial differential equations result of the study of function spaces.

Multi-valued functions
Several methods for specifying functions of real or complex variables start
from a local definition of the function at a point or on a neighbourhood of a
point, and then extend by continuity the function to a much larger domain.
Frequently, for a starting point there are several possible starting
values for the function.

For example, in defining the square root as the inverse function of the
square function, for any positive real number there are two choices for
the value of the square root, one of which is positive and denoted and
Together, the two square roots of all
another which is negative and denoted These choices define two
nonnegative real numbers form a
continuous functions, both having the nonnegative real numbers as a single smooth curve.
domain, and having either the nonnegative or the nonpositive real
numbers as images. When looking at the graphs of these functions, one can
see that, together, they form a single smooth curve. It is therefore often
useful to consider these two square root functions as a single function that
has two values for positive x, one value for 0 and no value for negative x.

In the preceding example, one choice, the positive square root, is more
natural than the other. This is not the case in general. For example, let
consider the implicit function that maps y to a root x of
(see the figure on the right). For y = 0 one may choose either
for x. By the implicit function theorem, each choice
defines a function; for the first one, the (maximal) domain is the interval
[–2, 2] and the image is [–1, 1]; for the second one, the domain is [–2, ∞) and the image is [1, ∞); for the last one,
the domain is (–∞, 2] and the image is (–∞, –1]. As the three graphs together form a smooth curve, and there is no
reason for preferring one choice, these three functions are often considered as a single multi-valued function of y that
has three values for –2 < y < 2, and only one value for y ≤ –2 and y ≥ –2.
Usefulness of the concept of multi-valued functions is clearer when considering complex functions, typically analytic
functions. The domain to which a complex function may be extended by analytic continuation generally consists of
almost the whole complex plane. However, when extending the domain through two different paths, one often gets
different values. For example, when extending the domain of the square root function, along a path of complex
numbers with positive imaginary parts, one gets i for the square root of –1; while, when extending through complex
numbers with negative imaginary parts, one gets –i. There are generally two ways of solving the problem. One may
define a function that is not continuous along some curve, called a branch cut. Such a function is called the principal
value of the function. The other way is to consider that one has a multi-valued function, which is analytic everywhere
except for isolated singularities, but whose value may "jump" if one follows a closed loop around a singularity. This
jump is called the monodromy.

In the foundations of mathematics and set theory

The definition of a function that is given in this article requires the concept of set, since the domain and the codomain
of a function must be a set. This is not a problem in usual mathematics, as it is generally not difficult to consider only
functions whose domain and codomain are sets, which are well defined, even if the domain is not explicitly defined.
However, it is sometimes useful to consider more general functions.

For example, the singleton set may be considered as a function Its domain would include all sets, and
therefore would not be a set. In usual mathematics, one avoids this kind of problem by specifying a domain, which
means that one has many singleton functions. However, when establishing foundations of mathematics, one may have
to use functions whose domain, codomain or both are not specified, and some authors, often logicians, give precise
definition for these weakly specified functions.[21]

These generalized functions may be critical in the development of a formalization of the foundations of mathematics.
For example, Von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory, is an extension of the set theory in which the collection of all
sets is a class. This theory includes the replacement axiom, which may be stated as: If X is a set and F is a function,
then F[X] is a set.

In computer science
In computer programming, a function is, in general, a piece of a computer program, which implements the abstract
concept of function. That is, it is a program unit that produces an output for each input. However, in many
programming languages every subroutine is called a function, even when there is no output, and when the
functionality consists simply of modifying some data in the computer memory.

Functional programming is the programming paradigm consisting of building programs by using only subroutines
that behave like mathematical functions. For example, if_then_else is a function that takes three functions as
arguments, and, depending on the result of the first function (true or false), returns the result of either the second or
the third function. An important advantage of functional programming is that it makes easier program proofs, as being
based on a well founded theory, the lambda calculus (see below).

Except for computer-language terminology, "function" has the usual mathematical meaning in computer science. In
this area, a property of major interest is the computability of a function. For giving a precise meaning to this concept,
and to the related concept of algorithm, several models of computation have been introduced, the old ones being
general recursive functions, lambda calculus and Turing machine. The fundamental theorem of computability theory
is that these three models of computation define the same set of computable functions, and that all the other models of
computation that have ever been proposed define the same set of computable functions or a smaller one. The Church–
Turing thesis is the claim that every philosophically acceptable definition of a computable function defines also the
same functions.
General recursive functions are functions from integers to integers that can be defined from

constant functions,
successor, and
projection functions
via the operators

composition,
primitive recursion, and
minimization.
Although defined only for functions from integers to integers, they can model any computable function as a
consequence of the following properties:

a computation is the manipulation of finite sequences of symbols (digits of numbers, formulas, ...),
every sequence of symbols may be coded as a sequence of bits,
a bit sequence can be interpreted as the binary representation of an integer.
Lambda calculus is a theory that defines computable functions without using set theory, and is the theoretical
background of functional programming. It consists of terms that are either variables, function definitions (λ-terms), or
applications of functions to terms. Terms are manipulated through some rules, (the α-equivalence, the β-reduction,
and the η-conversion), which are the axioms of the theory and may be interpreted as rules of computation.

In its original form, lambda calculus does not include the concepts of domain and codomain of a function. Roughly
speaking, they have been introduced in the theory under the name of type in typed lambda calculus. Most kinds of
typed lambda calculi can define fewer functions than untyped lambda calculus.

See also

Subpages
List of types of functions
List of functions
Function fitting
Implicit function

Generalizations
Homomorphism
Morphism
Distribution
Functor

Related topics
Associative array
Functional
Functional decomposition
Functional predicate
Functional programming
Parametric equation
Elementary function
Closed-form expression
Notes
1. The sets X, Y are parts of data defining a function; i.e., a function is a set of ordered pairs with
, together with the sets X, Y, such that for each , there is a unique with in the
set.
2. This follows from the axiom of extensionality, which says two sets are the same if and only if they have the same
members. Some authors drop codomain from a definition of a function, and in that definition, the notion of equality
has to be handled with care; see, for example, https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1403122/when-do-two-
functions-become-equal
3. Here "elementary" has not exactly its common sense: although most functions that are encountered in elementary
courses of mathematics are elementary in this sense, some elementary functions are not elementary for the
common sense, for example, those that involve roots of polynomials of high degree.

1. The words map, mapping, transformation, correspondence, and operator are often used synonymously.
Halmos 1970, p. 30.
2. MacLane, Saunders; Birkhoff, Garrett (1967). Algebra (First ed.). New York: Macmillan. pp. 1–13.
3. NB: This definition of "graph" refers to a set of pairs of objects. Graphs, in the sense of diagrams, are most
applicable to functions from the real numbers to themselves. All functions can be described by sets of pairs but it
may not be practical to construct a diagram for functions between other sets (such as sets of matrices).
4. Spivak 2008, p. 39.
5. Hamilton, A. G. (1982). Numbers, sets, and axioms: the apparatus of mathematics (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=OXfmTHXvRXMC&pg=PA83&dq=%22function+is+a+relation%22). Cambridge University Press. p. 83.
ISBN 978-0-521-24509-8.
6. Apostol 1981, p. 35.
7. Kaplan 1972, p. 25.
8. Gunther Schmidt( 2011) Relational Mathematics, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 132, sect
5.1 Functions, pp. 49–60, Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-76268-7 CUP blurb for Relational
Mathematics (http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/mathematics/logic-categories-and-sets/relational-m
athematics?format=HB)
9. Halmos, Naive Set Theory, 1968, sect.9 ("Families")
10. Ron Larson, Bruce H. Edwards (2010), Calculus of a Single Variable, Cengage Learning, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-538-
73552-0
11. Weisstein, Eric W. "Map" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Map.html). mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved
2019-06-12.
12. Lang, Serge (1971), Linear Algebra (2nd ed.), Addison-Wesley, p. 83
13. T. M. Apostol (1981). Mathematical Analysis. Addison-Wesley. p. 35.
14. "function in nLab" (https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/function). ncatlab.org. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
15. "homomorphism in nLab" (https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/homomorphism). ncatlab.org. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
16. "morphism" (https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/morphism). nLab. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
17. Weisstein, Eric W. "Morphism" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Morphism.html). mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved
2019-06-12.
18. T. M. Apostol (1981). Mathematical Analysis. Addison-Wesley. p. 35.
19. Lang, Serge (1971), Linear Algebra (2nd ed.), Addison-Wesley, p. 83
20. Quantities and Units - Part 2: Mathematical signs and symbols to be used in the natural sciences and technology,
p. 15. ISO 80000-2 (ISO/IEC 2009-12-01)
21. Gödel 1940, p. 16; Jech 2003, p. 11; Cunningham 2016, p. 57

References
Bartle, Robert (1967). The Elements of Real Analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Bloch, Ethan D. (2011). Proofs and Fundamentals: A First Course in Abstract Mathematics (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=QJ_537n8zKYC). Springer. ISBN 978-1-4419-7126-5.
Cunningham, Daniel W. (2016). Set theory: A First Course. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-12032-
7.
Gödel, Kurt (1940). The Consistency of the Continuum Hypothesis. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-
07927-1.
Halmos, Paul R. (1970). Naive Set Theory (https://books.google.com/books?id=x6cZBQ9qtgoC). Springer-Verlag.
ISBN 978-0-387-90092-6.
Jech, Thomas (2003). Set theory (Third Millennium ed.). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-44085-7.
Spivak, Michael (2008). Calculus (https://books.google.com/books?id=7JKVu_9InRUC) (4th ed.). Publish or
Perish. ISBN 978-0-914098-91-1.

Further reading
Anton, Howard (1980). Calculus with Analytical Geometry. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-03248-9.
Bartle, Robert G. (1976). The Elements of Real Analysis (2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-05464-1.
Dubinsky, Ed; Harel, Guershon (1992). The Concept of Function: Aspects of Epistemology and Pedagogy.
Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 978-0-88385-081-7.
Hammack, Richard (2009). "12. Functions" (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rhammack/BookOfProof/Functions.pdf)
(PDF). Book of Proof (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rhammack/BookOfProof/). Virginia Commonwealth University.
Retrieved 2012-08-01.
Husch, Lawrence S. (2001). Visual Calculus (http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/). University of
Tennessee. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
Katz, Robert (1964). Axiomatic Analysis. D. C. Heath and Company.
Kleiner, Israel (1989). "Evolution of the Function Concept: A Brief Survey". The College Mathematics Journal. 20
(4): 282–300. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.113.6352 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.113.6352).
doi:10.2307/2686848 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2686848). JSTOR 2686848 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/268684
8).
Lützen, Jesper (2003). "Between rigor and applications: Developments in the concept of function in mathematical
analysis" (https://books.google.com/books?id=B3WvWhJTTX8C&pg=PA468). In Porter, Roy (ed.). The
Cambridge History of Science: The modern physical and mathematical sciences. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-57199-9. An approachable and diverting historical presentation.
Malik, M. A. (1980). "Historical and pedagogical aspects of the definition of function". International Journal of
Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. 11 (4): 489–492. doi:10.1080/0020739800110404 (https://do
i.org/10.1080%2F0020739800110404).
Reichenbach, Hans (1947) Elements of Symbolic Logic, Dover Publishing Inc., New York, ISBN 0-486-24004-5.
Ruthing, D. (1984). "Some definitions of the concept of function from Bernoulli, Joh. to Bourbaki, N.".
Mathematical Intelligencer. 6 (4): 72–77.
Thomas, George B.; Finney, Ross L. (1995). Calculus and Analytic Geometry (9th ed.). Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 978-0-201-53174-9.

External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001) [1994], "Function" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=p/f04194
0), Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
Weisstein, Eric W. "Function" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Function.html). MathWorld.
The Wolfram Functions Site (http://functions.wolfram.com/) gives formulae and visualizations of many
mathematical functions.
NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (https://dlmf.nist.gov/)

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