Relations and Their Properties

Epp, section ???

CS 202
Aaron Bloomfield

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 What is a relation
• Let A and B be sets. A binary relation R is a subset of
AB
• Example
– Let A be the students in a the CS major
• A = {Alice, Bob, Claire, Dan}
– Let B be the courses the department offers
• B = {CS101, CS201, CS202}
– We specify relation R = A  B as the set that lists all students a 
A enrolled in class b  B
– R = { (Alice, CS101), (Bob, CS201), (Bob, CS202),
(Dan, CS201), (Dan, CS202) }

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 More relation examples
• Another relation example:
– Let A be the cities in the US
– Let B be the states in the US
– We define R to mean a is a city in state b
– Thus, the following are in our relation:
• (C’ville, VA)
• (Philadelphia, PA)
• (Portland, MA)
• (Portland, OR)
• etc…
• Most relations we will see deal with ordered pairs of
integers

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 Representing relations
We can represent We can represent
relations graphically: relations in a table:
CS101 CS201 CS202
Alice
CS101
Alice X
Bob Bob X X
CS201
Claire
Claire
Dan X X
CS202
Dan

Not valid functions!

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 Relations vs. functions
• Not all relations are functions
• But consider the following function:

a 1
b 2
c 3
d 4

• All functions are relations!

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 When to use which?
• A function is used when you need to obtain a
SINGLE result for any element in the domain
– Example: sin, cos, tan

• A relation is when there are multiple mappings

between the domain and the co-domain
– Example: students enrolled in multiple courses

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 Relations on a set
• A relation on the set A is a relation from A to A
– In other words, the domain and co-domain are the
same set
– We will generally be studying relations of this type

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 Relations on a set
• Let A be the set { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
• Which ordered pairs are in the relation R = { (a,b) | a divides b }
• R = { (1,1), (1,2), (1,3), (1,4), (2,2), (2,4), (3,3), (4,4) }

1 1 R 1 2 3 4
1 X X X X
2 2
2 X X
3 3 3 X
4 X
4 4 8
 More examples
• Consider some relations on the set Z
• Are the following ordered pairs in the relation?

(1,1) (1,2) (2,1) (1,-1) (2,2)

• R1 = { (a,b) | a≤b }
• R2 = { (a,b) | a>b } X X X
• R3 = { (a,b) | a=|b| } X X
• R4 = { (a,b) | a=b } X X X
• R5 = { (a,b) | a=b+1 }
X X
• R6 = { (a,b) | a+b≤3 }
X
X X X X

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 Relation properties
• Six properties of relations we will study:
– Reflexive
– Irreflexive
– Symmetric
– Asymmetric
– Antisymmetric
– Transitive

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 Reflexivity
• A relation is reflexive if every element is related
to itself
– Or, (a,a)R

• Examples of reflexive relations:

– =, ≤, ≥

• Examples of relations that are not reflexive:

– <, >

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 Irreflexivity
• A relation is irreflexive if every element is not related to
itself
– Or, (a,a)R
– Irreflexivity is the opposite of reflexivity

• Examples of irreflexive relations:

– <, >

• Examples of relations that are not irreflexive:

– =, ≤, ≥

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 Reflexivity vs. Irreflexivity
• A relation can be neither reflexive nor irreflexive
– Some elements are related to themselves, others are
not
• We will see an example of this later on

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 Symmetry
• A relation is symmetric if, for every (a,b)R, then
(b,a)R

• Examples of symmetric relations:

– =, isTwinOf()

• Examples of relations that are not symmetric:

– <, >, ≤, ≥

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 Asymmetry
• A relation is asymmetric if, for every (a,b)R,
then (b,a)R
– Asymmetry is the opposite of symmetry

• Examples of asymmetric relations:

– <, >

• Examples of relations that are not asymmetric:

– =, isTwinOf(), ≤, ≥
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 Antisymmetry
• A relation is antisymmetric if, for every (a,b)R,
then (b,a)R is true only when a=b
– Antisymmetry is not the opposite of symmetry

• Examples of antisymmetric relations:

– =, ≤, ≥

• Examples of relations that are not antisymmetric:

– <, >, isTwinOf()
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 Notes on *symmetric relations
• A relation can be neither symmetric or
asymmetric
– R = { (a,b) | a=|b| }
– This is not symmetric
• -4 is not related to itself
– This is not asymmetric
• 4 is related to itself
– Note that it is antisymmetric

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 Transitivity
• A relation is transitive if, for every (a,b)R and
(b,c)R, then (a,c)R

• If a < b and b < c, then a < c

– Thus, < is transitive

• If a = b and b = c, then a = c
– Thus, = is transitive

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 Transitivity examples
• Consider isAncestorOf()
– Let Alice be Bob’s parent, and Bob be Claire’s parent
– Thus, Alice is an ancestor of Bob, and Bob is an ancestor of
Claire
– Thus, Alice is an ancestor of Claire
– Thus, isAncestorOf() is a transitive relation

• Consider isParentOf()
– Let Alice be Bob’s parent, and Bob be Claire’s parent
– Thus, Alice is a parent of Bob, and Bob is a parent of Claire
– However, Alice is not a parent of Claire
– Thus, isParentOf() is not a transitive relation

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Relations of relations summary
= < > ≤ ≥

Reflexive X X X

Irreflexive X X

Symmetric X

Asymmetric X X

Antisymmetric X X X

Transitive X X X X X
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 Combining relations
• There are two ways to combine relations R1 and
R2
– Via Boolean operators
– Via relation “composition”

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 Combining relations via Boolean
operators
• Consider two relations R≥ and R≤
• We can combine them as follows:
– R≥ U R≤ = all numbers ≥ OR ≤
• That’s all the numbers
– R≥ ∩ R≤ = all numbers ≥ AND ≤
• That’s all numbers equal to
– R≥  R≤ = all numbers ≥ or ≤, but not both
• That’s all numbers not equal to
– R≥ - R≤ = all numbers ≥ that are not also ≤
• That’s all numbers strictly greater than
– R≤ - R≥ = all numbers ≤ that are not also ≥
• That’s all numbers strictly less than
• Note that it’s possible the result is the empty set

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 Combining relations via relational
composition
• Let R be a relation from A to B, and S be a
relation from B to C
– Let a  A, b  B, and c  C
– Let (a,b)  R, and (b,c)  S
– Then the composite of R and S consists of the
ordered pairs (a,c)
• We denote the relation by S ◦ R
• Note that S comes first when writing the composition!

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 Combining relations via relational
composition
• Let M be the relation “is mother of”
• Let F be the relation “is father of”
• What is M ◦ F?
– If (a,b)  F, then a is the father of b
– If (b,c)  M, then b is the mother of c
– Thus, M ◦ F denotes the relation “maternal grandfather”
• What is F ◦ M?
– If (a,b)  M, then a is the mother of b
– If (b,c)  F, then b is the father of c
– Thus, F ◦ M denotes the relation “paternal grandmother”
• What is M ◦ M?
– If (a,b)  M, then a is the mother of b
– If (b,c)  M, then b is the mother of c
– Thus, M ◦ M denotes the relation “maternal grandmother”
• Note that M and F are not transitive relations!!!

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 Combining relations via relational
composition
• Given relation R
– R ◦ R can be denoted by R2
– R2 ◦ R = (R ◦ R) ◦ R = R3
– Example: M3 is your mother’s mother’s mother

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