Partial Order Relation
A relation is a subset of the cartesian product of a set with another set. A relation contains ordered
pairs of elements of the set it is defined on.
What is a Partial Order Relation?
A relation R on a set A is called a partial order relation if it is
1. Reflexive Relation: (a, a) ∈ R ∀ a ∈ A, i.e. aRa for all a ∈ A.
2. Anti-Symmetric Relation: ∀ a, b ∈ A, (a, b) ∈ R then (b, a) ∉ R OR a = b.
3. Transitive Relation: ∀ a, b, c ∈ A, if (a, b) ∈ R and (b, c) ∈ R then (a, c) ∈ R.
where R is a subset of (A x A), i.e. the cartesian product of set A with itself.
Example:
Consider set A = {a, b}
R = {(a, a), (b, b), (a, b), (b, a)} is not partial order as for tuple (a, b), (b, a) tuple is present but
R = {(a, a), (a, b), (b, b)} is a partial order relation.
Properties of Partial Order Relation:
The few properties of a partial order relation are:
Empty relation on a non-empty set is never partial order.
Universal relation over a non-empty set is never a partial order.
The smallest partial-order relation will only contain aRa tuples.
How to verify a Partial Order Relation?
The process of identifying/verifying if any given relation is a partial order relation is:
Check if the relation is Reflexive.
Check if the relation is Anti-Symmetric.
Check if the relation is Transitive.
Follow the below illustration for a better understanding
Illustration:
Consider set R = {(1, 1), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3, 3), (3, 4), (4, 4), (4, 3)}
Pairs (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 4) exist:
⇒ This satisfies the reflexive condition.
The transitive condition is also satisfied.
For the pairs (4, 3):
⇒ The relation (3, 4) exists
⇒ This does not satisfy the anti-symmetric condition.
So the relation is not anti-symmetric. Hence it is not a partial order relation.
n-ary Relations
Definition and Properties
A binary relation R from set X to Y (written as xRy or R(x,y) is a subset of the Cartesian product XxY. If
the ordered pair of G is reversed, the relation also changes.
Generally an n-ary relation R between sets A1,…, and An is a subset of the n-ary product A1×⋯×An The
minimum cardinality of a relation R is Zero and maximum is n2 in this case.
A binary relation R on a single set A is a subset of A×A.
For two distinct sets, A and B, having cardinalities m and n respectively, the maximum cardinality of
a relation R from A to B is mn.
Domain and Range
If there are two sets A and B, and relation R have order pair (x, y), then −
The domain of R, Dom(R), is the set {x|(x, y)∈R for some y in B } {x|(x, y)∈R for some y in B}
The range of R, Ran(R), is the set {y|(x, y)∈R for some x in A}{y|(x, y) ∈ R for some x in A}
Examples
Let, A={1,2,9} and B={1,3,7}
Case 1 − If relation R is 'equal to' then R={(1,1),(3,3)}
Dom(R) = {1,3}, Ran(R)= {1,3}
Case 2 − If relation R is 'less than' then R={(1,3), (1,7),(2,3),(2,7)}R={(1,3),(1,7),(2,3),(2,7)}
Dom(R) = {1,2}, Ran(R)= {3,7}
Case 3 − If relation R is 'greater than' then R= {(2,1), (9,1),(9,3),(9,7)}
Dom(R) = {2,9}, Ran(R) = {1,3,7}
