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The above definition of a function is essentially that of the founders of calculus, Leibniz, Newton and Euler. However, it cannot be formalized, since there is no mathematical definition of an "assignment". It is only at the end of the 19th century that the first formal definition of a function could be provided, in terms of set theory.
In mathematics, some functions or groups of functions are important enough to deserve their own names. This is a listing of articles which explain some of these functions in more detail. There is a large theory of special functions which developed out of statistics and mathematical physics.
Nowhere continuous function: is not continuous at any point of its domain; for example, the Dirichlet function. Homeomorphism: is a bijective function that is also continuous, and whose inverse is continuous. Open function: maps open sets to open sets. Closed function: maps closed sets to closed sets.
The mathematical definition of an elementary function, or a function in elementary form, is considered in the context of differential algebra. A differential algebra is an algebra with the extra operation of derivation (algebraic version of differentiation).
The hypergeometric function is an example of a four-argument function. The number of arguments that a function takes is called the arity of the function. A function that takes a single argument as input, such as f ( x ) = x 2 {\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}} , is called a unary function .
Given a function: from a set X (the domain) to a set Y (the codomain), the graph of the function is the set [4] = {(, ()):}, which is a subset of the Cartesian product.In the definition of a function in terms of set theory, it is common to identify a function with its graph, although, formally, a function is formed by the triple consisting of its domain, its codomain and its graph.
For example, it is sometimes convenient in set theory to permit the domain of a function to be a proper class X, in which case there is formally no such thing as a triple (X, Y, G). With such a definition, functions do not have a domain, although some authors still use it informally after introducing a function in the form f: X → Y. [2]
A discontinuous function is a function that is not continuous. Until the 19th century, mathematicians largely relied on intuitive notions of continuity and considered only continuous functions. The epsilon–delta definition of a limit was introduced to formalize the definition of continuity.