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Total orders, orderings that specify, for every two distinct elements, which one is less than the other; Weak orders, generalizations of total orders allowing ties (represented either as equivalences or, in strict weak orders, as transitive incomparabilities) Well-orders, total orders in which every non-empty subset has a least element
A strict total order on a set is a strict partial order on in which any two distinct elements are comparable. That is, a strict total order is a binary relation < {\displaystyle <} on some set X {\displaystyle X} , which satisfies the following for all a , b {\displaystyle a,b} and c {\displaystyle c} in X {\displaystyle X} :
A strict weak order that is trichotomous is called a strict total order. [14] The total preorder which is the inverse of its complement is in this case a total order . For a strict weak order < {\displaystyle \,<\,} another associated reflexive relation is its reflexive closure , a (non-strict) partial order ≤ . {\displaystyle \,\leq .}
Order theory is a branch of mathematics that studies various kinds of objects (often binary relations) that capture the intuitive notion of ordering, providing a framework for saying when one thing is "less than" or "precedes" another. An alphabetical list of many notions of order theory can be found in the order theory glossary.
If different items have different sort key values then this defines a unique order of the items. Workers sorting parcels in a postal facility. A standard order is often called ascending (corresponding to the fact that the standard order of numbers is ascending, i.e. A to Z, 0 to 9), the reverse order descending (Z to A, 9 to 0).
In mathematics, a well-order (or well-ordering or well-order relation) on a set S is a total ordering on S with the property that every non-empty subset of S has a least element in this ordering. The set S together with the ordering is then called a well-ordered set (or woset). [1]
In order theory, a partial order is called well-founded if the corresponding strict order is a well-founded relation. If the order is a total order then it is called a well-order. In set theory, a set x is called a well-founded set if the set membership relation is well-founded on the transitive closure of x.
A law of trichotomy on some set X of numbers usually expresses that some tacitly given ordering relation on X is a trichotomous one. An example is the law "For arbitrary real numbers x and y, exactly one of x < y, y < x, or x = y applies"; some authors even fix y to be zero, [1] relying on the real number's additive linearly ordered group structure.