The Fourier Transform is a valuable instrument to analyze non-periodic functions.

In this way, it complements the Fourier Series, which allows analyzing systems where
periodic functions are involved.
That is, through the Fourier Series we can represent a periodic signal in terms of its
sinusoidal components, each component with a particular frequency. The Fourier
Transform allows you to do the same with non-periodic signals.

Definition
Fourier reasoned that an aperiodic signal can be considered as a periodic signal with
an infinite period. More precisely, in the Fourier Series representation of a periodic
signal, as the period increases, the fundamental frequency decreases and the
harmonically related components become closer to the frequency. As the period
becomes infinite, the frequency components form a continuum and the sum of the
Fourier series becomes an integral.

Let f be a real function defined in the continuous domain, say f(t) defined in

the t domain. Then, The Fourier Transform (FT) is defined as:

It is said that a signal f(t) has a Fourier Transform if the integral of equation (1)

converges (that is, it exists). The integral converges if f(t) “behaves well” and is fully
integrable; this last condition means that:

All real signals behave well, and therefore satisfy the previous condition. That is, most
of the real signals have FT. However, the following is an example of a signal that
does not have FT:

The signal of equation (3) is well known as a CD signal or constant signal. And it has
no FT because it is not a real signal, that is, no signal that is different from zero all the
time can be physically possible. If we substitute this signal in equation (1) we could
verify that this integral does not converge just by observing that the area under the
constant signal is infinite, so that integral does not have a finite value. Later, however,
we will show that a constant signal does have FT in a generalized sense.