Enumeration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For enumeration types in programming languages, see Enumerated type.
For enumeration algorithms, see Enumeration algorithm.
An enumeration is a complete, ordered listing of all the items in a collection. The term
is commonly used in mathematics and computer science to refer to a listing of all of
the elements of a set. The precise requirements for an enumeration (for example,
whether the set must be finite, or whether the list is allowed to contain repetitions)
depend on the discipline of study and the context of a given problem.
Some sets can be enumerated by means of a natural ordering (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
for the set of positive integers), but in other cases it may be necessary to impose a
(perhaps arbitrary) ordering. In some contexts, such as enumerative combinatorics, the
term enumeration is used more in the sense of counting – with emphasis on
determination of the number of elements that a set contains, rather than the production
of an explicit listing of those elements.

Combinatorics[edit]
Main article: Enumerative combinatorics
In combinatorics, enumeration means counting, i.e., determining the exact number of
elements of finite sets, usually grouped into infinite families, such as the family of sets
each consisting of all permutations of some finite set. There are flourishing subareas in
many branches of mathematics concerned with enumerating in this sense objects of
special kinds. For instance, in partition enumeration and graph enumeration the
objective is to count partitions or graphs that meet certain conditions.

Set theory[edit]
In set theory, the notion of enumeration has a broader sense, and does not require the
set being enumerated to be finite.
Listing[edit]
When an enumeration is used in an ordered list context, we impose some sort of
ordering structure requirement on the index set. While we can make the requirements
on the ordering quite lax in order to allow for great generality, the most natural and
common prerequisite is that the index set be well-ordered. According to this
characterization, an ordered enumeration is defined to be a surjection (an onto
relationship) with a well-ordered domain. This definition is natural in the sense that a
given well-ordering on the index set provides a unique way to list the next element given
a partial enumeration.