# A Crash Course in Set Notation

Set notation is the language of modern mathematics and computer science. It provides a way to define and formalize many notions such as algebraic and data structure. It provides formality and brevity much needed mathematics and computer science.

What is a set?

A set is a collection of unique objects. These objects are placed within curly braces “$\{ \}$“. For example a set of animals can be $\{$ cat, dog, snake $\}$ or $\{$ bird, cow, fish $\}$. This way of writing a set is called the tabular form, a more common way is defined as follows:

$\{ x | x$ satisfies some properties $\}$

The vertical line stands for “such that”. The set of farm animals or animals that lives on a farm is written as $\{x | x$ is an animal that lives on a farm $\}$.

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Filed under Crash Courses, Computer Science, Mathematics

Sources Used

• Naive Set Theory by Paul R. Halmos
• Schaum’s outline of Set Theory by Seymour Lipschutz
• Chapter Zero by Carol Schumacher
• Fundamental Concepts of Computer Science by Leon S. Levy