Sets and Logic Cheat Sheet
by Sagnik Bhattacharya, Suraj Rampure
Last modified: March 21, 2019
This chart summarizes all of the notation we’ve seen so far regarding sets, functions, and propositional logic.
| Symbol | Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| $\{ \}$ | set | used to define a set | $S = \{ 1, 2, 3, 4, … \}$ |
| $\in$ | in, element of | used to denote that an element is part of a set | $1 \in {1, 2, 3}$ |
| $\not \in$ | not in, not an element of | used to denote than an element is not part of a set | $4 \not \in {1, 2, 3}$ |
| $\mid S \mid$ | cardinality | used to describe the size of a set (refers to the number of unique elements if the set is finite) | $S = \{1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 \}$ $\mid S \mid = 5$ |
| $:$, $\mid$ | such that | used to denote a condition, usually in set-builder notation or in a mathematical definition | $\{x^2 : x + 3 \text{ is prime}\}$ |
| $\subseteq$ | subset | set $A$ is a subset of set $B$ when each element in $A$ is also an element in $B$ | $A = \{ 1, 2 \}$ $B = \{ 2, 1, 4, 3, 5 \}$ $A \subseteq B$ |
| $\subset$ | proper subset | set $A$ is a proper subset of set $B$ when each element in $A$ is also an element in $B$ and $A \neq B$ | $A = \{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 \}$ $B = \{ 2, 1, 4, 3, 5 \}$ $A \subseteq B$ is true but $A \subset B$ is not true |
| $\supseteq$ | superset | set $A$ is a superset of set $B$ when $B$ is a subset of $A$ | $A = \{ 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 \}$ $B = \{ 2, 4, 8 \}$ $A \supseteq B$ |
| $\cup$ | union | a set with the elements in set $A$ or in set $B$ | $A = \{1, 2\}$ $B = \{2, 3, 5\}$ $A \cup B = \{1, 2, 3, 5\}$ |
| $\cap$ | intersection | a set with the elements in set $A$ and in set $B$ | $A = \{1, 2\}$ $B = \{2, 3, 5\}$ $A \cap B = \{2\}$ |
| $\emptyset$ | the empty set | the set with no elements | $\{1, 2, 3\} \cap \{4, 5, 6\} = \emptyset$ |
| $-$, $\backslash$ | set difference | elements in set $A$ that are not in $B$ | $A = \{1, 2, 3, 4\}$ $B = \{2, 3, 5, 8\}$ $A - B = \{1, 4\}$ $B - A = \{5, 8\}$ |
| $\times$ | Cartesian product | a set containing all possible combinations of one element from $A$ and one element from $B$ | $A = \{1, 2\}$ $B = \{3, 4\}$ $A \times B = \{(1, 3), (2, 3), (1, 4), (2, 4)\}$ $B \times A = \{(3, 1), (3, 2), (4, 1), (4, 2)\}$ |
| $A^c$ | complement | a set containing the elements of the universe $U$ that are not in set $A$ | $U = \{1, 2, 3, 4, 5\}, A = \{2, 4\} \implies A^c=\{1, 3, 5\}$ |
| $f : A \rightarrow B$ | function | the function $f$ maps elements of the set $A$ to elements of the set $B$; $A$ is the domain and $B$ is the codomain | $f(x) = x^2+5$ is an example of a function $f : \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ |
| $f : x \mapsto x^3$ | mapping/function | the function maps any $x$ to $x^3$; this notation refers to elements of sets rather than sets themselves | $f(x) = x^2+5$ can be written as $f: x \mapsto x^2+5$ |
| $\mathbb{N}$ | the set of natural numbers | the set of naturals numbers starting at $1$ | $\mathbb{N} = \{1, 2, 3, …\}$ |
| $\mathbb{N}_0$ | the set of whole numbers | the set of whole numbers starting at $0$ | $\mathbb{N}_0 = \{0, 1, 2, 3, …\}$ |
| $\mathbb{Z}$ | the set of integers | the union of the whole numbers with their negatives | $\mathbb{Z} = \{…, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, …\}$ |
| $\mathbb{Q}$ | the set of rational numbers | the set of all possible combinations of one integer divided by another, with the latter integer being non-zero, i.e., $\mathbb{Q} = \{ \frac{p}{q} : p, q \in \mathbb{Z}, q \neq 0\}$ | $\{\frac{1}{2}, \frac{5}{14}, \frac{-17}{3}\} \subset \mathbb{Q}$ |
| $\wedge$ | conjunction/and | $P \wedge Q$ is true if both $P$ and $Q$ are true | if $P = (2 \text{ is prime}), Q = (8 \text{ is a perfect cube})$ then $P \wedge Q$ is true |
| $\vee$ | disjunction/or | $P \vee Q$ is true if either $P$ or $Q$ is true | if $P = (2 \text{ is prime}), Q = (4 \text{ is a perfect square})$ then $P \vee Q$ is true |
| $\neg$ | negation | $\neg P$ is true if $P$ is false and vice versa | if $P = (\text{35 is prime})$ then $\neg P$ is true |
| $\implies$ | implication | $P \implies Q$ means that $Q$ is true whenever $P$ is true (but it does not say anything about what happens when $P$ is false) | if $P = (x \text{ is divisible by 4})$, $Q = (x \text{ is even})$ then $P \implies Q$ (but note that $P \nrightarrow Q$) |
| $\iff$ | if and only if (iff) | $P \implies Q$ and $Q \implies P$ | if $P = (\text{it is new year})$ and $Q = (\text{it is January 1})$ then $P \iff Q$ |
| $\forall$ | for all | refers to all the elements in a set | if $A = \{2, 4, 10\}$ then $x \in \mathbb{N} \text{ } \forall x \in A$ |
| $\exists$ | there exists | refers to the existence of at least one of something | $\exists x \in \mathbb{N}_0 : x = -x$ |
| $\oplus$ | XOR | either $P$ is true or $Q$ is true but not both | if $P = (\text{Donald Trump is a Democrat})$ and $Q = (\text{Hillary Clinton is a Democrat})$ then $P \oplus Q$ is true, but if $P = (\text{Donald Trump is a Republican})$ then $P \oplus Q$ is false |