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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">

<erlref>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>1996</year><year>2009</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
    
      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
      under the License.
    
    </legalnotice>

    <title>ordsets</title>
    <prepared>Robert Virding</prepared>
    <responsible>Bjarne Dacker</responsible>
    <docno>1</docno>
    <approved>Bjarne D&auml;cker</approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date>99-07-27</date>
    <rev>A</rev>
    <file>ordsets.sgml</file>
  </header>
  <module>ordsets</module>
  <modulesummary>Functions for Manipulating Sets as Ordered Lists</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>Sets are collections of elements with no duplicate elements.
      An <c>ordset</c> is a representation of a set, where an ordered
      list is used to store the elements of the set. An ordered list
      is more efficient than an unordered list.</p>
    <p>This module provides exactly the same interface as the module
      <c>sets</c> but with a defined representation. One difference is
      that while <c>sets</c> considers two elements as different if they
      do not match (<c>=:=</c>), this module considers two elements as
      different if and only if they do not compare equal (<c>==</c>).</p>
  </description>

  <section>
    <title>DATA TYPES</title>
    <code type="none">
ordered_set()
  as returned by new/0</code>
  </section>
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name>new() -> Ordset</name>
      <fsummary>Return an empty set</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns a new empty ordered set.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_set(Ordset) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for an <c>Ordset</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset = term()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Ordset</c> is an ordered set of
          elements, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>size(Ordset) -> int()</name>
      <fsummary>Return the number of elements in a set</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset = term()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the number of elements in <c>Ordset</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>to_list(Ordset) -> List</name>
      <fsummary>Convert an <c>Ordset</c>into a list</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
        <v>List = [term()]</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the elements of <c>Ordset</c> as a list.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>from_list(List) -> Ordset</name>
      <fsummary>Convert a list into an <c>Ordset</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>List = [term()]</v>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns an ordered set of the elements in <c>List</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_element(Element, Ordset) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for membership of an <c>Ordset</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Element</c> is an element of
          <c>Ordset</c>, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>add_element(Element, Ordset1) -> Ordset2</name>
      <fsummary>Add an element to an <c>Ordset</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns a new ordered set formed from <c>Ordset1</c> with
          <c>Element</c> inserted.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>del_element(Element, Ordset1) -> Ordset2</name>
      <fsummary>Remove an element from an <c>Ordset</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>Ordset1</c>, but with <c>Element</c> removed.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>union(Ordset1, Ordset2) -> Ordset3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the union of two <c>Ordsets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = Ordset3 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the merged (union) set of <c>Ordset1</c> and
          <c>Ordset2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>union(OrdsetList) -> Ordset</name>
      <fsummary>Return the union of a list of <c>Ordsets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>OrdsetList = [ordered_set()]</v>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the merged (union) set of the list of sets.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>intersection(Ordset1, Ordset2) -> Ordset3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the intersection of two <c>Ordsets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = Ordset3 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the intersection of <c>Ordset1</c> and
          <c>Ordset2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>intersection(OrdsetList) -> Ordset</name>
      <fsummary>Return the intersection of a list of <c>Ordsets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>OrdsetList = [ordered_set()]</v>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the intersection of the non-empty list of sets.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_disjoint(Ordset1, Ordset2) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Check whether two <c>Ordsets</c> are disjoint</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Ordset1</c> and
          <c>Ordset2</c> are disjoint (have no elements in common),
	  and <c>false</c> otherwise.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>subtract(Ordset1, Ordset2) -> Ordset3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the difference of two <c>Ordsets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = Ordset3 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns only the elements of <c>Ordset1</c> which are not
          also elements of <c>Ordset2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_subset(Ordset1, Ordset2) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for subset</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Ordset1 = Ordset2 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> when every element of <c>Ordset</c>1 is
          also a member of <c>Ordset2</c>, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>fold(Function, Acc0, Ordset) -> Acc1</name>
      <fsummary>Fold over set elements</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Function = fun (E, AccIn) -> AccOut</v>
        <v>Acc0 = Acc1 = AccIn = AccOut = term()</v>
        <v>Ordset = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Fold <c>Function</c> over every element in <c>Ordset</c>
          returning the final value of the accumulator.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>filter(Pred, Ordset1) -> Set2</name>
      <fsummary>Filter set elements</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Pred = fun (E) -> bool()</v>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = ordered_set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Filter elements in <c>Set1</c> with boolean function
          <c>Fun</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>

  <section>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <p><seealso marker="gb_sets">gb_sets(3)</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="sets">sets(3)</seealso></p>
  </section>
</erlref>