Home » forums » LtU Forum

Correct mathematical symbol to represent "subtype"

If this question doesn't make sense, it's probably because I might be confused with the term subtype.

What is the correct mathematical symbol for subtype ?
if B is a subtype of A, which do I write:

  1. B ≤ A
  2. B <: A

Thanks.

By chihiro at 2008-01-30 05:17 | LtU Forum | previous forum topic | next forum topic | other blogs | 8791 reads

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Mostly <:

I think <: is most common, but you'll probably see some variation. It also depends a bit on the context. Sometimes one might want to consider the subtype relation as just another partial order, in which case it might be desirable to use another symbol.

By Matt Hellige at Wed, 2008-01-30 17:47 | login or register to post comments

Proper or improper subtype?

I've also seen the subset operator (⊂ for the proper case, ⊆ for when equality is included) used.

By Scott Johnson at Wed, 2008-01-30 20:54 | login or register to post comments

≤ and ⊂ are already defined

I would think that <: would be the best representation since the above mentioned ones are already defined to have other meanings in mathematics. I haven't seen <: and :> used in any context (other than pointy mouthed smileys :) that it would make the most sense and create the least confusion over the other suggestions.

By Burton Samograd at Sat, 2008-02-02 20:55 | login or register to post comments