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  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2000</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
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      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
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      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
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    </legalnotice>

    <title>sets</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>sets.sgml</file>
  </header>
  <module>sets</module>
  <modulesummary>Functions for Set Manipulation</modulesummary>
  <description>
    <p>Sets are collections of elements with no duplicate elements.
      The representation of a set is not defined.</p>
    <p>This module provides exactly the same interface as the module
      <c>ordsets</c> but with a defined representation. One difference is
      that while this module considers two elements as different if they
      do not match (<c>=:=</c>), <c>ordsets</c> 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">
set()
  as returned by new/0</code>
  </section>
  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name>new() -> Set</name>
      <fsummary>Return an empty set</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns a new empty set.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_set(Set) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for an <c>Set</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set = term()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Set</c> is a set of
          elements, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>size(Set) -> int()</name>
      <fsummary>Return the number of elements in a set</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set = term()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the number of elements in <c>Set</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>to_list(Set) -> List</name>
      <fsummary>Convert an <c>Set</c>into a list</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
        <v>List = [term()]</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the elements of <c>Set</c> as a list.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>from_list(List) -> Set</name>
      <fsummary>Convert a list into an <c>Set</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>List = [term()]</v>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns an set of the elements in <c>List</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_element(Element, Set) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for membership of an <c>Set</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Element</c> is an element of
          <c>Set</c>, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>add_element(Element, Set1) -> Set2</name>
      <fsummary>Add an element to an <c>Set</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns a new set formed from <c>Set1</c> with
          <c>Element</c> inserted.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>del_element(Element, Set1) -> Set2</name>
      <fsummary>Remove an element from an <c>Set</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Element = term()</v>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>Set1</c>, but with <c>Element</c> removed.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>union(Set1, Set2) -> Set3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the union of two <c>Sets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = Set3 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the merged (union) set of <c>Set1</c> and
          <c>Set2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>union(SetList) -> Set</name>
      <fsummary>Return the union of a list of <c>Sets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>SetList = [set()]</v>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the merged (union) set of the list of sets.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>intersection(Set1, Set2) -> Set3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the intersection of two <c>Sets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = Set3 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the intersection of <c>Set1</c> and
          <c>Set2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>intersection(SetList) -> Set</name>
      <fsummary>Return the intersection of a list of <c>Sets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>SetList = [set()]</v>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the intersection of the non-empty list of sets.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_disjoint(Set1, Set2) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Check whether two <c>Sets</c> are disjoint</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <c>Set1</c> and
          <c>Set2</c> are disjoint (have no elements in common),
	  and <c>false</c> otherwise.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>subtract(Set1, Set2) -> Set3</name>
      <fsummary>Return the difference of two <c>Sets</c></fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = Set3 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns only the elements of <c>Set1</c> which are not
          also elements of <c>Set2</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>is_subset(Set1, Set2) -> bool()</name>
      <fsummary>Test for subset</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> when every element of <c>Set</c>1 is
          also a member of <c>Set2</c>, otherwise <c>false</c>.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>fold(Function, Acc0, Set) -> Acc1</name>
      <fsummary>Fold over set elements</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Function = fun (E, AccIn) -> AccOut</v>
        <v>Acc0 = Acc1 = AccIn = AccOut = term()</v>
        <v>Set = set()</v>
      </type>
      <desc>
        <p>Fold <c>Function</c> over every element in <c>Set</c>
          returning the final value of the accumulator.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name>filter(Pred, Set1) -> Set2</name>
      <fsummary>Filter set elements</fsummary>
      <type>
        <v>Pred = fun (E) -> bool()</v>
        <v>Set1 = Set2 = 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="ordsets">ordsets(3)</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="gb_sets">gb_sets(3)</seealso></p>
  </section>
</erlref>

