Discrete Structures for

Computer Science
(CS F222/IS F222)
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

SK Hafizul Islam, Ph.D

hafizul@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Lecture No. 15
Date 07/09/2015
Time 2:00 PM 3:00 PM

POSET

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Introduction
Consider the renovation of a hostel. In this process
several tasks were undertaken
Remove Asbestos
Replace windows
Paint walls
Refinish floors
Assign offices
Move in office furniture
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CS F222/IS F222

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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Introduction
Clearly, some things had to be done before others
could begin
Asbestos had to be removed before anything (except assigning offices)
Painting walls had to be done before refinishing floors to avoid ruining
them, etc.

On the other hand, several things could be done

concurrently:
Painting could be done while replacing the windows
Assigning offices could be done at anytime before moving in office
furniture

This scenario can be nicely modeled using partial

orderings
CS F222/IS F222

8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Partial Order
Definitions:
A relation R on a set A is called a partial order if it
is
Reflexive [for any a A, (a, a) R]
Antisymmetric [For a, bA, if (a, b)R and (b,
a)R, then a = b]
Transitive [For a, b, cA, if (a, b)R and (b, c)R,
then (a, c)R]

The set A together with a partial order relation R is

called a partially ordered set (POSET).
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CS F222/IS F222

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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Partial Order
Partial orderings are used to give an order to sets
that may not have a natural one
In our renovation example, we could define an
ordering such that (a, b)R if a must be done
before b can be done.

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CS F222/IS F222

8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

POSET
A POSET is denoted by (A p).

We use the notation:

apb, when (a, b)R and ab [a strictly precedes b]
The notation p is not less than.
The notation p is used to denote any partial ordering

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CS F222/IS F222

8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

POSET
The relation less than or equal to defined over a
set of real numbers is a POSET, i.e., (R, ) is a POSET.
Which of the following sets with the given relations
from POSETs?

(Z, )
(Z, >)
(P, ), where P = {, {a}, {b}, {a, b}}
(P, )
(Z, |), where I is the divisibility relation
(Z+, I)
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CS F222/IS F222

8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Hasses Diagram
Cover:
Let (A, p) be a POSET and a, bA. The element b is
called the cover of a if apb and no cA exists such
that apcpb.
b is the cover of a if b is the immediate successor of a.

Example: A = {2, 3, 6, 12, 18, 36} with the partial

order relation divides.
2p6, 6 is the cover of 2, but 3 is not the cover of 2.
36 is not a cover of 6, since 6p12p36 or 6p18p36.
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8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Hasses Diagram
Covering relation:
For a finite poset (A, p), we can find the cover of
every element in A.
The set of pairs (a, b) such that b covers a is called
the covering relation of (A, p).
Example: A = {2, 3, 6, 12, 18, 36} with the partial
order relation divides.
The covering relation of (A, p) = {(2, 6), (3, 6), (6, 12), (6,
18), (12, 36), (18, 36)}.
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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Hasses Diagram
The Hasses diagram of a finite poset (A, p) is a graph
in which
The elements are represented as vertices
If b is a cover of a, then this relation is shown by placing b
higher than a and providing a edge between them.

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BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Hasses Diagram
A = {2, 3, 6, 12, 18, 36} with the partial order relation
divides.
The covering relation of (A, p) = {(2, 6), (3, 6), (6, 12), (6, 18),
(12, 36), (18, 36)}.
36

12

18
6

3
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CS F222/IS F222

8 September 2015

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Thank You

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus