Lib.union

STRUCTURE

SYNOPSIS

Computes the union of two ‘sets’.

DESCRIPTION

If l1 and l2 are both ‘sets’ (lists with no repeated members), union l1 l2 returns the set union of l1 and l2. In the case that l1 or l2 is not a set, all the user can depend on is that union l1 l2 returns a list l3 such that every unique element of l1 and l2 is in l3 and each element of l3 is found in either l1 or l2.

FAILURE

Never fails.

EXAMPLE

- union [1,2,3] [1,5,4,3];
val it = [2,1,5,4,3] : int list

- union [1,1,1] [1,2,3,2];
val it = [1,2,3,2] : int list

- union [1,2,3,2] [1,1,1] ;
val it = [3,2,1,1,1] : int list

COMMENTS

Do not make the assumption that the order of items in the list returned by union is fixed. Later implementations may use different algorithms, and return a different concrete result while still meeting the specification.

A high-performance implementation of finite sets may be found in structure HOLset.

ML equality types are used in the implementation of union and its kin. This limits its applicability to types that allow equality. For other types, typically abstract ones, use the ‘op_’ variants.

SEEALSO

op_union, U, mk_set, mem, insert, set_eq, intersect, set_diff, subtract