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In
mathematics Mathematics (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ) includes the study of such topics as quantity (number theory), mathematical structure, structure (algebra), space (geometry), and calculus, change (mathematical analysis, analysis). It has no generally ...
, an injective function (also known as injection, or one-to-one function) is a function that maps distinct elements of its domain to distinct elements of its codomain. In other words, every element of the function's codomain is the image of ''at most'' one element of its domain. The term ''one-to-one function'' must not be confused with ''one-to-one correspondence'' that refers to bijective functions, which are functions such that each element in the codomain is an image of exactly one element in the domain. A homomorphism between algebraic structures is a function that is compatible with the operations of the structures. For all common algebraic structures, and, in particular for vector spaces, an ''injective homomorphism'' is also called a '' monomorphism''. However, in the more general context of
category theory Category theory formalizes mathematical structure and its concepts in terms of a Graph labeling, labeled directed graph called a ''Category (mathematics), category'', whose nodes are called ''objects'', and whose labelled directed edges are cal ...
, the definition of a monomorphism differs from that of an injective homomorphism. This is thus a theorem that they are equivalent for algebraic structures; see for more details. A function ''f'' that is not injective is sometimes called many-to-one.

# Definition

Let ''f'' be a function whose domain is a set $X$. The function $f$ is said to be injective provided that for all $a$ and $b$ in $X$, if $f\left(a\right)=f\left(b\right)$, then $a=b$; that is, $f\left(a\right)=f\left(b\right)$ implies $a=b$. Equivalently, if $a\neq b$, then $f\left(a\right)\neq f\left(b\right)$. Symbolically, : $\forall a,b \in X, \;\; f\left(a\right)=f\left(b\right) \Rightarrow a=b$ which is logically equivalent to the contrapositive, : $\forall a,b \in X, \;\; a \neq b \Rightarrow f\left(a\right) \neq f\left(b\right)$

# Examples

*For any set ''X'' and any subset ''S'' of ''X'', the inclusion map (which sends any element ''s'' of ''S'' to itself) is injective. In particular, the identity function is always injective (and in fact bijective). *If the domain of a function is the
empty set In mathematics Mathematics (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ) includes the study of such topics as quantity (number theory), mathematical structure, structure (algebra), space (geometry), and calculus, change (mathematical analysis, analysis). ...
, then the function is the empty function, which is injective. *If the domain of a function has one element (that is, it is a singleton set), then the function is always injective. *The function defined by is injective. *The function defined by is ''not'' injective, because (for example) . However, if ''g'' is redefined so that its domain is the non-negative real numbers [0,+∞), then ''g'' is injective. *The exponential function defined by is injective (but not surjective, as no real value maps to a negative number). *The natural logarithm function defined by is injective. *The function defined by is not injective, since, for example, . More generally, when ''X'' and ''Y'' are both the real line R, then an injective function is one whose graph is never intersected by any horizontal line more than once. This principle is referred to as the ''horizontal line test''. File:Non-injective function1.svg, 400px, left, Not an injective function. Here ''X''1 and ''X''2 are subsets of ''X'', ''Y''1 and ''Y''2 are subsets of ''Y'': for two regions where the function is not injective because more than one domain Element (mathematics), element can map to a single range element. That is, it is possible for ''more than one'' ''x'' in ''X'' to map to the ''same'' ''y'' in ''Y''.

# Injections can be undone

Functions with Inverse function#Left and right inverses, left inverses are always injections. That is, given , if there is a function such that for every , :''g''(''f''(''x'')) = ''x'' (''f'' can be undone by ''g''), then ''f'' is injective. In this case, ''g'' is called a Retract (category theory), retraction of ''f''. Conversely, ''f'' is called a Retract (category theory), section of ''g''. Conversely, every injection ''f'' with non-empty domain has a left inverse ''g'', which can be defined by fixing an element ''a'' in the domain of ''f'' so that ''g''(''x'') equals the unique pre-image of ''x'' under ''f'' if it exists and ''g''(''x'') = ''a'' otherwise. The left inverse ''g'' is not necessarily an inverse function, inverse of ''f'', because the composition in the other order, , may differ from the identity on ''Y''. In other words, an injective function can be "reversed" by a left inverse, but is not necessarily inverse function, invertible, which requires that the function is bijective.

# Injections may be made invertible

In fact, to turn an injective function into a bijective function, bijective (hence Inverse function, invertible) function, it suffices to replace its codomain ''Y'' by its actual range . That is, let such that for all ''x'' in ''X''; then ''g'' is bijective. Indeed, ''f'' can be factored as , where is the inclusion function from ''J'' into ''Y''. More generally, injective partial functions are called partial bijections.

# Other properties

* If ''f'' and ''g'' are both injective, then is injective. Image:Injective composition2.svg, 300px, The composition of two injective functions is injective. * If is injective, then ''f'' is injective (but ''g'' need not be). * is injective if and only if, given any functions ''g'', whenever , then . In other words, injective functions are precisely the monomorphisms in the category theory, category Category of sets, Set of sets. * If is injective and ''A'' is a subset of ''X'', then . Thus, ''A'' can be recovered from its image (function), image ''f''(''A''). * If is injective and ''A'' and ''B'' are both subsets of ''X'', then . * Every function can be decomposed as for a suitable injection ''f'' and surjection ''g''. This decomposition is unique up to isomorphism, and ''f'' may be thought of as the inclusion function of the range ''h''(''W'') of ''h'' as a subset of the codomain ''Y'' of ''h''. * If is an injective function, then ''Y'' has at least as many elements as ''X'', in the sense of cardinal numbers. In particular, if, in addition, there is an injection from ''Y'' to ''X'', then ''X'' and ''Y'' have the same cardinal number. (This is known as the Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder theorem.) * If both ''X'' and ''Y'' are finite set, finite with the same number of elements, then is injective if and only if ''f'' is surjective (in which case ''f'' is bijective). *An injective function which is a homomorphism between two algebraic structures is an embedding. *Unlike surjectivity, which is a relation between the graph of a function and its codomain, injectivity is a property of the graph of the function alone; that is, whether a function ''f'' is injective can be decided by only considering the graph (and not the codomain) of ''f''.

# Proving that functions are injective

A proof that a function ''f'' is injective depends on how the function is presented and what properties the function holds. For functions that are given by some formula there is a basic idea. We use the definition of injectivity, namely that if , then . Here is an example: : ''f'' = 2''x'' + 3 Proof: Let . Suppose . So ⇒ ⇒ . Therefore, it follows from the definition that ''f'' is injective. There are multiple other methods of proving that a function is injective. For example, in calculus if ''f'' is a differentiable function defined on some interval, then it is sufficient to show that the derivative is always positive or always negative on that interval. In linear algebra, if ''f'' is a linear transformation it is sufficient to show that the kernel of ''f'' contains only the zero vector. If ''f'' is a function with finite domain it is sufficient to look through the list of images of each domain element and check that no image occurs twice on the list. A graphical approach for a real-valued function ''f'' of a real variable ''x'' is the horizontal line test. If every horizontal line intersects the curve of ''f''(''x'') in at most one point, then ''f'' is injective or one-to-one.

* Bijection, injection and surjection * Injective metric space * Monotonic function * Univalent function

# References

* , p. 17 ''ff''. * , p. 38 ''ff''.