bag

(data structure)

Definition: An unordered collection of values that may have duplicates.

Formal Definition: A bag has a single query function, numberIn(v, B), which tells how many copies of an element are in the bag, and two modifier functions, add(v, B) and remove(v, B). These may be defined with axiomatic semantics as follows.

1. new() returns a bag
2. numberIn(v, new()) = 0
3. numberIn(v, add(v, B)) = 1 + numberIn(v, B)
4. numberIn(v, add(u, B)) = numberIn(v, B) if v ≠ u
5. remove(v, new()) = new()
6. remove(v, add(v, B)) = B
7. remove(v, add(u, B)) = add(u, remove(v, B)) if v ≠ u

The predicate isEmpty(B) may be defined with the following additional axioms.

8. isEmpty(new()) = true
9. isEmpty(add(v, B)) = false

Also known as multi-set.

Generalization (I am a kind of ...)
abstract data type.

See also set, list.

Note: A bag, or multi-set, is a set where values may be repeated. Inserting 2, 1, 2 into an empty set gives the set {1, 2}. Inserting those values into an empty bag gives {1, 2, 2}. From another point of view, a set is unordered, too, but has each value at most once.

Author: PEB

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.

Entry modified 11 January 2005.
HTML page formatted Fri Mar 25 16:20:34 2011.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "bag", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed., U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 11 January 2005. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/bag.html