Chapter 1

Preliminaries : Fuzzy Sets

The set theory of classical is the subset of Fuzzy set theory. Fuzzy logic is
based on this theory, which is a generalisation of the classical theory of set (i.e.,
crisp set) introduced by Zadeh in 1965. A fuzzy set is a collection of values
which exist between 0 and 1. The sets of Fuzzy theory were introduced in 1965
by Lofti A. Zadeh and Dieter Klaua. In the fuzzy set, the partial membership
also exists. Fuzzy set theory released as an extension of classical set theory.

Definition 1.1

If X is a universe of discourse and x be any particular element of X. The fuzzy

set A is defined on X is a collection of ordered pairs,

A = {(x, µA ) : x ∈ X}

where µA : X → [0, 1] is called the membership function.

Definition 1.2

The support of the fuzzy set within a universal set X is the crisp set (ordinary
set) that contains all the elements of X that have non-zero membership of grades
in A. For x ∈ X, A(x) represents
Thus, the support of A is an ordinary subset of X defined by

supp(A) = {x ∈ X | A(x) > 0}

When A(x) = 21 , then the elements of X are called crossover points of A.

Example 1.1

Let X be a non-empty set and U ⊂ X, then µU : X → [0, 1] defined by

(
1, if x ∈ U
µU (x) =
0, if x ∈
/U

is a fuzzy set. Here, supp(µU ) = U . That is, ordinary sets are represented by
characteristic functions in fuzzy sets.

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Example 1.2

Let X = {a, b, c}. Define A : X → [0, 1] by

1 3
A(a) = 0, A(b) = , A(c) = .
2 4
Then A is a fuzzy set on X.

Example 1.3

Let X = N, the set of all natural numbers. Define the fuzzy set A : X → [0, 1]
by 

 0, if x < 50

0.2, if 50 ≤ x ≤ 100
A(x) =
0.75, if 100 < x ≤ 1000


1, if x > 1000


Definition 1.3

Several fuzzy sets representing linguistic concepts such as low, medium, high
and so on are often employed to define states of a variable. Such a variable is
usually called a fuzzy variable. For example, temperature within a range. States
of fuzzy variable and fuzzy sets representing five linguistic concepts: very low,
low, medium, high, very high. They are all defined by membership functions of
the form [T1 , T2 ] → [0, 1].

The Algebra Of Fuzzy Sets

Definition 1.4

Let A and B be two fuzzy sets on X. Then A = B if A(x) = B(x) for all x ∈ X.

Example 1.4

For two fuzzy sets A and B on X, A ≤ B if A(x) ≤ B(x) for all x ∈ X.

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Example 1.5

Let X = {a, b, c}. Define A : X → [0, 1] by

A(a) = 0, A(b) = 0.2, A(c) = 0.4

and B : X → [0, 1] by

B(a) = 0.5, B(b) = 0.2, B(c) = 0.7

then A ≤ B.

Definition 1.5

Given two fuzzy sets A and B, the standard union A ∪ B is defined for all x ∈ X
by the equation,
(A ∪ B)(x) = max[A(x), B(x)]
where max denotes the maximum operator.

Definition 1.6

Given two fuzzy sets A and B, the standard intersection A ∩ B is defined for all
x ∈ X by the equation,

(A ∩ B)(x) = min[A(x), B(x)]

where min denotes the minimum operator.

Definition 1.7

The standard complement A′ , of a fuzzy A with respect to the universal set X

is defined for all x ∈ X by the equation,

A′ (x) = 1 − A(x)

Elements of X for which A(x) = A′ (x) are called equilibrium points of A. For
the standard complement, clearly, membership grades of equilibrium points are
0.5.

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Example 1.6

Let A : X → [0, 1] be a fuzzy set defined by A(x) = 0.4 for all x ∈ X. Then A′
is defined by
A′ (x) = 1 − A(x) = 1 − 0.4 = 0.6
for all x ∈ X.

Definition 1.8

The operation
A′ (x) = 1 − A(x)
(A ∩ B)(x) = min{A(x), B(x)}
(A ∪ B)(x) = max{A(x), B(x)}
are called the standard fuzzy operation. Standard fuzzy operations are the
generalizations of the corresponding classical set operations. Fuzzy intersection
and unions are usually referred to as t-norms and co-norms.

Definition 1.9

Let A and B be two fuzzy sets defined on a universal set X. Then A is said to
be a subset of B if A(x) ≤ B(x) for all x ∈ X and is denoted by A ⊆ B.

Definition 1.10

If A(x) < B(x) for all x ∈ X, then A is a proper subset of B and is denoted by
A ⊂ B.

Definition 1.11

The height h(A) of a fuzzy set is the largest membership grade obtained by any
element in the set.
h(A) = sup A(x)
x∈X

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Definition 1.12

A fuzzy set A is called normal when h(A) = 1. A fuzzy set A is called sub-normal
when h(A) < 1.

Definition 1.13

Given fuzzy set A defined on X and any number α ∈ [0, 1], the α-cut (αA), is the
crisp set that contains all the elements of the universal set X whose membership
grades in A are strictly greater than or equal to the specified value of alpha.

αA = {x|A(x) ≥ α}

Definition 1.14

Given fuzzy set A defined on X and any number α ∈ [0, 1], the strong α-cut
(α+ A), is the crisp set that contains all the elements of the Universal Set X
whose membership grades in A are strictly greater than the specified value of
alpha.
α+ A = {x|A(x) > α}

Definition 1.15

A fuzzy set is convex if its α-cuts are convex for all α ∈ [0, 1]. i.e., x1 , x2 ∈ αA
implies λx1 + (1 − λ)x2 ∈ αA for all λ ∈ [0, 1].

Definition 1.16

The set of all levels α ∈ [0, 1] that represent distinct α-cuts of a given fuzzy set
A is called a level set of A.

∧(A) = {α|A(x) = α, for some x ∈ X}

where ∧ denotes the level set of a fuzzy set A defined on X.

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 Chapter 2
Soft Set Theory

Soft set is a parametrized general mathematical tool which deals with a collec-
tion of approximate descriptions of objects. Soft set theory is very convenient
and easily applicable in practice because of the absence of any restrictions on
the approximate descriptions. Any parametrization can be used in terms of
words and sentences, real numbers, functions and so on.

2.1 Soft Set Theory

Definition 2.1.1.
Let U be a universal set and E be a set of parameters. Let P(U ) be the
power set of U and A ⊆ E. A pair (F, A) is a soft set over U if F is a mapping
from A → P(U ).
In other words, a soft set over U is a parametrized family of subsets of U .
For each e ∈ A, F (e) may be considered as the set of e-approximate elements
of the soft set (F, A).
A soft set (F, A) can be written as:

(F, A) = {F (e) : e ∈ A}.

If A = E, then:
(F, E) = {F (e) : e ∈ E}.

Example 2.1.2.
Consider the soft set (F, A) describing the attractiveness of the house which a
person is going to purchase. Let U be the set of houses under consideration and
E be the set of parameters:

E = {expensive, beautiful, wooden, cheap, modern, in the green surroundings, in good condition, in bad conditio

To be specific, let:
U = {h1 , h2 , h3 , h4 , h5 , h6 },
and parameter set:
A = {e1 , e2 , e3 , e4 , e5 },

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where:

e1 represents ‘expensive’
e2 represents ‘beautiful’
e3 represents ‘wooden’
e4 represents ‘cheap’
e5 represents ‘in the green surroundings’

Assume F : A → P(U ) is defined as:

F (e1 ) = {h2 , h3 }
F (e2 ) = {h1 , h3 }
F (e3 ) = {h3 , h4 , h5 }
F (e4 ) = {h1 , h3 , h5 }
F (e5 ) = {h1 }

Then the soft set (F, A) over U is the parametrized family:

{F (ei ) : i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} of subsets of U.

F (e1 ) means ”houses that are expensive” and the function value set of F is
{h2 , h3 }.
So we can regard the soft set (F, A) as a collection of approximations:

(F, A) = {F (e1 ), F (e2 ), F (e3 ), F (e4 ), F (e5 )}

which corresponds to:

{expensive houses = {h2 , h3 }, beautiful houses = {h1 , h3 }, wooden houses = {h3 , h4 , h5 }, cheap houses = {h1 , h

Example 2.1.3.
Zadeh’s fuzzy set is a special case of soft set.
Let A be a fuzzy set in U , then A is a function from U → [0, 1]. For x ∈ U ,
A(x) is the degree of belonging of x in A.
Consider the α-cuts or level sets of A,

F (α) = {x ∈ U | A(x) ≥ α}, α ∈ [0, 1]

For a fixed α, F (α) is an ordinary set. Membership of x in A is given by the

formula:
A(x) = sup α
α∈[0,1]
x∈F (α)

In other words, Zadeh’s fuzzy set A can be regarded as the soft set (F, [0, 1]).

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2.2 Operations on Soft Sets

Definition 2.2.1 (Soft subset).

The soft set (F, A) is a subset of the soft set (G, B) if A ⊆ B and F (e) ⊆
G(e) ∀e ∈ A. It is denoted as (F, A) ⊆ (G, B).
Definition 2.2.2 (Equal soft set).
Soft sets (F, A) and (G, B) are equal if (F, A) ⊆ (G, B) and (G, B) ⊆ (F, A)
and is written as (F, A) = (G, B).
Definition 2.2.3 (Null or Empty soft set).
A soft set (F, A) over U is said to be a null or empty soft set if A = ∅. We
denote it by Φ or (∅, ∅).
Definition 2.2.4 (Absolute or Universal soft set).
A soft set (F, A) over U is said to be an absolute soft set or universal soft set if
A = E and F (e) = U ∀e ∈ A, and we denote it by (U, E) over U .
Any soft set (F, A) over U satisfies:

(∅, ∅) ⊆ (F, A) ⊆ (U, E)