CIT- 652. DATA MINING.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR : Sheza Naeem
Lecture# 32
FUZZY SET OPERATIONS
Union, intersections, and complement are the most basic operations in classic sets. Corresponding to the
ordinary set operations, fuzzy sets too have operations, which were initially defined by Zadeh, the founder
of the fuzzy set theory. The union of two fuzzy sets A and B is a fuzzy set C, written as C = A UB or C = A
OR B, whose membership function μC(x) is related to those of A and B by
As pointed out by Zadeh, a more intuitive but equivalent definition of the union of two fuzzy sets A and B is
the “smallest” fuzzy set containing both A and B. Alternatively, if D is any fuzzy set that contains both A
and B, then it also contains A UB.
The intersection of fuzzy sets can be defined analogously. The intersection of two fuzzy sets A and
B is a fuzzy set C, written as C = A∩ B or C = A AND B, whose membership function is related to those of A
and B by
As in the case of the union of sets, it is obvious that the intersection of A and B is the “largest” fuzzy set
that is contained in both A and B. This reduces to the ordinary intersection operation if both A and B are
nonfuzzy.
The complement of a fuzzy set A, denoted by A , is defined by the membership function as
Figure 14.5 demonstrates these three basic operations: Figure 14.5a illustrates two fuzzy sets A and B;
Figure 14.5b is the complement of A; Figure 14.5c is the union of A and B; and Figure 14.5d is the
intersection of A and B.
Let A and B be fuzzy sets in X and Y domains, respectively. The Cartesian product of A and B, denoted by A
× B, is a fuzzy set in the product space X × Y with a membership function:
Numeric computations based on these simple fuzzy operations are illustrated through one simple example
with a discrete universe of discourse S. Let S = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and assume that fuzzy sets A and B are
given by
A=0/1+0.5/2+0.8/3+1.0/4+0.2/5
B=0 9 1+0 4 2+0 3 3+0 1 4+0 5
Fuzzy sets, as defined by membership function, can be compared in different ways. Although the primary
intention of comparing is to express the extent to which two fuzzy numbers match, it is almost impossible
to come up with a single method. Instead, we can enumerate several classes of methods available today
for satisfying this objective. One class, distance measures, considers a distance function between
membership functions of fuzzy sets A and B and treats it as an indicator of their closeness.
Comparing fuzzy sets via distance measures does not place the matching procedure in the set-
theory perspective. In general, the distance between A and B, defined in the same universe of discourse X,
where X R, can be defined using the Minkowski distance.
where p ≥ 1. Several specific cases are typically encountered in applications:
1. Hamming distance for p = 1,
2. Euclidean distance for p = 2, and
3. Tchebychev distance for p = ∞.
For example, the distance between given fuzzy sets A and B, based on Euclidian measure, is
For continuous universes of discourse, summation is replaced by integration. The more similar the two
fuzzy sets, the lower the distance function between them. Sometimes, it is more convenient to normalize
the distance function and denote it dn(A, B) and use this version to express similarity as a straight
complement, 1 – dn(A, B). The other approach to comparing fuzzy sets is the use of possibility and
necessity measures. The possibility measure of fuzzy set A with respect to fuzzy set B, denoted by Pos(A,
B), is defined as.
The necessity measure of A with respect to B, Nec(A, B), is defined as
An interesting interpretation arises from these measures. The possibility measure quantifies the extent to
which A and B overlap. By virtue of the definition introduced, the measure is symmetric. On the other
hand, the necessity measure describes the degree to which B is included in A. As seen from the definition,
the measure is asymmetrical.
A visualization of these two measures is given in Figure 14.6.
A number of simple yet useful operations may be performed on fuzzy sets. These are one-argument
mappings, because they apply to a single membership function:
1. Normalization—This operation converts a subnormal, nonempty fuzzy set into a normalized version
by dividing the original membership function by the height of A:
2. Concentration—When fuzzy sets are concentrated, their membership functions take on relatively
smaller values. That is, the membership function becomes more concentrated around points with
higher membership grades
as, for instance, being raised to power two:
3. Dilation—Dilation has the opposite effect from concentration and is produced by modifying the
membership function through exponential transformation, where the exponent is less than 1:
The basic effects of the previous three operations are illustrated in Figure 14.7.
