Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487

www.elsevier.com/locate/fss
Cardinality concepts for type-two fuzzy sets
Lee-Chae Jang
; 1
, Dan Ralescu
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0025, USA
Received April 1998; received in revised form January 1999
Abstract
In this paper, we dene generalized concepts of cardinality of a fuzzy-valued function and obtained some properties
of these new concepts. Also, we investigate examples for the calculation of two generalized cardinality of fuzzy-valued
functions and compared with concepts of cardinality of a fuzzy set and a fuzzy-valued function. c 2001 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fuzzy set; Fuzzy number; Fuzzy cardinality; Sigma count; Fuzzy-valued function; Fuzzy-valued cardinality;
Fuzzy-valued sigma count
1. Preliminaries
A fuzzy set is dened by a function f: X [0; 1], where X is an ordinary set. Zadeh [7], Ralescu [2],
Ralescu [3], Wygralak [5], Dubois and Prade [1], Yager [6] investigated concepts of cardinality of a fuzzy
set and obtained some properties of these new concepts. A statement such as most students are smart has
a truth value between 0 and 1; such a statement is of the general form Qxs are A where Q is a fuzzy
quantier and A is a fuzzy subset of a (nite) universe of discourse X ={x
1
; x
2
; : : : ; x
n
}. An explicit formula
for the truth-value of such a statement was given for the rst time in [2].
In this paper, we consider a fuzzy-valued function F : X F(R) instead of a fuzzy set A, that is, instead
of a real-valued function on X. We denote such a fuzzy-valued function by
F =

x
1
x
2
x
n

F; a
(1)

F; a
(2)

F; a
(n)

:
This notation will be made clear in Section 2. We will use the following concept of fuzzy number. Let R be
the real numbers and let [0, 1] be the unit interval in R. Let F(R) denote the set of all fuzzy sets in R.

Corresponding author.
1
On leave from Department of Applied Mathematics, KonKuk University, Chungju, South Korea.
0165-0114/01/$ - see front matter c 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0165- 0114( 99) 00052- 4
480 L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487
Denition 1.1. A fuzzy set AF(R) is called a fuzzy number, if and only if
(1) A is normal, i.e. there exists x
0
R such that
A
(x
0
) =1.
(2) A is convex, i.e.
A
(x + (1 )y)min(
A
(x);
A
(y)) for all x; y R and [0; 1].
(3) For any (0; 1]; A

={x:
A
(x)} is a closed interval and cl(A
0
) =cl({x:
A
(x)0}) is compact.
Here, cl(A
0
) is the closure of A
0
.
It follows from the denition above that AF(R) is a fuzzy number if and only if there exists a closed
interval [r; s] such that

A
(x) =

1; x [r; s] =;
L(x); xr;
R(x); xs
where L(x) is a right continuous function and R(x) is a left continuous function (see [6]).
2. Cardinality and f-cardinality
Let X ={x
1
; x
2
; : : : ; x
n
} be a nite set, and let A be a fuzzy subset of X, represented by its membership
function
A
: X [0; 1]. We denote the -level set of A by L

(A) ={x X |
A
(x)} for 0661. The
complement

A of A has membership function

A
=1
A
.
Ralescu [3] and Ralescu [2] discussed some properties of card A, the cardinality of fuzzy set A. This
should be a fuzzy subset of {0; 1; : : : ; n}, with card A(k) being interpreted as the possibility that A has exactly
k elements (06k6n). Also, Ralescu [2] investigated that card A was k to the extent to which exactly k
elements of X belong to A while the other (n k) elements do not belong to A and obtained the following
explicit formular for the fuzzy cardinality:
card A(k) =
(k)
(1
(k+1)
); k =0; 1; : : : ; n
where
(1)
;
(2)
; : : : ;
(n)
are the values of
A
(x
1
); : : : ;
A
(x
n
) arranged in decreasing order of magnitude, and

(0)
=1;
(n+1)
=0.
Now we will consider a new denition of f-card F, the fuzzy-valued cardinality of a fuzzy set-valued func-
tion F : X F(R) with the following membership functions
F(x
i
)
(x)=
F; a
i
(x) of each F(x
i
), for i =1; 2; : : : ; n;

F; a
i
; c
i
; d
i
(x) =

1; x [r
i
; s
i
] =;
L
i
(x); xr
i
;
R
i
(x); xs
i
where a
i
(i =1; 2; : : : ; n) are some real numbers, s
i
=((m1)=m)a
i
and t
i
=((m+1)=m)a
i
, the functions L
i
are
straight lines through points (1; s
i
); (c
i
; 0) and the functions R
i
are straight lines through points (1; t
i
); (d
i
; 0),
for some numbers c
i
; d
i
and i =1; 2; : : : ; n. We denote the set of such fuzzy numbers by F
0
.
Denition 2.1. The f-cardinality of a fuzzy-valued function F is the fuzzy-valued function f-card F : {0; 1; : : : ; n}
F
0
(R) dened for every k by
f-cardF(k) =
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)

F; 1a
(k+1)
; 1d
(k+1)
; 1c
(k+1)
where a
(0)
a
(1)
a
(n)
are the ordered values of the a
i
s, a
(0)
=1 and a
(n+1)
=0, and
F; 0
(x) =1;

F; 1
(x) =0 for all x R. Furthermore, we dene the operation by

F; a; c; d

F; b; e; f
=
F; ab; ce; df
:
L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487 481
Notes 2.2. (1) Let a
1
= =a
r
=1 and a
r+1
= =a
n
=0 and let L
i
=R
i
=0, we dene the membership
functions
F; a
i
; a
i
; a
i
of x
i
by

F; a
i
; a
i
; a
i
(x) =

1; x =a
i
;
0 otherwise:
In this case, F is a non-fuzzy set with r elements. Then by a simple calculation we obtain
f-card F(k) =

1; k =r;
0 otherwise:
Thus this equation agrees with the cardinality (number of elements) of non-fuzzy sets.
(2) We consider a fuzzy set A and a fuzzy-valued function F by
A=

x
1
x
2
x
n
a
(1)
a
(2)
a
(n)

;
F =

x
1
x
2
x
n

F; a
(1)
; a
(1)
; a
(1)

F; a
(2)
; a
(2)
; a
(2)

F; a
(n)
; a
(n)
; a
(n)

and then, we obtain

f-card F(k) =
F; a
(k)
; a
(k)
; a
(k)

F; 1a
(k+1)
; 1a
(k+1)
; 1a
(k+1)
=
F; a
(k)
1a
(k+1)
; a
(k)
1a
(k+1)
; a
(k)
1a
(k+1)
=
F; card A(k); card A(k); card A(k)
= X
{card A(k)}
:
Here, we denote X
{z}
by
X
{z}
(x) =

1 if x =z;
0 otherwise
(see Ralescu [3]).
We now investigate the following simple example of f-card F

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4

F; 0:9; c
1
; d
1

F; 0:8; c
2
; d
2

F; 0:1; c
3
; d
3

F; 0; c
4
; d
4

where c
1
; c
2
; c
3
R; c
4
=0 and d
1
; d
2
; d
3
R; d
4
=0 and m=5. We calculate only one f-card F(0)
f-card F(0) =
F; 1; c
0
; d
0

F; 10:9;1d
1
; 1c
1
=
F; 10:1; c
0
1d
1
; d
0
1c
1
=
F; 0:1; c
0
1d
1
; d
0
1c
1
and we omit the other calculations. We obtain
f-card F =

0 1 2 3 4

F; 0:1; f
0
; g
0

F; 0:2; f
1
; g
1

F; 0:8; f
2
; g
2

F; 0:1; f
3
; g
3

F; 0; f
4
; g
4

where f
i
=c
i
1 d
i+1
and g
i
=d
i
1 c
i+1
for i =0; 1; 2; : : : ; n.
Notes 2.3. If we consider the following fuzzy set A (see in [3, Example 1]):
A=

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
0:9 0:8 0:1 0

;
482 L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487
then the cardinality of A is
card A=

0 1 2 3 4
0:1 0:2 0:8 0:1 0

:
This fact shows that the fuzzy cardinality of a fuzzy-valued function is a generalization of cardinality of
fuzzy sets. In other words, we consider the fuzzy numbers (0:9;
A; 0:9; c
1
; d
1
); (0:8;
A; 0:8; c
2
; d
2
); (0:1;
A; 0:1; c
3
; d
3
);
(0;
A; 0; 0; 0
) instead of the non-fuzzy numbers 0.9, 0.8, 0.1, 0. We now proceed to general results about our
concepts of cardinality; some are non-trivial extensions of corresponding results in [3].
Proposition 2.4. f-card F(k) =X
{1}
if and only if F is a non-fuzzy set with k elements.
Proof. Suppose f-card F(k) =X
{1}
. Then
f-card F(k)(x) =
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
(x)
F; 1a
(k+1)
; 1d
(k+1)
; 1c
(k+1)
(x) =X
{1}
(x); x R:
Thus we obtain
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
(x) =X
{1}
(x) and
F; 1a
(k+1)
; 1d
(k+1)
; 1c
(k+1)
(x) =X
{1}
(x). So, a
(k)
=1 and
a
(k+1)
=0. This implies that a
(1)
= =a
(k)
=1 and a
(k+1)
= =a
(n)
=0. Therefore F is a non-fuzzy set
with k elements. Conversely, the assumption implies

F; a
(i)
(x) =

1; x =a
(i)
;
0 otherwise
for i =1; : : : ; k and

F; a
(k)
(x) =0 for all x
for i =k+1; : : : ; n. So, a
(i)
=c
(i)
=d
(i)
=1 for i =1; 2; : : : ; k and a
(i)
=c
(i)
=d
(i)
=0 for i =k+1; : : : ; n. Thus, we
have that f-card F(k) =
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)

F; 1a
(k+1)
; 1d
(k+1)
; 1c
(k+1)
=
F; 1; 1; 1
=X
{1}
. Therefore, f-card F(k) =X
{1}
.
From the denition of the cardinality of fuzzy-valued functions, we obtain the following proposition.
Proposition 2.5. For every k =0; 1; : : : ; n; the fuzzy cardinality f-card F(k) of a fuzzy-valued function F lies
in F
0
.
Now we will give a representation of f-card F by using the denition. Since
a
(i)
[1 a
(i+1)
] =

a
(i)
if a
(i)
+ a
(i+1)
61;
1 a
(i+1)
otherwise
there is a unique value j such that the following inequalities hold:
1 + a
(0)
a
(1)
+ a
(2)
a
( j1)
+ a
( j)
1a
( j)
+ a
( j+1)
a
(n1)
+ a
(n)
a
(n)
0:
Thus, Denition 2.1 gives
f-card F
(i)
=

F; 1a
(i+1)
; f
(i)
; g
(i)
for 06i6j 1;

F; a
(i)
; f
(i)
; g
(t)
for j6i6n
and we obtain the following representation of f-card F, i.e., fuzzy-valued cardinality of fuzzy-valued function:

0 1 j 1 j j + 1 n

F; 1a
(1)
; f
(0)
; g
(0)

F; 1a
(2)
; f
(1)
; g
(1)

F; 1a
( j)
; f
( j1)
; g
( j1)

F; a
( j)
; f
( j)
; g
( j)

F; a
( j+1)
; f
( j+1)
; g
( j+1)

F; a
(n)
; f
(n)
; g
(n)

L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487 483
where f
(i)
=c
(i)
[1 d
(i+1)
] and g
(i)
=d
(i)
[1 c
(i+1)
] for i =0; 1; : : : ; j 1 and f
(i)
=c
(i)
c
(i+1)
and g
(i)
=d
(i)
d
(i+1)
for i =j; j +1; : : : ; n. Here, F
a
(i)
; c
(i)
; d
(i)
means that a
(0)
a
(1)
a
(n)
. But, it is not necessary
that {c
(i)
} and {d
(i)
} are nonincreasing.
In this paper, we will dene the following concepts of complement (denoted by

F) of a fuzzy-valued
function F

F; a
(i)
; c
(i)
; d
(i)
=
F; 1a
(ni+1)
; 1d
(ni+1)
; 1c
(ni+1)
for i =1; 2; : : : ; n. The reason for this denition is made clear next.
Proposition 2.6. For every fuzzy-valued function F; we have f-card

F(i) =f-cardF(n i).
Proof.
f-card

F(i) =

F; a
(i)
; c
(i)
; d
(i)


F; 1a
(i+1)
; 1d
(i+1)
; 1c
(i+1)
=
F; 1a
(ni+1)
; 1d
(ni+1)
; 1c
(ni+1)

F; a
(ni)
; c
(ni)
; d
(ni)
= f-card F(n i):
The following result will be useful in the aggregation of fuzzy-valued function. More details on the aggre-
gation of fuzzy sets can be found in Ralescu and Ralescu [4]. First, we dene the maximum of elements
of F
0
.
Denition 2.7. Let F : X F
0
be a fuzzy-valued function. The maximum of fuzzy sets F(x
i
) and F(x
j
), (that
is,
F; a
i
; c
i
; d
i
and
F; a
j
; c
j
; d
j
) is dened by

F; a
i
; c
i
; d
i

F; a
j
; c
j
; d
j
=
F; a
i
a
j
; c
i
c
j
; d
i
d
j
:
3. Non-fuzzy f-cardinality
Let 0661 and let F : X F
0
be a fuzzy-valued function. Then the -level set L

(
F; a; c; d
) of a fuzzy set
{(x;
F; a; c; d
(x)) | x R} is denoted by
L

(
F; a; c; d
) ={x R|
F; a; c; d
(x)}:
In this section, we discuss the concept of non-fuzzy f-cardinality for a fuzzy-valued function.
Denition 3.1. The non-fuzzy f-cardinality of F, denoted by nf-card F is the integer
nf-card

0
F =

0; F =,
[n
f
]; F =,
where 06
0
61, and [n
F
] is the greatest integer less than n
F
and
n
F
=

j + l{L

0
(
F; a
( j)
; c
( j)
; d
( j)
)} if a
(i)
0:5,
(j 1) + l{L

0
(
F; a
(j1)
; c
(j1)
; d
(j1)
)} if a
(i)
0:5.
Here l(B) denotes the length of an interval B.
We note that the length of level sets are well-dened, because they are closed intervals. The following
simple procedure can be used to calculate nf-card F.
484 L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487
Algorithm 3.2. (1) If F =, set nf-card

0
F =0. Stop.
(2) If F =, nd j = max{16s6n | a
(s1)
+ a
(s)
1}.
(3) Calculate a
( j)
. If a
( j)
60:5; set n
F
=j + l{L

0
(
F; a
( j)
; c
( j)
; d
( j)
)}.
If a
( j)
0:5, set n
F
=(j 1) + l{L

0
(
F; a
( j1)
; c
( j1)
; d
( j1)
)}.
(4) Calculate [n
F
]. Set nf-card F =[n
F
]. Stop.
For the next result, we need to introduce an ordering for fuzzy-valued sets on X. We dene F6G by
a
(k)
6b
(k)
and
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
(x)6
G; b
(k)
; f
(k)
; g
(k)
(x (b
(k)
a
(k)
)); for all x R
for k =1; 2; : : : ; n. Using this denition of ordering of fuzzy-valued functions, we can prove the following
proposition, which gives an important property of the non-fuzzy f-cardinality.
Proposition 3.3. Let F and G be a fuzzy-valued functions from X into F
0
. If F6G; then
nf-card

0
F6nf-card

0
G:
Proof. Since F6G; a
(k)
6b
(k)
for k =1; 2; : : : ; n. We put k = max{s | b
(s1)
+ b
(s)
1}. From the proof of
Proposition 5 in [3], we have k6j. If F =, our result becomes trivial. But if F =, we also have G=.
In this case, if a
(k)
0:5, then we have b
( k)
0:5; b
( j)
0:5 and

F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
(x)6
G; b
(k)
; f
(k)
; g
(k)
(x (b
(k)
a
(k)
)); for all x R:
Using this inequality, it follows that
l{L

0
(
F; a
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
)}6l{L

0
(
G; b
(k)
; f
(k)
; g
(k)
)}
and
l{L

0
(
G; b
(k)
; c
(k)
; d
(k)
)}6l{L

0
(
G; b
( j)
; f
( j)
; g
( j)
)}:
Hence, [n
F
]6[n
G
]. If a
(k)
0:5 and b
( j)
0:5, the result becomes trivial. Finally, in the case a
(k)
0:5 and
b
( j)
0:5, the calculations are similar to the case a
(k)
60:5. Therefore, the proof is completed.
We note that if F is a fuzzy set, the above proposition implies Proposition 5 of [3]. Let us consider now
some simple examples.
Example 3.4. Let F be the fuzzy-valued function:
F =

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4

F; 0:9;1:1; 2:4

F; 0:8;1:0; 2:3

F; 0:1;0:9; 1:8

F; 0; 0; 0

where m=5. Then we calculate f-card F as in Section 2 with c

0
=1; d
0
=1 and c
5
=0; d
5
=0. First, we nd
f
i
and g
i
where f
i
=c
i
1 d
i+1
and g
i
=d
i
1 c
i+1
for i =0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5,
f
0
=c
0
1 d
1
=1 (1 2:4) = 1:4 and g
0
=d
0
1 c
1
=1 {1 (1:1)} =2:1:
We obtain f
0
= 1:4; g
0
=2:1 and calculate similarly the other terms. Hence, we have
f-card

0
F =

0 1 2 3 4

F; 0:1;1:4; 2:1

F; 0:2;1:3; 2:4

F; 0:8;0:8; 1:9

F; 0:1;0:9; 1

F; 0; 0; 0

:
In this example, j =2 and a
(2)
0:5. If we put
0
=1, then l{L
1
(
F; 0:8;0:8;1:9
)} =0:32. So, n
F
=2:32 and
hence nf-card
1
F =2. But if
0
=0:5, then we have l{L
0:5
(
F; 0:8;0:8;1:9
)} =1:57 and nf-card
0:5
F =3.
L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487 485
We will now compare these results with Example 1 in [3]. The fuzzy set is
A=

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
0:9 0:8 0:1 0

:
If m=5 and
0
=0:5, we obtain that the cardinality of A is 2: the same answer as in [3]. But if m=5 and

0
=0:5, we obtain that the cardinality of A is 3. Our denition then is a useful tool, because we can deal
with some fuzziness in the degree of membership of a fuzzy set.
4. Fuzzy-valued sigma count
In this section, we discuss the concepts of sigma count for fuzzy-valued functions. Zadeh [7] investigated
the concept of sigma count for fuzzy sets and its applications. We will consider here this concept in the case
of fuzzy-valued functions. Let A be, as usual, a fuzzy set with membership function
A
: X [0; 1]. Then
-count A=
n

k=1

A
(x
k
)
where X ={x
1
; : : : ; x
n
} (see [7], for example). In order to introduce the concept of sigma count for fuzzy-
valued functions, we must dene a new concept addition in F
0
.
Denition 4.1. Let F be a fuzzy-valued function and let
F; a; c; d
;
F; b; e; f
be in F
0
. The we dene the addition
by the formula

F; a; c; d
+
F; b; e; f
=
F; a+b; c+e; d+f
:
Denition 4.2. Let X ={x
1
; : : : ; x
n
} and let F : X F
0
be a fuzzy-valued function. The fuzzy-valued sigma
count of F is
f-count A=
n

k=1

F; a
k
; c
k
; d
k
:
The following proposition is easy to prove:
Proposition 4.3. If F is a fuzzy set; then -count F =f-count F.
From this proposition, we can know that our denition of f-count is a generalization of -count.
Example 4.4. Let F be the following fuzzy-valued function:
F =

x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4

F; 0:9; c
1
; d
1

F; 0:8; c
2
; d
2

F; 0:1; c
3
; d
3

F; 0; c
4
; d
4

where c
1
; c
2
; c
3
R; c
4
=0 and d
1
; d
2
; d
3
R; d
4
=0 and m=5. If we calculate the f-count of F, we obtain
f-count F =
F; 1:8; f; g
where f=

4
k=1
c
k
and g =

4
k=1
d
k
.
486 L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487
5. Non-fuzzy fuzzy-valued sigma count
Let F be a fuzzy-valued function from X ={x
1
; x
2
; : : : ; x
n
} into F
0
. We consider now a concept of a non-
fuzzy f-count of F. Such a concept can be used in the calculation of the possibility distribution and the
aggregation of fuzzy-valued functions (in a manner similar to [2,4]).
Denition 5.1. The non-fuzzy fuzzy-valued sigma count of F, denoted by nf-count F, is dened by
nf-count F =[m
F
]
where m
F
= max{x R|
F; a; c; d
(x) =1} and [m
F
] is the greatest integer less than m
F
.
Since
F; a; c; d
is a fuzzy number, the set {x R|
F; a; c; d
(x) =1} is a closed set in R. So, we obtain that
there is only one real number m
F
. That is, the nf-count is well dened. Using similar methods to those in
[3], the following simple procedure can be used to calculate nf-count F.
Algorithm 5.2. (1) Calculate S =

n
k=1
a
k
.
(2) Calculate m
F
=S + S 1=m.
(3) Calculate nf-count F =[m
F
]. Stop.
Using our denition of ordering of fuzzy-valued function in Section 3 and the denition of F
0
, we obtain
the following proposition which is an important property of the non-fuzzy f-cardinality:
Proposition 5.3. Let F and G be fuzzy-valued functions from X into F
0
. If F6G; then
nf-count F6nf-count G:
Proof. Since F6G, clearly a
k
6b
k
for k =1; 2; : : : ; n. Then we have
m
F
=
n

k=1

a
k
+
1
m
a
k

6
n

k=1

b
k
+
1
m
b
k

=m
G
:
That is,
nf-count F =[m
F
]6[m
G
] =nf-count G:
Let us consider some examples and explain the dierence between n-card and nf-count.
Example 5.4. If m=5 and
F =

x
1
x
2
x
3

F; 0:7; c
1
; d
1

F; 0:5; c
2
; d
2

F; 0:5; c
3
; d
3

;
then m
F
=(0:7 +
1
5
0:7) +(0:5 +
1
5
0:5) +(0:5 +
1
5
0:5) =2:04. We obtain nf-count F =[2:04] =2. This
value is equal to the value of n-card A in Example 2 of [3]. But if m=10, by similar calculations, we have
m
F
=1:87 and hence nf-card F =1. In this case, the two results are dierent. This means that if X is the
set of members of some recreational football team, we take m=5 and if X is the set of members of some
professional football team, we take m=10. In other words, the degree of each membership function for the
professional football team is greater than that for the recreational football team. So, if F is a professional
football team, we consider the cardinality as nf-card F =1 and if F is a recreational team, we consider the
cardinality as nf-count F =2.
L.-C. Jang, D. Ralescu / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 118 (2001) 479487 487
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