The study of counting, arrangement, and selection of discrete structures.

permutations count ordered arrangements; combinations count unordered selections

pigeonhole principle:: if n items are placed in m containers with n > m, at least one container holds more than one item

generating functions encode sequences as coefficients of formal power series

Ramsey theory:: sufficiently large structures inevitably contain ordered substructures

graph enumeration counts distinct graphs and connects to graph theory

binomial coefficients and Pascal's triangle arise in probability and algebra

inclusion-exclusion principle computes sizes of unions via alternating sums of intersections

Related:: number theory, set theory, logic, information theory, game theory

Dimensions

combinatorics

Local Graph