Integer If the domain is restricted to then each and every member of has one and only one corresponding member of N and by the definition of cardinal equality the two sets have equal cardinality. Integer An integer (from the Latin "integer" meaning "whole") is a number that can be written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, 0, and −2048 are integers, while 9.75, , and are not. The set of integers consists of zero (), the positive natural numbers (, , , …), also called "whole numbers" or "counting numbers", and their additive inverses (the negative integers, i.e.,
Integer sorting which runs in time ; this is an improvement over comparison sorting for any choice of and . An alternative version of their algorithm that includes the use of random numbers and integer division operations improves this to . Since their work, even better algorithms have been developed. For instance, by repeatedly applying the Kirkpatrick–Reisch range reduction technique until the keys are small enough to apply the Albers–Hagerup packed sorting algorithm, it is possible to sort in time ; however, the range reduction part of this algorithm requires either a large memory (proportional to ) or randomization in the form