In Category Theory
Every poset (and every preorder) may be considered as a category in which every hom-set has at most one element. More explicitly, let hom(x, y) = {(x, y)} if x ≤ y (and otherwise the empty set) and (y, z)(x, y) = (x, z). Posets are equivalent to one another if and only if they are isomorphic. In a poset, the smallest element, if it exists, is an initial object, and the largest element, if it exists, is a terminal object. Also, every preordered set is equivalent to a poset. Finally, every subcategory of a poset is isomorphism-closed.
A functor from a poset category (a diagram indexed by a poset category) is a commutative diagram.
Read more about this topic: Partially Ordered Set
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