RANKING mTzZY SUBSETS ClVER THE UNIT INTEEVAL
Ronald A,. Pager
IOMColllege
New Rochelle, New York
Abstract
W e are i n t e r e s t e d in i n v e s t i g a t i n g t h e
q u e s t i o n of ranking fuzzy subsets in t h e
u n i ti n t e r v a l . W e p r e s e n t some initial i d e a s
andconceptstoward a s o l u t i o n of t h i s problem.
1. Introduction
In applying fuzzy set theory in d e c i s i o n
making and o t h e r a p p l i c a t i o n s o n e is o f t e n
faced with the problem of choosing between
fuzzysubsetsover the u n i t interval. This
choice i s based upon t h e s e l e c t i o n of one
fuzzy number as being larger than a second.
This problem has arisen in a number of ap-
p l i c a t i o n s of fuzzy set t h e o r y t o multi-
o b j e c t i v ed e c i s i o n making [l, 2, 31. In
this paper w i l l s h a l l p r e s e n t some i d e a s
and thoughts on the solution of t h i s problem.
2. The Problem of Ranking Fuzzy
Numbers
Assume E is a s u b s e t of t h e unit in-
terval, I. A fuzzysubset, A of E, is a map-
ping
A:E - 7I
such that A(x)=a f o r x ( E and ae1. A is a
s p e c i a lf u z z y number. L e t u s c a l l a fuzzy
s u b s e t of t h i s t y p e a regular fuzzy number.
As suggested by Zadeh 141 these types
numbers can be used to represent grades of
membership offuzzy sets of type 11. They
a l s o appear as v a l u e s f o r l i n g u i s t i c t r u t h
v a r i a b l e s [5]. They alsoappear when using
fuzzy set theory in multi-objective decision
making 11, 2 , 31.
I f A and B are two regular fuzzy num-
b e r s o v e r t h e set E, a q u e s t i o n which natur-
a l l y arises in many a p p l i c a t i o n s i n v o l v e s t h e
s e l e c t i o n of one of t h e s e numbers as being
l a r g e r or higher than the other. We are n o t
i n t e r e s t e d h e r e in t h e q u e s t i o n of contain-
ment b u t in t h e q u e s t i o n o f l a r g e r in t h e
a r i t h m a t i c sense. That is, which is l a r g e r
based on the scale of the underlying set E.
10801
I n this paper we s h a l l c o n j e c t u r e a pro-
cedure which maps t h e s e regular fuzzy numbers
i n t o real numbers in such a manner t h a t t h e
r e s u l t i n g numbers g i v e us a meaningful manner
f o r o r d e r i n g t h e o r i g i n a l regular fuzzy nun-
bers.
Def Assume H is t h e class of r e g u l a r
f u z z y Y G e r s o v e r ECI. A r a g f u n c t i o n
F is defined as a mapping
F:H R(reals)
such that i f A, B, t H andF(A)=a and
F (B) =b then
a > b implies A > B and
a=b implies A=B.
That is, this ranking function implies
t h a t i f F(A) >F(B) then the fuzzy number A
is g r e a t e r in the numeric sense t h a n t h e
fuzzy number B. The higher A t h e
l a r g e r F (A).
I n c o n s t r u c t i n g s u c h a f u n c t i o n we must
do t h i s in such a manner as t o r e f l e c t o u r
o b j e c t of making t h i s f u n c t i o n measure t h e
numeric s i z e of thefuzzy numbers. One obvious
property which our function should have is
t h a t i f A and B are two non-fuzzy u m b e r s in
E represented as fuzzy numbers t h a n i f A > B
on t h e number s c a l e t h a n F(A) F(B) > .
In considering the construction of such
a f u n c t i o n we can makesome observations.
W
e f i r s t n o t e that t h e r e exists on I
of a n a t u r a lo r d e r i n g of theelements.This is
theusual arithmatic ordering. It i s t h i s
n a t u r a l o r d e r i n g we are t r y i n g t o e x t e n d t o
regularfuzzy numbers. Further we n o t e ,t h a t
i f A i s a fuzzy subset of E , t h e n f o r any
x e E, A(x) d e n o t e s t h e s t r e n g t h w i t h which
x is contained in A. The higher A(x) t h e
s t r o n g e rt h e membership of x i n A. Thus i f
A and B are two regular fuzzy numbers then a l l
else being equal i f A has s t r o n g e r or higher
membership g r a d e s f o r t h e h i g h e r v a l u e s of E
then B y A should be a higher fuzzy number than
B. Dually, all else b e i n ge q u a li f A has
weaker membership grades in t h e lower numbers
of E than B, A again should be a larger fuzzy
number.
 Thus what we have are two natural order- Def The ranking function F2 is defined
i n g s , oneon the grades ofmembership and t h e as f o l l a r s :
o t h e r on the underlying set I. Furthermore, (1) E is f i n i t e
we observe that strong grades of membership5
of I tend t o make a fuzzy number
v e r s l y , in t h e h i g h e r members of L&-w
grades in the lover -eraweak grades in
the higher numbers and s t r o n g membership c
in the lover numbers tend t o make A a smaller (2) E is continuous
fuzzy number. F i n a l l y , we observe that
medium grades ofmembership should tend to
make A n e i t h e r s m a l l n o r l a r g e .
Using t h i s approach onevmay n o t n e c e s s a r i l y
3.
Approaches to
Ordering want t o assume t h a t t h e 1's are linear, t h a t is

The f i r s t and simplest approach is t o

select the ranking function F1 t o map i n t o t h e
value of I which has t h e l a r g e s t g r a d e of mem-
bership. where g(x) would beameasure of how each value
x is considered. Forexample
Def Assume H is t h e class of regular
fuzzyTGnbersover ECI. The r a g function
Sl,
~ 3 ( ~ ) p X*AclciRx
F1 is defined as
F1 (A)% s.t. A(x)= Max A(x). A third approach
-Tniim-
is t o u s e p o s s i b i l i t y t h e o r y
x CE
It a p p e a r s t h i s f u n c t i o n has two d i f f i c u l -
ties. The f i r s t being that it doesn'tuse all
t h ed a t av e r ye f f i c i e n t l y . The second is t h a t This measures the consistency ofA(x) with
t h e r e is a problem when A is not convex. I f thelinearfuzzy set.
A is convexand has multiple optimals then
they must be adjacent in E. Therefore, we can 4.Conclusion
consider two A ' s as e q u a l i f t h e y haveany
optimals in C O ~ P O ~ .A t h i r d problem is t h a t W e have just s t a r t e d i n v e s t i g a t i n g t h e
t h i s approach doesn't reflect any information question of ordering fuzzy subsets of t h e u n i t
a b o u t t h e s t r e n g t h ofmembership. interval. W e f e e lt h a tp e r h a p st h e most f r u i t -
f u l approach is t o s t i p u l a t e a - p r i o r i c e r t a i n
A second approach involves the idea that p r o p e r t i e s which we f e e l a good ranking function
the ranking of A s h o u l d b e r e l a t e d t o its s h o u l ds a t i s f y . Then t r yt od e v e l o pf u n c t i o n s
r e a l i z a t i o n in terms of the selection of some which s a t i s f y t h e s e c o n d i t i o n s .
element.Forexample, i f A is thefuzzysubset
lw defined over I t h e n i f we perform an experi-
o References
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