What exactly does f: R->R or f:Z->R mean in discrete math? [closed]

Question

I came across a topic that I'm not too familiar with. It asks for whether a certain function f(x)=1/(x^2-2) defines a function f: R->R and f:Z->R.

What is the question asking for? The topic is discrete mathematics.

Answer 1

The notation f : A → B means "f is a function whose domain is A and whose codomain is B." Intuitively, this means that f takes as input an element of A and produces an output that's an element of B.

In C, for example, this would be like the function prototype

B f(A);

This just says that f takes in an A and returns a B, with the actual way that f performs the transformation not specified.

Hope this helps!