Combinatorics – Number of Bijective Functions from A to A

combinatoricsdiscrete mathematicsfunctionspermutations

Find the number of all bijective functions from A to A. Given set A
has n elements

First number of one-to-one functions from A to A is n! as first element has choice of n elements, but second element has only n-1 since by definition of one-to-one it can't go to the first element choice…..
Now with onto functions I am stuck how to do .

I notice this question has been answered previously by induction, I just think a counting proof would be more helpful for me to learn. Also I am unable to follow that argument there.
Correctness of a proof by induction of number of bijective functions between finite sets

Best Answer

A function $f : A \to A$ for a finite set $A$ is injective if and only if surjective if and only if bijective. You should make sure that you can prove this, and you should understand the pigeonhole principle before you do.

Hence, there are $n!$ bijective functions.

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