setcollection

Setcollection is a container concept used in software design to describe a collection that aggregates multiple sets. The term is not a standardized data type across languages, but it appears in two related forms: (1) a container that holds multiple inner sets as elements, and (2) a data structure that presents the union of elements from several sets as a single view. Implementations vary, and the exact semantics depend on the library or API.

In practice, a setcollection may be realized as a container of sets (for example, a Set of Set<T> or a List<Set<T>>), or as a specialized structure that exposes a flattened view over all elements. Core operations depend on the chosen representation. Common capabilities include adding or removing an inner set, adding or removing elements within a specific inner set, and querying membership either across the collection or within a particular inner set. Typical optional operations include unionAll (returning the distinct elements that appear in any inner set), intersectionAll (elements common to all inner sets), and flatten (iterating over all distinct elements across inner sets).

Complexity and performance vary with design. Membership tests may require checking multiple inner sets, while flattened views enable faster iteration over all elements but may incur duplication unless deduplicated. Memory usage reflects both the outer container and the inner sets.

Use cases include organizing related data into groups, representing multi-criteria filter results, or modeling relationships where each inner set corresponds to a category or constraint. Because setcollection is a generic, library-dependent concept, exact behavior and naming can differ between languages and frameworks. See also Set, Collection, Union, and Intersection.