The Rosenberg-Strong Pairing Function

Abstract

This article surveys the known results (and not very well-known results) associated with Cantor's pairing function and the Rosenberg-Strong pairing function, including their inverses, their generalizations to higher dimensions, and a discussion of a few of the advantages of the Rosenberg-Strong pairing function over Cantor's pairing function in practical applications. In particular, an application to the problem of enumerating full binary trees is discussed.