A limit at a point for a f:D→Rf:D\to\mathbb R (with D⊆RD\subseteq\mathbb R) at a point a∈Ra\in\mathbb R is a number L∈RL\in\mathbb R such that: for every ε>0\varepsilon>0 there exists δ>0\delta>0 with the property that whenever x∈Dx\in D and 0<∣x−a∣<δ0<|x-a|<\delta, one has ∣f(x)−L∣<ε|f(x)-L|<\varepsilon. Typically one assumes that aa is a of DD.

The inequalities use the to measure distance on the real line. One-sided variants are captured by the .

Examples
  • If f(x)=x2f(x)=x^2, then lim⁡x→2f(x)=4\lim_{x\to 2} f(x)=4.
  • If g(x)={1,x>0−1,x<0g(x)=\begin{cases}1,&x>0\\-1,&x<0\end{cases} on D=R∖{0}D=\mathbb R\setminus\{0\}, then lim⁡x→0g(x)\lim_{x\to 0} g(x) does not exist.