Definition:Distance/Sets/Metric Spaces

Definition
Let $M = \left({A, d}\right)$ be a metric space.

Let $x \in A$.

Let $S, T$ be subsets of $A$.

The distance between $x$ and $S$ is defined and annotated $\displaystyle d \left({x, S}\right) = \inf_{y \mathop \in S} \left({d \left({x, y}\right)}\right)$.

The distance between $S$ and $T$ is defined and annotated $\displaystyle d \left({S, T}\right) = \inf_{\substack{x \mathop \in S \\ y \mathop \in T}} \left({d \left({x, y}\right)}\right)$.

Also denoted as
Some sources write $\operatorname{dist}$ instead of $d$.

Also see

 * Distance from Point to Subset is Continuous Function
 * Definition:Hausdorff Distance