Commutative diagram in the context of Equations

Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the mid-20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory is used in most areas of mathematics. In particular, many constructions of new mathematical objects from previous ones that appear similarly in several contexts are conveniently expressed and unified in terms of categories. Examples include quotient spaces, direct products, completion, and duality.

Many areas of computer science also rely on category theory, such as functional programming and semantics.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, given a morphism f: X → Y and a morphism g: Z → Y, a lift or lifting of f to Z is a morphism h: X → Z such that f = g ∘ h. We say that f factors through h.

Lifts are ubiquitous; for example, the definition of fibrations (see Homotopy lifting property) and the valuative criteria of separated and proper maps of schemes are formulated in terms of existence and (in the last case) uniqueness of certain lifts.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a pushout (also called a fibered coproduct or fibered sum or cocartesian square or amalgamated sum) is the colimit of a diagram consisting of two morphisms f : Z → X and g : Z → Y with a common domain. The pushout consists of an object P along with two morphisms X → P and Y → P that complete a commutative square with the two given morphisms f and g. In fact, the defining universal property of the pushout (given below) essentially says that the pushout is the "most general" way to complete this commutative square. Common notations for the pushout are ${\displaystyle P=X\sqcup _{Z}Y}$ and ${\displaystyle P=X+_{Z}Y}$.

The pushout is the categorical dual of the pullback.

In mathematics, especially homological algebra and other applications of abelian category theory, the five lemma is an important and widely used lemma about commutative diagrams.The five lemma is valid for all abelian categories, as well as the category of groups.

The five lemma can be thought of as a combination of two other theorems, the four lemmas, which are dual to each other.