The tuple langle{underline P}X,{overline P}X
angle composed of the lower and upper approximation is called a rough set; thus, a rough set is composed of two crisp sets, one representing a lower boundary of the target set X, and the other representing an upper boundary of the target set X.
The accuracy of the rough-set representation of the set X can be given (Pawlak 1991) by the following:
alpha_{P}(X) = frac{left | {underline P}X
ight |} {left | {overline P}X
ight |}
That is, the accuracy of the rough set representation of X, alpha_{P}(X), 0 leq alpha_{P}(X) leq 1, is the ratio of the number of objects which can positively be placed in X to the number of objects that can possibly be placed in X – this provides a measure of how closely the rough set is approximating the target set. Clearly, when the upper and lower approximations are equal (i.e., boundary region empty), then alpha_{P}(X) = 1, and the approximation is perfect; at the other extreme, whenever the lower approximation is empty, the accuracy is zero (regardless of the size of the upper approximation)