View source for Special case

==English==
{{wikipedia|lang=en}}

===Noun===
{{en-noun}}

# A specialized instance of a more general phenomenon, category, etc.
#: {{ant|en|generalization}}
#* {{seeCites|en}}
## A class of [[phenomenon|phenomena]] that is a subset of a more general class.
##: {{cot|en|species}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=2013|author=Luc J. Wintgens|title=The Law in Philosophical Perspectives: My Philosophy of Law|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9789401593175|page=42
|passage=Habermas, ''e.g.'', put forward that the legal discourse should not be understood as  a '''special case''' of the ''moral'' discourse because in law next to moral reasons there  are also ethical and pragmatic reasons to play a legitimate part (J. Habermas, ''Between Facts and Norms'', 230 ff.).}}
## A [[theorem]] or other [[statement]] that follows directly from a more general statement.
##* {{quote-book|en|year=2008|author=Andrei D. Polyanin; Alexander V. Manzhirov|title=Handbook of Integral Equations: Second Edition|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780203881057|page=356
|passage=This is a '''special case''' of equation 4.9.10 with <math> h(x) = K_v(\beta x)</math>.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=2005|author=James Robert Brown|title=Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introduction to a World of Proofs and Pictures|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134806430|page=33
|passage=Clearly, the Pythagorean theorem is a '''special case''' of the more general theorem, arrived at by letting r = 1.}}

====Related terms====
{{col4|en
|specific
|specificity
|specify
}}

====Translations====
{{trans-top|class of [[phenomenon|phenomena]] that is a subset of a more general class}}
* Danish: {{t|da|særtilfælde|n}}
* Finnish: {{t|fi|erikoistapaus}}, {{t|fi|erityistapaus}}
* French: {{t+|fr|cas particulier|m}}
* Swedish: {{t+|sv|specialfall|n}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-top|[[theorem]] or other [[statement]] that follows directly from a more general truth}}
* Danish: {{t|da|særtilfælde|n}}
* Finnish: {{t|fi|erikoistapaus}}, {{t|fi|erityistapaus}}
* Swedish: {{t+|sv|specialfall|n}}
{{trans-bottom}}

===Verb===
{{en-verb}}

# {{lb|en|ambitransitive|mostly|programming}} To treat something as a special case; to handle in an explicitly different way.
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1988|author=Jon Louis Bentley|title=More Programming Pearls: Confessions of a Coder|page=10
|passage='''Special-casing''' the 100 most common words in English might speed things up.}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1992|author=Scott Knaster; Keith Rollin|title=Macintosh Programming Secrets|page=46
|passage=If these programs work as well as they can even without going through QuickDraw, what's the penalty for going around the system and '''special casing'''?}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=2009|author=Peter Seibel|title=Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming|page=258
|passage=Other languages have since '''special-cased''' that kind of computation with, for example, generators in Python or something where you can yield values.}}

====Alternative forms====
* {{l|en|special-case}}