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For a uniform quadratic B-spline with interior control points $P_i$, label its $i$th span $[i,i+1]$. A quartic B-spline with interior spline knot sequence ${\tau }_{3i}={\tau }_{3i+1}={\tau }_{3i+2}=i$ represents the identical curve whenTo verify this, raise each quadratic Bézier curve span twice by degree elevation of Bernstein coefficients. The three interior quartic controls are the displayed points. One additional knot insertion at each interior knot supplies the shared endpoint as the mean of its two neighboring controls, recovering all five quartic Bézier curve controls. Thus the knot multiplicity is three, giving $C^1$ joins rather than imposing unwanted extra smoothness.

For distinct increasing knots and $k\ge 2$, the explicit divided difference formula writes an order-$k$ B-spline as a finite sum of truncated power functions of degree $k-1$. It is a piecewise polynomial function and is globally $C^{k-2}$. Below its first knot the order-$k$ divided difference annihilates a degree-$k-1$ polynomial; above its last knot all values vanish. Nonzero first and last pieces give the exact closed support. Order one gives interval indicators instead of continuous splines.

Spline interpolation matches prescribed function values at distinct sites by an element of a finite-dimensional spline space. In a B-spline basis its existence and uniqueness for all data are equivalent to invertibility of the B-spline collocation matrix. Distinct ordered sites satisfying the Schoenberg–Whitney theorem give this condition.

A spline knot sequence is a nondecreasing list of spline knots, including their multiplicities, that specifies the junctions and smoothness constraints of a spline space. An order-$k$ B-spline uses $k+1$ consecutive knot entries. Its support must have positive width, and repeated knots are interpreted by confluent divided differences or their limiting convention.

A spline quasi-interpolant synthesizes a B-spline expansion from local bounded linear functionals, instead of solving a global interpolation system. Suppose each functional is bounded by $c_k\Vert f{\Vert }_{C[t_i,t_{i+k}]}$ and the operator reproduces every spline. On a knot cell $[t_j,t_{j+1}]$, only indices $j+1-k\le i\le j$ contribute. Their supports lie in $[t_{j+1-k},t_{j+k}]$, and subpartition of unity for B-splines proves local operator norm at most $c_k$. Reproduction of degree-$k-1$ polynomials and a local Taylor theorem remainder then give error at most $(1+c_k)(2k-1{)}^k{h}^k\Vert f^{(k)}{\Vert }_{\infty }/k!$, on the basic knot domain with the usual completed boundary basis.

A finite collection of the standard partition-normalized B-splines is nonnegative and has sum at most one on the entire real line. Extend the knot sequence in both directions. The full order-one collection sums to one, and summing the Cox-de Boor recurrence preserves that sum because the two coefficients of each lower-order function add to one. The finite collection is a subset. On the basic knot interval the finite sum equals one, also following from Marsden's identity.

An order-$k$ B-spline is supported on $[t_i,t_{i+k}]$. Below this interval its truncated-power knot data agree with a degree-$k-1$ polynomial, annihilated by the order-$k$ divided difference; above it all data vanish. Therefore its ordinary or mixed Gram matrix has entries zero when $|i-j|\ge k$. The half-bandwidth is $k-1$, and for strictly increasing knots this bound is sharp.

A real rectangular matrix is totally nonnegative if every square minor, with row and column indices in increasing order, is nonnegative. A nonnegative bidiagonal matrix is totally nonnegative, and products of compatible totally nonnegative matrices have the same property by the Cauchy–Binet formula. This controls signs of inverse entries and underlies stability and shape-preserving properties of B-spline collocation. Total nonnegativity permits zero minors; strict total positivity requires every such minor to be positive.

For increasing sites and an ordered nonnegative normalized B-spline basis, the matrix $A_{ij}=N_j(x_i)$ is a totally nonnegative matrix. One way to see the minors' signs is knot insertion. Each inserted knot changes coefficients by $b_j={\alpha }_j{a}_j+(1-{\alpha }_j)a_{j-1}$ with $0\le {\alpha }_j\le 1$, using the standard constant endpoint pieces. This is a nonnegative rectangular bidiagonal map, whose minors are nonnegative. Products preserve that property by the Cauchy–Binet formula. Insert each site to full knot multiplicity; a suitable refined coefficient is then the value $s(x_i)$. Thus collocation is an ordered row submatrix of the refinement map, and has nonnegative minors. The strict support conditions $t_i<x_i<t_{i+k}$ give invertibility by the Schoenberg–Whitney theorem; its inverse has the checkerboard inverse of a totally nonnegative matrix sign pattern.

For integer $r\ge 1$, the truncated power is zero for $x\le t$ and equals $(x-t{)}^r$ for $x>t$. It is globally $C^{r-1}$ and its $r$th derivative has a jump at $t$. Order zero is the step-function convention $1_{\{x>t\}}$. Knot divided differences of these functions produce B-splines.

Let nonnegative partition-normalized B-splines $N_i$ form a basis, with ${\sum }_i{N}_i\le 1$ on the integration interval and $d_i=\int N_i>0$. The row-normalized mixed Gram matrix is $G_{ij}=\int N_i{N}_j/d_i$. The normal equations for the orthogonal projection onto their linear span become $Ga=b$, with $b_i=\int f{N}_i/d_i$ and $\Vert b{\Vert }_{{\ell }^{\infty }}\le \Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$. The subpartition of unity for B-splines gives $\Vert {\sum }_i{a}_i{N}_i{\Vert }_{\infty }\le \Vert a{\Vert }_{{\ell }^{\infty }}$ and proves the bound. The ordinary symmetric Gram matrix omits this essential row normalization. The projection maps continuous functions into the spline space, not onto all continuous functions.

For a linearly independent partition-normalized B-spline basis, equivalence of norms gives a lower coefficient-stability constant. The upper bound follows from the subpartition of unity for B-splines. A knot-independent stability bound can be chosen depending on spline order. This norm comparison transfers matrix estimates to the B-spline interpolation operator norm.

For strictly increasing spline knots, $M_i(t)=k[t_i,\dots ,t_{i+k}](\cdot -t{)}_{+}^{k-1}$ is a nonnegative integral-normalized B-spline. Integrating the truncated power function over its support replaces its spline knot value by $(u-t_i{)}^k/k$. The order-$k$ divided difference of this degree-$k$ polynomial is its leading coefficient $1/k$. Multiplying by the prefactor $k$ in $M_i$ gives integral one. The corresponding partition-normalized B-spline is $N_i=(t_{i+k}-t_i)M_i/k$.