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Set $h_n=2^{-n}$ and $t_n=h_n\lceil t/h_n\rceil$. Replace the last sampled value $X_{t_n}$ by $X_t$, and call the resulting absolute-increment sum $W_n(t)$. This is a sum over a genuine partition of an interval of $[0,t]$, andby right continuity. This is the dyadic approximation of total variation. Let $V(t)$ be the total variation of a function $X$ on $[0,t]$, allowing $+\infty$. Every $W_n(t)$ is at most $V(t)$. Conversely, take any finite partition of an interval of $[0,t]$. Approximate its interior points from the right by dyadic grid points, retaining the endpoint $t$. For large $n$ these approximating points remain distinct, and right continuity makes their absolute-increment sum converge to that of the original partition. The triangle inequality makes $W_n(t)$ at least this selected sum. Taking the supremum over all partitions provesThe limit is the total-variation function; for locally finite variation it is the total-variation process.

There is a missing hypothesis in the assertion about being càdlàg. A general càdlàg function can have infinite total variation of a function arbitrarily close to zero. For example,is continuous. At the successive points $s_j=(\pi /2+j\pi {)}^{-1}$ its values alternate in sign with magnitude $s_j$. The variation along these points dominates a divergent harmonic series. Thus $V(t)=\infty$ for every $t>0$, but $V(0)=0$, so even extended-valued right continuity fails at zero.

The correct càdlàg conclusion holds when $X$ has finite variation on every compact interval. Indeed $V$ is then finite and nondecreasing, so it has finite left limits. To prove right continuity at $t$, fix $s>t$ and choose a partition of $[t,s]$ whose sum is within $\epsilon$ of its variation. If $u>t$ lies before the first interior partition point, changing the first endpoint from $t$ to $u$ changes that sum by at most $|X_u-X_t|$. Additivity of total variation of a function therefore givesLet $u\downarrow t$ and then $\epsilon \downarrow 0$. This proves right continuity. This proves càdlàg regularity of finite total variation. Under that qualification, the jump formula isIf the variation is infinite, a difference of two infinite variation values is not a defined jump.