Category of small categories Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
Objects are small categories and morphisms are functors. Its products pair objects and arrows componentwise. Its exponential objects are functor categories, as shown by the currying adjunction for small categories.
The currying adjunction for small categories uses the bijection
It sends to the functor , with an arrow inducing the natural transformation whose -component is . Conversely, for , define its uncurried functor by and
Naturality of allows the two factors to be interchanged in the appropriate order, giving functoriality. The constructions are inverse and natural in and . Hence is a left adjoint to on the category of small categories.
The unit sends to the functor and to the transformation . The counit is evaluation : and .