Introduction
The complex curve integral is the function-theoretic generalization of the integral from real analysis. Instead of an interval,rectifiable curve serves as the integration domain. The integral is taken over complex-valued functions instead of real-valued functions.
Definition - Rectifiable Curve
Let
be a rectifiable curve,
a mapping.
is said to be integrable over
if there exists a complex number
such that for every
, there exists a
such that for every partition
of the interval
with
for all
, we have

The complex number
is called the integral of
over
and is denoted by
designated.
Connection to real integration
If
is even piecewise differentiable, then the curve integral can be reduced to an integral over the parameter domain using the Mean Value Theorem, and we have in this case

where a complex-valued function is integrated over a real interval, with the real and imaginary parts calculated separately.
Example 2
We modify our first example slightly and consider the curve
,
, and the function
for
. Since the curve is differentiable, we have

Representation of the integral
Both examples together give us

where

This fact plays an important role in the definition of the Residue and the proof of the Complex Analysis/Residue Theorem
Properties
Independence of parameterization
Let
be a piecewise
-path,
a
-diffeomorphism that preserves orientation. Then
is a piecewise
-path and we have

i.e. the value of the integral is independent of the chosen parameterization of the path.
Proof
It is

Linearity
Since the integral is defined over linear combinations of
, it is itself linear in the integrand, i.e. we have

for rectifiable
,
and integrable
.
Orientation reversal
Let
be a rectifiable path, and let
be the reversed path defined by
. Then for integrable 

Proof
It is

Approximation by polygonal chains
The presented version of the integration path seems very general, but most integration paths that occur in practice are piecewise continuously differentiable. Since it is easier to work with piecewise continuously differentiable paths, we want to show in the following how an arbitrary integration path for continuous integrands can be approximated by polygonal chains. This can be used to transfer statements about general rectifiable paths to polygonal chains.
Statement
Let
be a region,
a rectifiable path,
continuous, and
. Then there exists a polygonal chain
with
,
and
.
Proof
First of all let
be a disk. Since
is compact, there exists a
with
. On
,
is uniformly continuous, so we can choose a
such that
for
with
holds.
Step 5 - Inequality

This implies the claim.
Step 6 - Generalization
If
is not a disk, we cover
with finitely many disks that are a subset of
and apply the above construction to each sub-path. This implies the claim in the general case.