A completely multiplicative function (or totally multiplicative function) is an arithmetic function (that is, a function whose domain is the natural numbers), such that f(1) = 1 and f(ab) = f(a) f(b) holds for all positive integers a and b.
Without the requirement that f(1) = 1, one could still have f(1) = 0, but then f(a) = 0 for all positive integers a, so this is not a very strong restriction.
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