Definition
Standard definition
Definition 1. [2]  Let 
 be an open set in  the Euclidean space 
 and 
 be a Lebesgue measurable function. If 
 on 
 is such that

i.e. its Lebesgue integral is finite on all compact subsets 
 of 
, [3]  then 
  is called locally integrable. The set of all such functions is denoted by 
:

where 
 denotes the restriction of 
  to the set 
.
An alternative definition
Definition 2. [4]  Let 
 be an open set in the Euclidean space 
. Then a function 
 such that

for each test function 
 is called locally integrable, and the set of such functions is denoted  by 
. Here, 
 denotes the set of all infinitely differentiable functions 
 with compact support contained in 
.
This definition has its roots in the approach to measure and integration theory based on the concept of a continuous linear functional on a topological vector space, developed by the Nicolas Bourbaki school. [5]  It is also the one adopted by Strichartz (2003) and by Maz'ya & Shaposhnikova (2009 , p. 34). [6]  This "distribution theoretic" definition is equivalent to the standard one, as the following lemma proves:
Lemma 1. A given function 
 is locally integrable according to  Definition 1  if and only if it is locally integrable according to  Definition 2 , i.e.,

Proof of Lemma 1 
If part:  Let 
 be a test function. It is bounded by its supremum norm 
, measurable, and has a compact support, let's call it 
. Hence,

by  Definition 1 .
Only if part: Let 
 be a compact subset of the open set 
. We will first construct a test function 
 which majorises the indicator function 
 of 
. The usual set distance  [7]  between 
 and the boundary 
 is strictly greater than zero, i.e.,

hence it is possible to choose a real number 
 such that 
 (if 
 is the empty set, take 
). Let 
 and 
 denote the closed 
-neighborhood and 
-neighborhood of 
, respectively.  They are likewise compact and satisfy

Now use convolution to define the function 
 by

where 
 is a mollifier constructed by using the standard positive symmetric one. Obviously 
 is non-negative in the sense that 
, infinitely differentiable, and its support is contained in 
. In particular, it is a test function. Since 
 for all 
, we have that 
.
Let 
 be a locally integrable function according to  Definition 2 . Then

Since this holds for every compact subset 
 of 
, the function 
  is locally integrable according to  Definition 1 . □
General definition of local integrability on a generalized measure space
The classical  Definition 1  of a locally integrable function involves only measure theoretic and topological  [8]  concepts and thus can be carried over abstract to complex-valued functions on a topological measure space 
. [9]  Nevertheless, the concept of a locally integrable function can be defined even on a generalised measure space 
, where 
 is no longer required to be a sigma-algebra but only a ring of sets and, notably, 
 does not need to carry the structure of a topological space.
Definition 1A. [10]  Let 
 be an ordered triple where 
 is a nonempty set, 
 is a ring of sets, and 
 is a positive measure on 
. Moreover, let 
 be a function from 
 to a Banach space 
 or to the extended real number line 
. Then 
 is said to be locally integrable with respect to
 if for every set 
, the function 
 is integrable with respect to 
.
The equivalence of  Definition 1  and  Definition 1A  when 
 is a topological space can be proven by constructing a ring of sets 
 from the set 
 of compact subsets of 
 by the following steps. 
- It is evident that 
 and, moreover, the operations of union 
 and intersection 
 make 
 a lattice with least upper bound 
  and greatest lower bound 
. [11] . - The class of sets 
 defined as 
 is a semiring of sets  [11]  such that 
 because of the condition 
. - The class of sets 
 defined as 
, i.e., the class formed by finite unions of pairwise disjoint sets of 
, is a ring of sets, precisely the minimal one generated by 
. [12]  
By means of this abstract framework, Dinculeanu (1966 , pp. 163–188) lists and proves several properties of locally integrable functions. Nevertheless, even if working in this more general framework is possible, since the most commonly seen applications of such functions are to distribution theory on Euclidean spaces, [2]  all the definitions and properties presented in the following sections deal explicitly only with this latter important case.
Generalization: locally p-integrable functions
Definition 3. [13]  Let 
 be an open set in the Euclidean space 
 and  
 be a Lebesgue measurable function. If, for a given 
 with 
, 
 satisfies

i.e., it belongs to 
 for all compact subsets 
 of 
, then 
 is called locally
-integrable or also 
-locally integrable. [13]  The set of all such functions is denoted by 
:

An alternative definition, completely analogous to the one given for locally integrable functions, can also be given for locally 
-integrable functions: it can also be and proven equivalent to the one in this section. [14]  Despite their apparent higher generality, locally 
-integrable functions form a subset of locally integrable functions for every 
 such that  
. [15] 
Notation
Apart from the different glyphs which may be used for the uppercase "L", [16]  there are few variants for the notation of the set of locally integrable functions
 adopted by ( Hörmander 1990 , p. 37), ( Strichartz 2003 , pp. 12–13) and ( Vladimirov 2002 , p. 3).
 adopted by ( Maz'ya & Poborchi 1997 , p. 4) and Maz'ya & Shaposhnikova (2009 , p. 44).
 adopted by ( Maz'ja 1985 , p. 6) and ( Maz'ya 2011 , p. 2).
Properties
Lp,loc is a complete metric space for all p ≥ 1
Theorem 1. [17] 
 is a complete metrizable space: its topology can be generated by the following metric:

where  
 is a family of non empty open sets such that
, meaning that 
is compactly contained in
 i.e. each of them is a set whose closure is compact and strictly included in the set of higher index. [18] 
 and finally
, 
 is an indexed family of seminorms, defined as

In ( Gilbarg & Trudinger 2001 , p. 147), ( Maz'ya & Poborchi 1997 , p. 5), ( Maz'ja 1985 , p. 6) and ( Maz'ya 2011 , p. 2), this theorem is stated but not proved on a formal basis: [19]  a complete proof of a more general result, which includes it, can be found in ( Meise & Vogt 1997 , p. 40).
Lp is a subspace of L1,loc for all p ≥ 1
Theorem 2. Every function 
 belonging to 
, 
, where 
 is an open subset of 
, is locally integrable.
Proof. The case 
 is trivial, therefore in the sequel of the proof it is assumed that 
. Consider the characteristic function 
 of a compact subset 
 of 
: then, for 
,

where
 is a positive number such that 
 for a given 
,
 is the Lebesgue measure of the compact set 
.
Then for any 
 belonging to 
 the product by 
 is integrable by Hölder's inequality i.e. belongs to 
 and

therefore

Note that since the following inequality is true

the theorem is true also for functions 
 belonging only to the space of locally 
-integrable functions, therefore the theorem implies also the following result.
Corollary 1. Every function 
 in 
, 
, is locally integrable, i. e. belongs to 
.
Note: If 
 is an open subset of 
 that is also bounded, then one has the standard inclusion 
 which makes sense given the above inclusion 
. But the first of these statements is not true if 
 is not bounded; then it is still true that 
 for any 
, but not that 
. To see this, one typically considers the function 
, which is in 
 but not in 
 for any finite 
.
L1,loc is the space of densities of absolutely continuous measures
Theorem 3. A function 
 is the density of an absolutely continuous measure if and only if 
.
The proof of this result is sketched by ( Schwartz 1998 , p. 18). Rephrasing its statement, this theorem asserts that every locally integrable function defines an absolutely continuous measure and conversely that every absolutely continuous measures defines a locally integrable function: this is also, in the abstract measure theory framework, the form of the important Radon–Nikodym theorem given by Stanisław Saks in his treatise. [20]