In my book, it proves that an infinite subset of a coutnable set is countable. But not all the details are filled in, and I've tried to fill in all the details below. Could someone tell me if what I wrote below is valid?
Let $S$ be an infinite subset of a countable set $T$. Since $T$ is countable, there exists a bijection $f: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow T$. And $S \subseteq T = \{ f(n) \ | \ n \in \mathbb{N} \}$. Let $n_{1}$ be the smallest positive integer such that $f(n_{1}) \in S$. And continue where $n_{k}$ is the smallest positive integer greater than $n_{k-1}$ such that $f(n_{k}) \in S$. And because $S$ is infinite, we continue forever. Now consider the function $\beta : \mathbb{N} \rightarrow S$ which sends $k \rightarrow f(n_{k})$.
So in order for $S$ to be countable, $\beta$ would have to be a bijection. $\beta$ is injective since if $f(n_{k}) = f(n_{j})$, then $n_{k} = n_{j}$ because $f$ is injective. We also can conclude $k = j$ because the various $n_{i}$ chosen were strictly increasing.
Edit: $\beta$ also needs to be surjective. So for every $r \in S$ there exists a $q \in \mathbb{N}$ such that $\beta(q) = f(n_{q}) = r$. We know that $f^{-1}(r) \in \{n_{1}, n_{2}, ..., n_{k} ... \}$, so we can let $f^{-1}(r) = n_{d}$. Thus $\beta(d) = f(n_{d}) = r$.