Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2009
Throughout this paper all rings are assumed commutative with identity. Among integral domains, Dedekind domains are characterized by the property that every ideal is a product of prime ideals. For a history and proof of this result the reader is referred to Cohen [2, pp. 31–32]. More generally, Mori [5] has shown that a ring has the property that every ideal is a product of prime ideals if and only if it is a finite direct product of Dedekind domains and special principal ideal rings (SPIRS). Rings with this property are called general Z.P.I.-rings.