Andrijević (1986) introduced the class of semi-preopen sets in topological spaces. Since then many authors including Andrijević have studied this class of sets by defining their neighborhoods, separation axioms and functions. The purpose of this paper is to provide the new characterizations of semi-preopen and semi-preclosed sets by defining the concepts of semi-precontinuous mappings, semi-preopen mappings, semi-preclosed mappings, semi-preirresolute mappings, pre-semipreopen mappings, and pre-semi-preclosed mappings and study their characterizations in topological spaces. Recently, Dontchev (1995) has defined the concepts of generalized semi-preclosed (gsp-closed) sets and generalized semi-preopen (gsp-open) sets in topology. More recently, Cueva (2000) has defined the concepts like approximately irresolute, approximately semi-closed, contra-irresolute, contra-semiclosed, and perfectly contra-irresolute mappings using semi-generalized closed (sg-closed) sets and semi-generalized open (sg-open) sets due to Bhattacharyya and Lahiri (1987) in topology. In this paper for gsp-closed (resp., gsp-open) sets, we also introduce and study the concepts of approximately semi-preirresolute (ap-sp-irresolute) mappings, approximately semi-preclosed (ap-semi-preclosed) mappings. Also, we introduce the notions like contra-semi-preirresolute, contra-semi-preclosed, and perfectly contra-semipreirresolute mappings to study the characterizations of semi-pre-T 1/2 spaces defined by Dontchev (1995 [6,9] (resp., pre [12], α [16,18])-closed subsets of X. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of semi-precontinuous mappings, semi-preopen mappings, semi-preclosed mappings, semi-preirresolute mappings, pre-semipreopen mappings, and pre-semi-preclosed mappings and study their characterizations in topological spaces using the semi-preopen sets and semi-preclosed sets due to D. Andrijevic [3] (note that β-open sets in [1] are the same as the semi-preopen sets of D. Andrijevic [3]). Recently, in [11], Julian Dontchev has defined the concepts of generalized semi-preclosed (gsp-closed) sets and generalized semi-preopen (gsp-open) sets in topology. In this paper, using these sets, we also introduce and study the concepts of approximately semi-preirresolute mappings, and approximately semi-preclosed