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LATEX SYMBOLS

The Latex symbols are widely used in different subjects over hundreds of categories. For every symbol, which is used either in mathematics or other subjects, a corresponding command is used. This topic will give you a detail idea and explanation of the symbols, and in which way, all the symbols can be used.

With the use of standard text, you can use any symbol. This method not only saves the efforts or time but also gives the convenience to focus more on the content without wasting much time on finding the symbols and then proceeding with the content.

Below is the list of the commands divided into the particular categories. The essential commands used all over are:

  • \ it is called backslash, used as the starting command. The line following it gets printed.
  • {} it is called curly brackets, which is used to group and separate commands from its surroundings and must appear in pairs.
  • \\ terminates a line.
  • \\* it also terminates the line, but disallows the page break.
  • [] it is used to write the optional parameters that can be passed to a command to change its behavior.
  • % the Latex ignores the rest of the line or commands after %.

SYMBOLS List:

The symbol following the \ will be printed. The commands used for the particular symbol and special characters are given below:

symbol input Explanation
# \# A parameter in macro
$ \$ Used to begin and end math mode
& \& Used in alignments
_
/
\_
\ /
Used in math mode for subscripts and also used as an underscore.
It is used for Italic adjustments space.
" \" Makes an umlaut as ἅ.
{
}
\{
\}
Prints a curly left-brace {
Prints a curly right brace}
~ \~ Makes a tilde ᾶ
yy \yy Is used as ẙ
(
)
\(
\)
Starts math mode
Ends math mode
b \b Is a "bar under" as ẕ
bf \bf Switches to bold face type.
\neq It stands for not equal
\equiv Equivalent
» \gg Greater greater than
\leq Less than or equal to
\geq Greater than or equal to
Ͱ \vdash Used in formalization
\parallel Symbol used to indicate parallel
ǀ \mid Used as a mid
« \ll Less than

Other popular commands are also given below in the table:

Symbol Command Symbol Command
\diamond \bowtie
\star \Join
۷ \vee \doteq
۸ \wedge \succ
П \sqcap \prec
ϵ \in \succeq
϶ \ni \preceq
\sqcup \rhd
\propto \lhd
\frown \unrhd
\smile \unlhd
\sqsubset \forall
\squpset \ohm
\squpseteq \exists
\sqsubseteq \all

The miscellaneous symbols used are as follows:

Symbols Commands
à
á
ã
â
ä
ā
ȧ
\grave{a}
\acute{a}
\tilde{a}
\hat{a}
\ddot{a}
\dot{a}
\bar{a}

NEGATION SYMBOLS

The negations are formed by putting either \not before the symbol or \n before the command or word. The table for such commands is given below:

Symbols Commands
ł \nmid
\nsim
\not\approx
\not\parallel
\nparallel
\nless
\nleq
\lneq
\gneq
\ngeq
\ngtr
\neq
\not\equiv
\ncong
\gneqq
\lneqq

ARROW SYMBOLS

There are various arrows used for different purposes. The commands to use these common arrows are listed below:

Arrow Command
\leftarrow
\uparrow
\rightarrow
\downarrow
\leftrightarrow
\swarrow
\updownarrow
\nwarrow
\nearrow
\searrow

2. General Punctuations

Quotes

There are two types of quotes, namely, opening and closing quotes. The two known quotes are 'single quotes' and "double quotes."

The double-quotes are also produced by typing the single quotes twice. The double quote key of the computer keyboard can also be used.

In Latex. The commands can also be used for these quotes.

The command \lq can be used for the left quote and \rq to produce the right quote.

For example, the 'single quotes' will be written as: \lq single quotes \rq.

The "double quotes" will be written as: \lq\lq double quotes \rq\rq.

Dashes

There are various types of dashes used for general purposes. The short dashes are used for hyphens, slightly long dashes and longer dashes used for parenthetical comments. All these dashes are formed using the single small dash. The single dash - produces hyphen in the output, the two dashes -- provides the longer dash ? and the three dashes --- produces the longest dash ? in the output.

For example, the topics discussed on page no. 45--50 of Volume 5--- are the equations.

Spaces

We type lines of different lengths in a paragraph, but in the output, we get lines of equal length, as TEX aligns perfectly these lines to the right and left.

TEX assumes that every period, which is not following an upper case character, ends a line. But in some cases, it does not work. For example, Oranges has a significant content of Vitamin C. For this purpose, \@ is used before the period to produce extra space.

In Latex, you can use much space as it would not reflect in the output or when it compiles. If you put in four spaces, it will only see one at the output. If you put in seven empty lines then also it will be considered as one.

As Latex consider only one space if many are there, but it won't apply any space if there is no space available. For this purpose, you can use \newline command to generate the new line or the command '\,' which produces space at the output.

Accents

We use different types of accents over the letters to type foreign words in English.

The table for the accents is shown below:

Accents Input to generate these accents
ŏ \u O
Õ \H O
Ö \" O
Ò \'O
Ō \=O
\.O
\d O
\v O

The words i and j are special. The \i is used for i, and \j is used to produce j. But \i produces dot-less i as the output ?.


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