Parentheses and brackets are very common in mathematical formulas. You can easily control the size and style of brackets in LaTeX; this article explains how.
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Here's how to type some common math braces and parentheses in LaTeX:
Type | LaTeX markup | Renders as |
---|---|---|
Parentheses; round brackets | (x+y)
|
\((x+y)\) |
Brackets; square brackets | [x+y]
|
\([x+y]\) |
Braces; curly brackets | \{ x+y \}
|
\(\{ x+y \}\) |
Angle brackets | \langle x+y \rangle
|
\(\langle x+y\rangle\) |
Pipes; vertical bars | |x+y|
|
\(\displaystyle| x+y |\) |
Double pipes | \|x+y\|
|
\(\| x+y \|\) |
The size of brackets and parentheses can be manually set, or they can be resized dynamically in your document, as shown in the next example:
\[ F = G \left( \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2} \right) \]
Notice that to insert the parentheses or brackets, the \left
and \right
commands are used. Even if you are using only one bracket, both commands are mandatory. \left
and \right
can dynamically adjust the size, as shown by the next example:
\[ \left[ \frac{ N } { \left( \frac{L}{p} \right) - (m+n) } \right] \]
When writing multi-line equations with the align
, align*
or aligned
environments, the \left
and \right
commands must be balanced on each line and on the same side of &
. Therefore the following code snippet will fail with errors:
\[ y = 1 + & \left( \frac{1}{x} + \frac{1}{x^2} + \frac{1}{x^3} + \ldots \\ & \quad + \frac{1}{x^{n-1}} + \frac{1}{x^n} \right) \]
The solution is to use "invisible" brackets to balance things out, i.e. adding a \right.
at the end of the first line, and a \left.
at the start of the second line after &
:
\[ y = 1 + & \left( \frac{1}{x} + \frac{1}{x^2} + \frac{1}{x^3} + \ldots \right. \\ & \quad \left. + \frac{1}{x^{n-1}} + \frac{1}{x^n} \right) \]
The size of the brackets can be controlled explicitly
The commands \Bigg
and \bigg
stablish the size of the delimiters <
and >
respectively. For a complete list of parentheses and sizes see the reference guide.
LaTeX markup | Renders as |
---|---|
\big( \Big( \bigg( \Bigg(
|
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\big] \Big] \bigg] \Bigg]
|
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\big\{ \Big\{ \bigg\{ \Bigg\{
|
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\big \langle \Big \langle \bigg \langle \Bigg \langle
|
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\big \rangle \Big \rangle \bigg \rangle \Bigg \rangle
|
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\big| \Big| \bigg| \Bigg|
|
\(\displaystyle\big| \; \Big| \; \bigg| \; \Bigg|\) |
\big\| \Big\| \bigg\| \Bigg\|
|
\(\displaystyle\big\| \; \Big\| \; \bigg\| \; \Bigg\|\) |
\big \lceil \Big \lceil \bigg \lceil \Bigg \lceil
|
\(\displaystyle\big \lceil \Big \lceil \bigg \lceil \Bigg \lceil\) |
\big \rceil \Big \rceil \bigg \rceil \Bigg \rceil
|
\(\displaystyle\big \rceil \Big \rceil \bigg \rceil \Bigg \rceil\) |
\big \lfloor \Big \lfloor \bigg \lfloor \Bigg \lfloor
|
\(\displaystyle\big \lfloor \Big \lfloor \bigg \lfloor \Bigg \lfloor\) |
\big \rfloor \Big \rfloor \bigg \rfloor \Bigg \rfloor
|
\(\displaystyle\big \rfloor \Big \rfloor \bigg \rfloor \Bigg \rfloor\) |