Removing spaces placed by \Set command around curly braces

Question

The \Set command (from the braket package) is useful for set builder notation, but it adds spaces before and after the brackets.

Compare \Set{1, 2, 3}:

$<code>\Set{1, 2, 3}</code>$

To \{1, 2, 3\}:

$<code>\{1, 2, 3\}</code>$

Looking through the source code, \Set seems to add \, spaces before and after each curly bracket. How do I temporarily make these spaces zero-width? I'd like to re-define \set to be just \Set with the spaces taken out, but neither seem to be defined with \newcommand.

I tried something like this, but it gets some sort of TeX "stack overflow" (! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [input stack size=5000].).

\renewcommand{\set}[1]{%
    \let \lbrace = \{\!%
    \let \rbrace = \!\}%
%
    \Set{#1}%
%
    \let \lbrace = \{%
    \let \rbrace = \}%
}

Even if I do get the redefined command to work, my approach won't account for the other spaces. Here's a minimal working example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{braket}

\begin{document}
    \noindent Compare \[
        \Set{1, 2, 3}
    \]
%
    To \[
        \{1, 2, 3\}
    \]
\end{document}

why not simply \newcommand\Set#1{\{#1\}} if that's the layout you want? — David Carlisle, Mar 13 '14 at 18:34
@DavidCarlisle: \Set lets you write \Set{ x \in S | x > 0 }, which is equivalent to \left\{\, x \in S \mid x > 0 \,\right\}. — Blender, Mar 13 '14 at 18:35
What about \newcommand{\SET}[1]{\Set{\!#1\!}} and use \SET instead? — Werner, Mar 13 '14 at 18:38
@Werner: That works, thank you. I'm going to see if there are any more generic answers, but if there aren't, I'm definitely using this. — Blender, Mar 13 '14 at 18:39
@Werner -\medmuskip rather than ! (which is -\thinmuskip) I think (see my answer) — David Carlisle, Mar 13 '14 at 18:52
Since nobody else has said it, I will remark that you can't \let a command equal to more than one token. Instead of \let\lbrace\{\!, you would need \def\lbrace{\{\!}, although that wouldn't work either: LaTeX defines \{ in terms of \lbrace and trying to define \lbrace in terms of \{ leads to an infinite loop. — Dan, Mar 13 '14 at 19:17

David Carlisle · Answer 1 · 2014-03-13T18:51:35.347

As shown below, the space is \: so you can negate that by redefining the command as

\renewcommand\Set[1]{%
    \csname Set \endcsname{\mskip-\medmuskip#1\mskip-\medmuskip}}

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{braket}

\begin{document}
    \noindent Compare \[
        \Set{1, 2, 3}
    \]
   \noindent Compare \[\let\:\relax
        \Set{1, 2, 3}
    \]
%
    To \[
        \{1, 2, 3\}
    \]
\end{document}

enter image description here

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

The definition of \Set includes a \medmuskip \: around its argument (from braket.sty):

  \expandafter\gdef\csname Set \endcsname#1{\left\{%
     \ifx\SavedDoubleVert\relax \let\SavedDoubleVert\|\fi
     \:{\let\|\SetDoubleVert
     \mathcode`\|32768\let|\SetVert
     #1}\:\right\}}

Note the use of \: after \left\{ and before \right\}. You can redefine remove this using an alternative \SET macro:

enter image description here

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{braket}

\newcommand{\SET}[1]{\Set{\mskip-\medmuskip #1 \mskip-\medmuskip}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{rl}
  \texttt{\detokenize{\Set}}: & $\Set{1, 2, 3}$ \\
  \texttt{\{1, 2, 3\}}: & $\{1, 2, 3\}$ \\
  \texttt{\detokenize{\SET}}: & $\SET{1, 2, 3}$ \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Alternatively, redefine \Set to suit your needs by including this after you load braket:

{\catcode`\|=\active
  \xdef\set{\protect\expandafter\noexpand\csname set \endcsname}
  \expandafter\gdef\csname set \endcsname#1{\mathinner
        {\lbrace\,{\mathcode`\|32768\let|\midvert #1}\,\rbrace}}
  \xdef\Set{\protect\expandafter\noexpand\csname Set \endcsname}
  \expandafter\gdef\csname Set \endcsname#1{\left\{%
     \ifx\SavedDoubleVert\relax \let\SavedDoubleVert\|\fi
     {\let\|\SetDoubleVert
     \mathcode`\|32768\let|\SetVert
     #1}\right\}}
}

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 18:55

For strange reason, braket uses \: for \Set, where \, would be sufficient.

I propose to redefine the commands with a *-variant that suppresses the spaces next to the braces (and with \, in the “big” form).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{braket,xparse}

\begingroup
\catcode`\|=\active
\gdef\changebarto#1{\mathcode`\|="8000 \let|#1}
\endgroup

\RenewDocumentCommand{\set}{sm}{%
  \mathinner{%
    \lbrace
    \IfBooleanF{#1}{\,}%
    {\changebarto\midvert #2}%
    \IfBooleanF{#1}{\,}%
    \rbrace
  }%
}
\RenewDocumentCommand{\Set}{sm}{%
  \left\lbrace
    \ifx\SavedDoubleVert\relax \let\SavedDoubleVert\|\fi
    \IfBooleanF{#1}{\,}%
    {\let\|\SetDoubleVert\changebarto\SetVert #2}%
    \IfBooleanF{#1}{\,}%
  \right\rbrace
}

\begin{document}
$\set{1,2,3}\ne\set*{1,2,3}$

$\set{x|x\notin x}$

$\displaystyle\Set{x|x\ne\frac{1}{2}}$

$\displaystyle\Set*{x|x\ne\frac{1}{2}}$
\end{document}

enter image description here

"For some strange reason..." -- I think it's related to conventional Dirac notation for \bra, \ket, \braket, etc... — Mico, Mar 13 '14 at 19:07
@Mico \: is definitely too wide, and \set–\Set have nothing to do with Dirac's notation. They are in the package just because they were in the same style as \bra and \ket. — egreg, Mar 13 '14 at 19:07
Thanks. I was always wondering how the \set and \Set macros wandered into the braket package. — Mico, Mar 13 '14 at 19:58

Removing spaces placed by \Set command around curly braces

3 Answers3