Questions tagged [delimiters]

delimiters are characters used to specify the boundary between separate blocks/groups of text. They are typically used in macros or math-mode constructions.

There are many kinds of delimiters available in LaTeX. Here is an incomplete list:

• The usual parentheses/round brackets (), brackets/square brackets [], and braces/curly brackets {} (written \{ and \}). These have different names depending on your dialect of English, so if your question involves one of these, it's probably a good idea to clarify which one you're referring to!
• The absolute value |x| is written |x| or \lvert x \rvert (the latter has better spacing).
• The norm ‖x‖ is written \| x \| or \lVert x \rVert (again, the latter has better spacing).
• Angle brackets/chevrons ⟨x⟩ are written \langle x \rangle.
• The floor and ceiling functions are written \lfloor x \rfloor and \lceil x \rceil, respectively.

Using \left and \right, one can resize any kind of delimiter: \left( \frac{x}{2} \right) has larger parentheses to match the fraction. It's also possible to manually size delimiters with the commands \big, \bigg, \Big, and \Bigg.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I get \left and \right to work across a line break?
2. How can I automatically increase the sizes of nested delimiters?
3. What do \left and \right mean?
4. How can I get larger parentheses in an equation?
5. How can I automatically increase the size of outer nested parentheses?
6. Parentheses bigger than \Bigg