Arrow in text mode

Question

Is there a way to write the equivalent of \rightarrow in text mode?

I tried → but it threw an error, and the math arrow complained about bad environment.

It doesn't need to be exactly the same arrow, I just want to write something like "A → B" as in A points to B.

I hoped there's a cleaner way than making a math context just for the one arrow, but yeah that'll do the trick as well. — MightyPork, Feb 20 '15 at 18:24
@MightyPork there's a text-mode option. See my answer below. — Gonzalo Medina, Feb 20 '15 at 18:29
@c.p. Not here, they are names of nodes, not math related. If they were points, yeah. — MightyPork, Feb 20 '15 at 18:34

score 90 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 20 '15 at 18:27

90

You can use something like A$\,\to\,$B or A\textrightarrow B (in text mode) from the textcomp package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{textcomp}

\begin{document}


A$\,\to\,$B

A\textrightarrow B

\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Feb 20 '15 at 18:27

Gonzalo Medina

505,128

17

If you want space around the arrow, use this instead: A \textrightarrow{} B – Nathaniel M. Beaver Nov 04 '16 at 22:14
6

BTW: List of all available symbols in textcomp package is available here. Unfortunately there is no \textleftrightarrow (equivalent of \leftrightarrow that is available in math mode). – patryk.beza Jan 03 '17 at 10:55

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '18 at 07:32

5

With fontspec, you can simply paste the Unicode glyphs for arrows after selecting any font that contains them, or use commands such as \char"2194 or \symbol.

answered Dec 15 '18 at 07:32

Davislor

44,045

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 01 '20 at 14:49

Try A \verb|->| B.

To me this is the simplest and most flexible solution, and renders nicely too (sure, it does not look like the right arrow in math mode but for many purposes it might be enough). You can control spacing very easily inside the verbatim. For instance, more spacing would be A \verb| -> | B. Both are shown below.

Arrow in text mode

3 Answers3

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