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I have noticed today that the LaTeX would compile regardless if I put curly brackets or not. What I mean is this: I would usually write in maths mode \frac{1}{2} however latex also compiles if I write \frac 1 2 i.e. without using the curly brackets. Of course it gives me error if I don't give two arguments and just type something like \frac 1.

It saves me a lot of effort to write without using the curly brackets in particular because they are located in such a bad position in the keyboard and require either Alt+Ctrl or AltGr. What are the other advantages/disadvantages of writing without curly brackets.

Gonenc
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  • Try \frac 12 4 – Au101 Jul 31 '15 at 15:28
  • Regardless? :D:D Welcome to TeX.SX! –  Jul 31 '15 at 15:29
  • Use a US keyboard - layout -- then {} are quite easy to type. And the advantage is a much clearer syntax to have {}, especially when looking through code written by others –  Jul 31 '15 at 15:30
  • @Au101: \frac 12 4 would clearly not work it would typeset 1/2 4. If I wanted to write 12/4 then I should use \frac{12} 4. – Gonenc Jul 31 '15 at 15:31
  • @ChristianHupfer: I don't understand what is so funny. – Gonenc Jul 31 '15 at 15:33
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    @gonenc you can do all sorts of things eg $x^\frac12$ works like $x^{\frac{1}{2}}$ but it makes it much harder to read and if you do this for long enough you will one day forget and change x^9 to x^10 (everybody has done this:-) and it makes your document much harder to parse with any system that isn't a full tex engine (so most tex to html converters for example) – David Carlisle Jul 31 '15 at 15:38
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    Related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/155226/parsing-question-do-curly-braces-affect-latex-compilation-time – egreg Jul 31 '15 at 15:38
  • @gonenc: never mind ... –  Jul 31 '15 at 15:49

1 Answers1

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The curly braces are needed for arguments longer than 1 character, e.g. \frac{10}{17}.

If you write \frac1017, this will be interpreted as \frac{1}{0}17.

Philipp Imhof
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  • I know that it typeset that way. The question is would it be of disadvantage if I write eg.\frac 1 2 instead of \frac{1}{2} – Gonenc Jul 31 '15 at 15:32
  • @gonenc No, it's the same, but it's much less readable. – egreg Jul 31 '15 at 15:34
  • Most people would discourage the use of \frac12 as it will cause an error if you change the expression to 11/2 later on and forget to add the braces to form \frac{11}{2}. Nevertheless, I use it quite often, because it is faster and simpler. The same holds for x^2 vs. x^{2}. – Philipp Imhof Jul 31 '15 at 15:35