Problems with making formula look great

Question

I have problems to make the below formula look great. Do you have any ideas on how I can make it look better?

This is this LaTeX code I have for it:

PTK = $PRF(PMK, \text{"Pairwise key expansion"} || Min(AA, SPA) || \\ Max{AA, SPA}|| Min(ANonce, SNonce) ||  Max(ANonce,SNonce))$

I appreciate all help!

Welcome to TeX.SE. In order to help produce an expression that is not only visually appealing but also factually correct and meaningful, it would help to know what || stands for. Please advise. — Mico, Mar 15 '19 at 10:03
Perhaps you could be more specific in your request. What is it that you do not like about your current output? We are happy to help with LaTeXing specific requests, but without explaining what you want, "great" and "better" are matters of opinion. — Sandy G, Mar 15 '19 at 20:27

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 10:27

9

Taking Ignasi's approach a step further...

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
\begin{split}
\text{PTK} =  \text{PRF}\bigl( &\text{PMK}, \text{``Pairwise key expansion''} \\& || \min(\text{AA}, \text{SPA})  \\ 
& || \max(\text{AA}, \text{SPA})\\&|| \min(\text{ANonce}, \text{SNonce}) \\&||  \max(\text{ANonce},\text{SNonce})\bigr)
\end{split}
\]
\end{document}

MFGA

answered Mar 15 '19 at 10:27

Steven B. Segletes

237,551

Thanks a lot for the great answer, I'll go for this one! – Johan Mar 15 '19 at 10:44
2

@Johan Thanks. While you can click the up-arrow to "upvote" any question or answer on this site that you find helpful, you can select only one answer for each of your questions to click the check on, as a means to "accept" the most suitable answer. – Steven B. Segletes Mar 15 '19 at 10:49

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 15 '19 at 10:19

I don't know if it looks great, but do you want something like this?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\[
\begin{split}
\text{PTK} = & \text{PRF}\left( \text{PMK}, \text{"Pairwise key expansion"} || \min(\text{AA}, \text{SPA}) || \right. \\ 
& \left. \qquad \max(\text{AA}, \text{SPA})|| \min(\text{ANonce}, \text{SNonce}) ||  \max(\text{ANonce},\text{SNonce})\right)
\end{split}
\]

\end{document}

Thanks a lot for the great answer! – Johan Mar 15 '19 at 10:45 — Johan, Mar 15 '19 at 10:45

score 5 · Answer 3 · 2019-03-15T12:15:19.110

IMHO your formula is in an algorithm and || stands for "or". So you should have a look at algorithm packages. Anyway this is a non-algorithm but algorithmic answer:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
\begin{array}{r@{}l@{}l}
    \text{PTK}=PRF&(PMK, & \text{``Pairwise key expansion''}\\
    && || \min(AA,SPA)\\
    && || \max(AA,SPA)\\
    && || \min(ANonce,SNonce)\\
    && || \max(ANonce,SNonce)\\
    &)&
\end{array}
\]
\end{document}

Edit 1: Improved version

I prefer this way.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
\begin{array}{rl}
    \text{PTK}=PRF(&\\
    & PMK,\\
    & (\\
    & \quad\text{``Pairwise key expansion''}\\
    & \quad||\min(AA,SPA)\\
    & \quad||\max(AA,SPA)\\
    & \quad||\min(ANonce,SNonce)\\
    & \quad||\max(ANonce,SNonce)\\
    & )\\
    )&
\end{array}
\]
\end{document}

Alright thanks a lot! I'm not so good at LaTeX so I'll go for this one, since it looks much better than before! Not sure how much algorithm package would have improved it, but this looks good enough. — Johan, Mar 15 '19 at 10:43

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 11:52

I have two proposals. Most important is to properly define macros for specific object types in your document, in order to ensure uniformity.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\newcommand{\OOR}{\mathrel{\|}}
\newcommand{\tvar}[1]{\mathrm{#1}}
\newcommand{\tdesc}[1]{\textup{``#1''}}

\begin{document}

\[
\begin{aligned}
\tvar{PTK}=\tvar{PRF}\bigl(
 &\tvar{PMK},\tdesc{Pairwise key expansion} \\
 & \OOR \min(\tvar{AA},\tvar{SPA})\\
 & \OOR \max(\tvar{AA},\tvar{SPA})\\
 & \OOR \min(\tvar{ANonce},\tvar{SNonce})\\
 & \OOR \max(\tvar{ANonce},\tvar{SNonce}) \bigr)
\end{aligned}
\]

\begin{multline*}
\tvar{PTK}=\tvar{PRF}\bigl(
 \tvar{PMK},\tdesc{Pairwise key expansion}
 \OOR \min(\tvar{AA},\tvar{SPA}) \OOR \\
 \max(\tvar{AA},\tvar{SPA})
 \OOR \min(\tvar{ANonce},\tvar{SNonce})
 \OOR \max(\tvar{ANonce},\tvar{SNonce}) \bigr)
\end{multline*}

\end{document}

Problems with making formula look great

4 Answers4

Edit 1: Improved version